The Way We Die Now

I hadn't read the other Hoke Moseley stories for a while, and when I started this one, I didn't care for it. However, at a certain point a lot of apparently disconnected items came together and blew me away. Like Jim Thompson's Pop. 1280, this one just refuses to exit my mind. The last paragraph on the last page is how I want to remember Willeford; humanity buried under layers and layers of disappointment, betrayal and hurt but with an unextinguished spark of hope recognizing that nothing's perfectly imperfect. This book should be read with what Donald Westlake says about Willeford in the Preface. Don't rush this book, and if you've liked Willeford in the past, you'll find the same gems--just arranged differently.

The truth is, all of Florida crime writers after Willeford can type until their fingertips fall off, but Willeford will always remain the boss. Willeford is the most deadpan writer imaginable. His Hoke Mosely books are totally without affectation or author intrusion, unlike certain other Florida crime writers whom I won't mention. Willeford such a master, he can tug at your heartstrings without manipulating you like most writers do. _The Way We Die Now_ is no exception. For all of his cynicism, Hoke Moseley loves his kids as best he can, and he always goes out of his way to help the underdog. All of the Moseley novels leave us with a sense that life is worth living in spite of the pain and ugliness. Also typical in this book is Willeford's refusal to cowtow to political correctness. I'm sure all the affirmative action types were retching with disgust when this book came out. Hilarious! Willeford's prose style is so unapologetically straight-ahead that there's no point in trying to analyze it. I remember the first time I read a Hoke Moseley novel. I thought, "This guy either has no idea how to write, of he's one of the greatest writers of all time." It's because Willeford knows that the story and the characters rule. We're so accustomed to writers who can't resist showing the reader how clever they are. When a real storyteller comes along, we don't know how to take him. There's simply nobody else like Willeford.

Charles Willeford's well-deserved reputation as a writer of crime novels is based largely on the exploits of Miami police detective Hoke Moseley. In this page-turner, we find the author at the top of his form, with Hoke fully engaged in his life as a cop and family man. While busily solving a "cold" murder case, Hoke is dispatched on a puzzling and hazardous undercover job in a neighboring county. At the same time, a parolee who some years earlier had promised to kill him moves in right across the street from Hoke's house (how this turns out is what separates Willeford from the pack). In the house, Hoke lives with his two teenage daughters and his former officemate Ellita Sanchez and her infant son. With everyone in his unconventional but harmonious family contributing their share, Hoke is free to spend some time in his bedroom, pondering his problems and watching TV cop shows. And how unusual it is to find a cop enjoying a satisfactory family life! In a few brief sentences, Willeford suggests how this is managed - a sort of primer for disfunctional households, perhaps. Throughout the story's beautifully detailed and ingenious turnings, Hoke manages by dint of his experience and common sense to save his skin and do the right thing in general, which in some instances consists in doing nothing. At the end of the novel, he finds himself being coerced by his superiors into accepting a promotion in grade and assignment as head of internal affairs - a position he comes to realize he is well suited for. But that intriguing eventuality would have been the subject of another book, wouldn't it.

This Hoke Moseley book is the best I have ever read. I have read Sideswipe, and it's not nearly as good as The Way We Die Now. It is something that Quentin Tarantino should make a movie from. I will give this book **** stars.