The Wrong Case

This gritty detective mystery has everything a good hardboiled book should have. A beautiful, yet troubled woman who has entered the detective's office looking for help, the down-on-his-luck detective who talks hard and drinks harder, a city that is in the grip of a crime-wave and a cracker of a mystery that builds to a terrific and unexpected ending.We are introduced to Milo Milodragovitch and his hard-drinking, drug-taking, skirt-chasing ways. Milo's on the edge after two failed marriages, a failing business and a drinking problem. He makes no apologies for any of his bad habits and is prepared to blow off anyone who has a problem with him. The woman who has entered his office steals his heart and asks him to find her brother who has been missing for the past three weeks. It's a case that he doesn't really want to take, but does because, as he freely admits, she is such a stunning woman he'd do anything on the off-chance she might go to bed with him.If anyone ever wanted to get a taste for modern hardboiled noir fiction, this would be the perfect book to read. I found myself drawn right into the book and could picture the town of Meriwether perfectly and at times I could picture myself occupying a stool at Mahoney's bar, the imagery is so vivid.

The Grateful Dead must have written "Hell in a Bucket" for Milodragovitch, the well-born boy/man who never met expectations. So bright, so charming--what a shame! He's on the skids with booze and drugs, but going down gracefully. Milo is a private eye who just got legislated out of business. The divorce laws have been eased. It used to be adultery and insanity were the only grounds for divorce in his state (Washington? Montana?), which gave him a steady supply of clients trying to nail an errant spouse. Now all it takes is "irreconcilable differences" to win a decree, and who needs a private eye for that?The standard gorgeous lady comes to his office with a tearful request as he is consuming his lunch of raspberry yogurt and "office whiskey." Her brother OD'd on drugs and has been declared a suicide. She vehemently insists he was murdered. Her description of her sensitive, academic gentle brother does not jibe with Milo's recollection of the cold-eyed loser he had seen about town, but he has fallen in love--instantly. He assembles his troop of bums, eccentrics and low livers to assist him in investigating the crime. He discovers layer after layer of corruption and rampant drug dealing in his supposedly peaceful town of Meriwether that his great grandfather founded. He is neither surprised nor dismayed.This is a novel beyond noir; it is a novel of despair. Like Hunter Thompson's hero in "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas," Milo is destroying himself with clarity and precision. The book is witty, humorous and lyrically written. The action is intense and explosive. But the undercurrents are always there, gray and dark. Brilliantly written and highly readable, put this book on your "must read" list. You won't regret it.

Take it from the title, "The Wrong Case," is not a happy story. In fact, private detective fiction seldom gets more hardboiled or as down and dirty as this one. Crumley's "hero," the recently unemployed private snoop Milo, is a man shattered by a terrible upbringing and by alcohol. But despite his cynical and distrustful nature, he takes a case he knows will be a loser in a last ditch effort to both redeem himself and to find love. The results are about what you would expect.Milo is a completely different character than Crumley's other private detective hero C.W. Sughrue, the party animal star of "The Last God Kiss" among others. Milo has been scarred far deeper by life and fully expects to lose himself to his addictions at some point. His best friends are homeless winos with one foot firmly planted in their graves. Brooding, violent and with a perfectly shocking ending, "The Wrong Case" is one of THE great hardboiled detective novels.

After having read a string of bad thrillers with stereotyped characters and endings that could be seen a mile off this was a breath of fresh air - an amiable amble through the low-lifes and unfortunates of Meriwether, Montana, recounted in a distinctive first-person style by our narrator, the alcohol- and speed-fuelled Milo Milodragovitch, killing time (and a few, more human, bodies) as a, somehwat inept, private-eye until his inheritance comes through. The best feature of the book is that it is character rather than plot-driven - indeed you may find, as I did, that you don't care how it turns out, just being in Milo's company for a few hours is reward enough!

The Wrong Case is a detecitive story set within a small city in the Pacific Northwest. It is also a story of greater size and theme than the conventional crime entertainment. It introduces Milo, a run-down alcholic private detective who will go on a personal and professional journey as only a hero can do. Crumley is a skilled and schooled writer. His characters are richly rendered, the plot is original and the suspense is convincing. Unlike most detective works, Crumley manages to capture his city's growing pains with a Dickensian eye as well as examine his past with a touch of Greek tragedy. Don't miss any of Crumley's works. He captures the new American landscape as nobody else can. I liken him to Graham Greene in the way he can deliver original entertainment, excellent language, and themes much larger than a paperback