Matthew Swain: Hot Time in Old Town

Mike McQuay is one of my all-time favorite writers. His novelization of ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK is a classic in the future-noir genre. This is the 1st in his equally awesome pulp science fiction series of novels featuring the endearingly sarcastic and cynical private investigator, Mathew Swain. This book is dedicated, like all of the books in the Swain series, to Raymond Chandler. It's a perfect choice because no one except Andrew Vachss writes better in the style that Chandler helped create than Mike McQuay. It might not be Shakespeare but its extremely well-written, fast-paced and enjoyable on all levels. HOT TIME IN OLD TOWN has echoes of THE LONG GOODBYE and I, THE JURY in terms of its plot; reading any of the Mathew Swain books will certainly reveal the debts owed to McQuay by William Gibson and the sciptwriters of Blade Runner and a whole 2nd generation of cyber-punk authors. There are four books in the Swain series and they are all great fun. Better buy some of the Mathew Swain books before I snatch them all up--they're available for mere pennies!

I still remember getting this Buck Rogers hair cut to match the look of the character on this book. I got it sometime in the 80's when I was a kid, and yet with all the bad memory I have for so much fiction, this stays with me more than two decades later. The others said it, but it bears repeating- this was cyber punk done earlier and better than elsewhere. I've picked up other McQuay books- they're notso hotso. But this group of Swain books captured the dystopian world fantasy perfectly. I don't know if it was made before or after Blade Runner, but it had to either been influenced by or was an influence on the making of the movie. Either way, he captured the feel of a dystopia perfectly here. It's clearly where his talent lies.

This is a gritty, fast-paced nailbiter of an action/suspense thriller. McQuay successfully mixes the genres of the hardboiled prived eye and the bleak sci-fi "what has the world come too" futurescape. Mathew Swain is one of those witty roques you just can't help but love, and all of this comes together into one fun and memorable read.

I first read this book when it was first published in 1981. At the time I had not read much in the way of "bleak future" sci-fi. The word cyberpunk was years from being coined but I would place this novel firmly in the middle of the current "cyberpunk" novels. Another interesting concept is the mashing of the sci-fi genre with the detective genre. This novel could have been written by a younger Raymond Chandler and has feel similar to a Chandler novel. I would strongly recommend this, and the other books in the Mathew Swain series, if entertaining cyberpunk detective thrillers are something you might enjoy.