Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Vintage
Date Published: 1988
ISBN-13:9780394759890ISBN:0394759893
Description: Acceptable. Well used. Still readable but not for the collector. All orders processed within 2 business days. Ships from Foxboro MA. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Pocket
Date Published: 1980
ISBN-13:9780671828134ISBN:0671828134
Description: Acceptable. Overall below average used book. May have highlighting, underlining, notes, price sticker on cover, or be an ex-library book. read more
Edition: 7th Printing
Binding: Trade Paperback
Publisher: Vintage Books, New York
Date Published: 1988
ISBN-13:9780394759890ISBN:0394759893
Description: Good. 8vo-over 7¾"-9¾" tall. All the evidence of a former library book: stamps, stickers, etc. Considerable creasing and edge wear to wraps with some chips and small tears. More of a reading copy with clean pages. read more
Edition: 3rd Printing
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
Publisher: Pocket Books, New York, New York, U.S.A.
Date Published: 1981
ISBN-13:9780671498894ISBN:0671498894
Description: Very Good. 12mo-over 6¾"-7¾" tall. Some creasing and wear to spine. Light shelf wear. Solid copy with clean pages. read more
Edition: 7th Printing
Binding: Trade Paperback
Publisher: Vintage Books, New York
Date Published: 1988
ISBN-13:9780394759890ISBN:0394759893
Description: Good. 8vo-over 7¾"-9¾" tall. All the evidence of a former library book: stamps, stickers, etc. Considerable creasing and edge wear to wraps with some chips and small tears. More of a reading copy with clean pages. read more
Binding: Trade paperback
Publisher: Vintage Books USA
Date Published: 1988
ISBN-13:9780394759890ISBN:0394759893
Description: Fine. No dust jacket as issued. Trade paperback (US). Glued binding. 256 p. Vintage Contemporaries (Paperback). Audience: General/trade. Book is in excellent condition. Cover and pages are clean, binding is tight. We ship daily, Satisfaction Guaranteed. read more
Description: Acceptable. Former Library book. Shows definite wear, and perhaps considerable marking on inside. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Binding: Softcover
Publisher: Vintage Books
Date Published: 1988-11-01
ISBN-13:9780394759890ISBN:0394759893
Description: NEW. Softcover. From an inventory that is 100% brand-new, 100% direct from the publishers' distribution channel. We carry NO pre-owned, NO remaindered. We pack in CARDBOARD to ensure the pristine quality is maintained. (Bubble-wrap alone is NOT sufficient to protect from USPS equipment. ) Guaranteed brand-NEW, protected with CARDBOARD, your satisfaction is guaranteed. BKLUVID: 9780394759890. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Vintage
Date Published: 1988
ISBN-13:9780394759890ISBN:0394759893
Description: New. Brand New! Buy with confidence-your satisfaction is guaranteed at B-Logistics! Due to the large scale of our operation, we do not have access to the specific contents/condition of our items. Please note that Expedited shipping is not available at this time. read more
"James Crumley died last year, and if there were any justice, he'd be alive today and recognized as one of the great modern crime writers while Dan Brown would have had his guts chewed out by weasels and be buried in a pauper's grave instead of getting rich off The Da Vinci Code. But there isn't any justice, and no one knew that better than Crumley.
I once read that his novels were like a combination of Raymond Chandler and Hunter Thompson, and that's about as good as a description as you're likely to find. Tough guy fiction that also pondered the real cost of violence with heaping doses of alcohol and drugs and a lot of melancholy and black humor were what Crumley specialized in and this is a great example of it.
C.W. Sughrue (one of two main characters Crumley used)is a private detective who was hired to find a drunken writer on a binge. But once he finds the writer in a dive bar in California, a fight breaks out that results in the writer needing to spend a few days in a hospital. While Sughrue waits for the writer to recover, the friendly lady bar owner begs him to take a look for her daughter who vanished into the San Francisco hippie underground 10 years earlier. (This was written in 1978.)
Sughrue reluctantly takes on the job, and the drunken writer soon insists on joining him in the search. If Sughrue's liver can take all the drinking with the writer, he might just be able to find the girl.
This is teriffic noir fiction with a severly flawed hero and lots of twists. If you're a hard boiled crime fiction fan and you never read Crumley, track down one of his books and try him."
"This was my first experience with James Crumley. He passed away not too long ago, and I saw that several of my favorite detective/noir authors absolutely loved this guy's work, especially this particular book. It is wonderful on so many levels, it's tough to relate what was best about it. But, for fellow readers of this genre, I'll say that it was one of those stories that you just never wanted to end. Crumley's ability to turn a phrase is insanely skillful, and the voice given to his main character (and his observations of the hard world around him) is fantastic. When I finally snapped it shut, I felt like I'd learned something valuable about humankind. Yeah, it's like that. Top-of-the-heap stuff. Crumley had the gift, for sure."
"The story is very good and the writing is excellent. One of the best authors I have read regardless of the the type of book and exceptional in a mystery."
"The Last Good Kiss was another good book with a great title and an even greater opening line. "When I finally caught up with Abraham Trahearne, he was drinking beer with an alcoholic bulldog named Fireball Roberts in a ramshackle joint just outside of Sonoma, California, drinking the heart right out of a fine spring afternoon" (1). I can't say that the book lives up to the opening line, but I'm not sure that anything could.
C.W. Sughrue is a private detective who was hired to track down a drunken famous author, Abraham Trahearne, by the man's ex-wife. Trouble ensues when he finds the author in a bar. CW winds up taking the case of the barmaid's missing daughter, who has been gone for ten years. Traheane ends up tagging along as CW explores the seedier side of the hippie scene.
I enjoyed the book, even though I'm not normally a detective story fan. I liked that I couldn't see the answer from a mile away and that things didn't resolve themselves in a completely outlandish manner, two of my frequent mystery novel complaints. The Last Good Kiss is worth checking out, even if you don't like mysteries and/or detective novels."
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