"A Chandleresque noir detective tale featuring an ex-cop turned private eye, set among the gritty motels and palatial estates of Los Angeles. Sullivan is depicted as a first-person narrator in the Philip Marlowe mold-a smart-mouthed shamus, a gumshoe who's seen it all. Like Marlowe, he's at heart a decent, moral man in a world where such people are rare. At book's end, readers may wonder about Sullivan's fate, but they can take heart in the book's subtitle: A Tom Sullivan Mystery. Sully's not going anywhere anytime soon." ...
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"A Chandleresque noir detective tale featuring an ex-cop turned private eye, set among the gritty motels and palatial estates of Los Angeles. Sullivan is depicted as a first-person narrator in the Philip Marlowe mold-a smart-mouthed shamus, a gumshoe who's seen it all. Like Marlowe, he's at heart a decent, moral man in a world where such people are rare. At book's end, readers may wonder about Sullivan's fate, but they can take heart in the book's subtitle: A Tom Sullivan Mystery. Sully's not going anywhere anytime soon." Kirkus Reviews From the dust-jacket: In the classic tradition Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett comes a new voice in American Noir. With the Tom Sullivan Mysteries, author William James Royce adds an off-beat, charismatic new detective to the mystery genre and a contemporary slant on the age old tale of greed and murder. The story begins in a confessional booth as private detective Tom "Sully" Sullivan makes his confession. Quickly losing blood from a bullet in his side, Sully tells his story, confessing to the murder he has just committed and revealing the identity of the person who may have murdered him... Sully is hired by Sam Collier, a rich and powerful man, to find the young surrogate mother carrying the heir to his vast fortune. He follows the twists and turns, ultimately exposing a complex case of "embryo-napping." The Immaculate Deception is a tale of life and death and all things in between.
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I had read a book of hilarious essays called "I Know Why the Caged Pig Oinks" and had no idea what to expect. WJR is clearly a hipster who was influenced by mystery writers from the obvious, like Chandler, to whom Kirkus Reviews was quick to establish a link, to Ross MacDonald. But it is his unique voice and sense of humor that separates this book from the rest on the shelf. (I laughed out loud.)
