Portrait in Smoke/the Tooth and the Nail/2 Mysteries in 1 Book

Rating:
Summary: Okay, but Gimmicky
Review: Both novels revolve around a single gimmick -- that one character is not what another character perceives him or her to be. In Portrait, the girl of the protagonist's dreams is a hard, irredeemable type looking out for number one. I don't want to give anything away, but in Tooth, again, the plot hinges on mistaken identity. Ballinger was competent, and the odd structure of Portrait (it's told on two different tracks, and as we watch the protagonist search we slowly learn what exactly he's searching for) manages to drum up some suspense, but both books, in the end, seem rather slick and contrived. In the best hard-boiled work one has the feeling, anyway, that one has encountered the truth, that one has learned something. That definitely isn't the case here. So this isn't a must-buy.