FIVE STAR REVIEW - Black Stockings-Red Blood
FOLLOWING IN CHANDLER'S FOOTSTEPS,
This is the kind of hard-boiled detective fiction that I thought went away when we lost Raymond Chandler. Like Chandler’s Philip Marlowe, there’s a lot not to like about the novel’s main character. Warren Cayne drinks, smokes, cusses, pops bennies and is deeply involved in an ongoing affair despite the fact he’s married. Literally battle-scarred, he’s a cynical former New York City detective and ex-Marine who’s counting the days until he’s done with the Army, too. A captain in the Military Police, he doesn’t respect his superior officers (and for good reason). He just wants out.
It’s never that easy, though, is it? Catching the wrong telephone call after the end of his shift, the unlucky Captain Cayne is soon tasked with solving a particularly grizzly double murder. Even after it appears the killings are the handiwork of a serial killer, he doesn’t hesitate to go down the mean streets of Paris. He might have hoped to return to the States, but now he has a job to do. No matter the price, he intends to get it done. Despite his excesses, Cayne is a believer in law and justice.
At the end of the story, he goes even further than I thought he would. It’s a dark and satisfying finale.
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