Bordersnakes

With Crumley putting both Sughrue and Milo together in this novel, I thought it was a hoot. Both PI's getting/feeling older, the barb's and action is non-stop. Another great read, by the 'ol school master!!!

This book turns on revenge. Milo Milodragovitch is after the man who stole his inheritance. C.W. Sughrue is after the guys who shot him and left him wounded outside a bar. The personalities of this unholy pair demand Old Testament styled punishment. So begins a crimson swathe surging from Seattle to Texas to Mexico as Milo looks for his money, and Sughrue for the men who hurt him."Anybody who speaks badly of revenge ain't never lost nothing important" says Sughrue early in the novel. As the body count mounts, Crumley weaves a tale that blends Hollywood movie producers, Mexican drug lords, good cops, bad cops, and a string of violent men (as well as similarly violent women) while keeping the issue of revenge front and center, simmering.Crumley's point of view bounces between Milo and Sughrue with each taking a first person turn spinning the yarn. In less capable hands, there'd be a clunky shift as the story passes one to the other. Crumley pulls it off seamlessly. Bordersnakes is a fine novel. It's challenging, violence- filled and slightly philosophic without being preachy. It deserves a spot on your shelf.

James Crumley is almost frightening in the way he writes. He evokes things that most authors can only dream of. He is, in this humble man's opinion, the greatest living American author today. With Milo and Sughrue on the trail of decay, they step into, and fall over everything that our parents warned us about. His lyrical prose is haunting, and leaves me with a taste to read - like Vonnegut's Cat's Cradle-Crumley makes reading fun. Please Mr. Crumley give us more.

This is my first experience with James Crumley. Obviously I've been missing something. I couldn't believe Crumley could keep up the pace, but he does. What imaginative characters, what a plot, what a masterful effort! Television and movies can't keep you any more absorbed than this novel

Bordersnakes is a hell of a novel. Crumley is my favorite busted-knuckles writer. As anyone who has read his previous novels knows, Sughrue and Milo are deliciously twisted souls -- coked up, boozing hellhounds whom, for some reason, you can't help cheering on. It's great to have them together now in the same novel, and Crumley's to be credited for balancing the points of view as well as he does. Reading Crumley is a little like reading James Lee Burke on crank -- and so much the better for it