Solomon's Vineyard

Rating:
Summary: Last man standing indeed.
Review: Dashiell Hammett did the "lone man against a corrupt, evil, violent town" scenario first in the great classic RED HARVEST, but I'm not sure he did it better than Latimer did in this hard boiled noir story that was so hot that the unexpurgated version couldn't be published in the US for almost 40 years. Lone wolf PI Karl Craven comes to town to finish a job and revenge the death of his partner. Along the way there's a lot of steamy sex and gratuitous violence. Hard to believe this was written in the 40's. It certainly reads like a modern day thriller in lots of ways.

Hammett and Chandler and Latimer and the rest of the detective story writers of the pulp era basically brought the western and mythological motifs of the lone warrior/wanderer defying tremendous odds and assorted enemies to the urban and rural streets of America in the 1920's and 30's and did it so well that it has never been surpassed. Some modern day writers are in the same league, such as Pelecanos, Crumley (at his best), Crais, etc. but none do it better. Fans of Latimer who have only read his screwball comedy mysteries about drunken PI Bill Crane will quite surprised by this tough story, which is probably one of the 10 best hard boiled tales of all time.

A definite 5 stars, would be a 6 if I could.