Friday, January 17, 2014

FFB #2: Pink Vodka Blues -- Neal Barrett, Jr.

I'm rerunning a couple of posts (this one's from 2009) today to honor the memory of Neal Barrett, Jr., who wrote mysteries and SF and was an all-around great guy.

Neal Barrett wrote some of the funniest, wildest, and most idiosyncratic crime novels of the '90s, of which Pink Vodka Blues was the first. It's a hilarious take on a classic situation. Russell Murray is the editor of a literary magazine in Chicago. He drinks way too much. And he's in big trouble when he wakes up in a hotel room with a beautiful woman just before two men come into the room and kill her. They try to kill Murray, too, but he gets away. Things never slow down after that.

Wanted for murder, Murray winds up in a detox center in Wisconsin. He escapes along with a beautiful redhead named Sherry Lou Wynn. One of his many problems is that he has no memory of where he's been or what he's done. He and Sherry Lou try to stay alive while being pursued around the country by homicidal goons, including the murderous Wacker twins and a blue-haired, tennis-shoe wearing granny with an Uzi. Bones Pinelli wants his briefcase back, by golly, and he doesn't care who dies as long as he gets it.

You've probably guessed that there's a surprise in the briefcase, but I'm not telling. If you've never read this book, you're in for a real treat. And while you're at it, you should check out Dead Dog Blues, Skinny Annie Blues, and Bad Eye Blues. They're all standalones, not series books, and they're guaranteed to be unlike anything else you've read. What are you waiting for?

5 comments:

Rick Robinson said...

I read DEAD DOG so long ago I remember little but the title. Since I don't seem to have it here, I may have to look for this one.

Todd Mason said...

People keep comparing Barrett to R. A. Lafferty...he's more disciplined than Lafferty, and a bit more subtle, I'd suggest. 65% Lansdale, 25% Lafferty, 10% Waldrop perhaps. Though I suspect Lansdale and Waldrop learned more from Barrett than the other way 'round...though I'm also sure it went both ways with both the younger writers...

Unknown said...

Joe's the one who recommended STRESS PATTERN to me long years ago. After that, I was hooked.

Todd Mason said...

The first I recall for me was in the first Cele Goldsmith Lalli back issue of AMAZING I read..."The Shadow of the Worm" (1964)

http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?56655

Todd Mason said...

"In the Shadow of the Worm"