Songs of Innocence (Richard Aleas, 2007)

This is a follow-up to Little Girl Lost, so we are back again with John Blake, and it's three years after he had rediscovered (and lost again) Miranda, the love of his life. He is now even more guilt-ridden, has left the private detective business and is working at the college where he also attends free courses, one of them creative writing. But again, it turns out he has bad luck with women because his recent girlfriend is found dead in the bathtub, and her mother doesn’t quite believe she killed herself, and neither does our hero. So the stage is ready for the investigation!

And then we are slowly drawn into this strange mixture of dark family secrets, violent organised crime, weird characters and their relationships on a student campus and so on. Lots of colourful people are introduced, and most of them far from typical stereotypes, so you are never quite sure whether they are good or bad (Michael seems to be pretty cool, but he’s definitely underused, and especially Julie is an intriguing one; in the middle, I was sure she was the guilty one). Plot is somehow linear without major leaps into the past or something like that, but it’s developed masterfully and has a few dead ends, so again, you are not sure which indices are cold ones. Events are unfolding pretty rapidly over a period of a few days, and our hero can hardly find time (and place) to get some sleep. Like in Little Girl Lost, New York City plays a significant role as a dark, sinister backdrop to the story, and you can feel the author’s love (or maybe obsession?) for the city, but here it is more toned down and less intrusive for my taste. 

Everything, except maybe a lack of wittier dialogues with some slang, reminded me sometimes strongly of Chandler’s Marlowe. More modern type of sleuth, of course (really liked stuff with internet email), but still – our hero is wandering in the big, corrupt city on his lonely, stubborn pursuit of his understanding (and of course enforcing) of justice, honour and loyalty. He’s not too sure about himself, haunted by demons from the past, beaten frequently, doesn’t trust the police, doesn’t accept much of the help and is ultimately betrayed again by his loved ones (well, kind of). He never really controls the situation, it’s more like the other way around: “I felt like the last pawn on a chessboard, rooks and knights and bishops closing in on every side. I was inching toward the far side of the board and I wasn’t going to make it”. 

Good stuff indeed, although I do have a few little complaints. First of all, John should be tougher. Being a nerd with glasses is kind of okay, but PI (even an ex one) shouldn’t really be concerned with train conductors. Also, the relationship with Dorrie is a bit strange and ambiguous; we never quite know if they were just fuck buddies or were actually in love. We do get some kind of explanation when John’s friend suggests to him that they were Porn Buddies. After he stares blankly (me too, for that matter), he does get definition, I quote: “You know - when two guys agree that if anything happens to them, the other will come over and clear out his buddy’s stash or porn before the guy’s parents or girlfriend can stumble onto it.” We learn something new every day, but somehow it still doesn’t seem realistic that he should get into all this trouble if they weren’t really that close. Finally, I’ve found the last part before the revelation to be a bit too long, and the Philadelphia episode somehow redundant. True, it introduces a key character, but I think it takes too long and slows the plot unnecessarily.

My last little rent goes to the structure of the book. The first part (of three) is told in flashback, and then the story shifts to “real time.” I find this a bit superficial and kind of pretentious. And each part starts with William Blake’s quotes that I can really connect to the story. To me, this is just intellectual crap, but probably because I’m not a native English speaker. Maybe you can give it a try. Here’s the first one, from where this little masterpiece got its title:

Can I see another’s woe,

And not be in sorrow too?

Can I see another’s grief,

And not seek for kind relief? 

William Blake, Songs of Innocence

4/5

 

Facts:

Hero: 
John Blake, age 31. Ex private investigator. He also gets some help from his ex-girlfriend, Susan, who used to be a stripper and is now a private investigator.

Location: 
NYC, briefly Philadelphia

Dame: 
Dorothy, aka Dorrie, is a student with a troubled past and a dark family history. 

Body count: 
5, maybe/probably 6 (4 murders, 1 suicide, 1 most likely suicide; 2 bad guys, 4 innocent)

Cover: 
Good and pulpy, but not very accurate. At least I can't remember any naked chick covering herself with a teddy bear and a gun. By Glen Orbik.

Cool lines:  
I don’t bother nobody. Just do my job. I’ll work for whoever pays me. I don’t care if he’s white, black, Hungarian, whatever. You show me the green, I’ll show you the pink.