Sunday, October 06, 2013

Gergory Gibson -- The Old Turk's Load

Gregory Gibson is an antiquarian book dealer, but The Old Turk's Load isn't about books or antiquities.  The macguffin here is a load of heroin that falls into the hands of Richard Mundi, to whom it doesn't belong.  It belongs to Angelo DeNotto, who doesn't have it and who wants it back.  

The point of view shifts among lot of people who get involved in the caper.  You might wonder just how, at first, but it all comes together in surprising and satisfactory ways.  The characters include an alcoholic private-eye named Kelly, and Mundi's daughter, whose name is Gloria.  (My first thought on this was that Gloria Mundi sounds like a character in a Thomas Pynchon novel.) The setting is 1967, and it's wonderfully done.  Not a false note that I detected.

The writing is sharp, colorful, and witty, and the plotting is clever.  Check it out.

No comments: