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Hoke Moseley #2

New Hope for the Dead

charles willeford james lee burke

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Miami homicide detective Hoke Moseley is called to a posh Miami neighborhood to investigate a lethal overdose. There he meets the alluring stepmother of the decedant, and begins to wonder about dating a witness. Meanwile, he has been threatened with suspension by his ambitious new chief unless he leaves his beloved, if squalid, suite at the El Dorado Hotel, and moves downtown. With free housing hard to come by, Hoke is desperate to find a new place to live. His difficulties are only amplified by an assignment to re-investigate fifty unsolved murders, the unexpected arrival of his two teenage daughters, and a partner struggling with an unwanted pregnancy. With few options and even fewer dollars, he decides that the suspicious and beautiful stepmother of the dead junkie might be a compromised solution to all of his problems.

Packed with atmosphere and humor, New Hope for the Dead is a classic murder mystery by one of the true masters of the genre. Now back in print, Charles Willeford’s tour de force is an irresistible invitation to become acquainted with one of the greatest detective characters of all time.

244 pages, Paperback

First published January 1,1985
Series
Hoke Moseley

This edition

Format
244 pages, Paperback
Published
August 10, 2004 by Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
ISBN
9781400032495
ASIN
1400032490
Language
English

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About the author

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charles willeford

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Charles Willeford was a remarkably fine, talented and prolific writer who wrote everything from poetry to crime fiction to literary criticism throughout the course of his impressively long and diverse career. His crime novels are distinguished by a mean'n'lean sense of narrative economy and an admirable dearth of sentimentality. He was born as Charles Ray Willeford III on January 2, 1919 in Little Rock, Arkansas. Willeford's parents both died of tuberculosis when he was a little boy and he subsequently lived either with his grandmother or at boarding schools. Charles became a hobo in his early teens. He enlisted in the Army Air Corps at age sixteen and was stationed in the Philippines. Willeford served as a tank commander with the 10th Armored Division in Europe during World War II. He won several medals for his military service: the Silver Star, the Bronze Star, two Purple Hearts, and the Luxembourg Croix de Guerre. Charles retired from the army as a Master Sergeant. Willeford's first novel "High Priest of California" was published in 1953. This solid debut was followed by such equally excellent novels as "Pick-Up" (this book won a Beacon Fiction Award), "Wild Wives," "The Woman Chaser," "Cockfighter" (this particular book won the Mark Twain Award), and "The Burnt Orange Heresy." Charles achieved his greatest commercial and critical success with four outstanding novels about hapless Florida homicide detective Hoke Moseley: "Miami Blues," "New Hope for the Dead," "Sideswipe," and "The Way We Die Now." Outside of his novels, he also wrote the short story anthology "The Machine in Ward Eleven," the poetry collections "The Outcast Poets" and "Proletarian Laughter," and the nonfiction book "Something About A Soldier." Willeford attended both Palm Beach Junior College and the University of Miami. He taught a course in humanities at the University of Miami and was an associate professor who taught classes in both philosophy and English at Miami Dade Junior College. Charles was married three times and was an associate editor for "Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine." Three of Willeford's novels have been adapted into movies: Monte Hellman delivered a bleakly fascinating character study with "Cockfighter" (Charles wrote the script and has a sizable supporting role as the referee of a cockfighting tournament which climaxes the picture), George Armitage hit one out of the ballpark with the wonderfully quirky "Miami Blues," and Robinson Devor scored a bull's eye with the offbeat "The Woman Chaser." Charles popped up in a small part as a bartender in the fun redneck car chase romp "Thunder and Lightning." Charles Willeford died of a heart attack at age 69 on March 27, 1988.

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Community Reviews

Rating(4.1 / 5.0, 100 votes)
5 stars
39(39%)
4 stars
32(32%)
3 stars
29(29%)
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100 reviews All reviews
Profile Image for Kimberly .
EggMaster101
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
March 26,2025
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Simply brilliant stuff, so refreshing and so unique - in style and as well as in the content. Cannot wait till my nephew is old enough to read it and looking forward to discuss this masterpiece with him.

More here (warning, it includes spoilers):
http://a60books.blogspot.ie/2013/03/n...
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Wude
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
March 26,2025
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Adoro quando le challenge a cui partecipo mi invitano a scovare piccole gemme nella mia vasta biblioteca di libri non letti. Ed ecco qui questo libro, secondo di una tetralogia ma che si può leggere anche come stan alone, cosa che io peraltro ho fatto. Mi sembrava di essere davanti alla tele a guardare Miami Vice con Don Johnson, ve lo ricordate?
Il nostro detective Hoke Moseley è reduce da un divorzio e da una vita abbastanza incasinata, ma nonostante tutto non perde la lucidità sul lavoro (anche se ha una gran voglia di portarsi a letto la matrigna della vittima). In aggiunta al caso principale da risolvere, il capitano affibbia a Moseley ed alla sua collega Sanchez una serie di casi freddi da risolvere. Ellita Sanchez, nuova partner sul lavoro di Hoke è davvero molto in gamba, ma ha una situazione importante da sistemare. Insomma, davvero tanto seitan al fuoco che Willeford ci dipana tranquillamente davanti agli occhi. Non ci sono casini, nessuna confusione di trame ed il noir procede liscio come l'olio. La parte in cui Hoke parla di sesso alla figlia più grande (16 anni e tranquillamente fuma col padre) è esilarante (sapevate che l'AIDS negli Anni 80 si prendeva solo facendo sesso anale?). Davvero fatto bene! E la copertina è un capolavoro.


TRAMA CON SPOILER (per chi dimentica)
Hoke sta per portarsi a letto Mrs Hickey ma grazie a dei succhiotti che lei gli fa sulla pancia, si rende conto che è lei l'assassina. Ha dato delle supposte di Nembutal a Jerry durante il sesso (sì scopavano) e gli ha fatto una seconda dose in endovena per rubargli i 24.000 dollari che lui doveva restituire alla mala. Hoke la lascia andare in cambio della sua casa dove andrà a vivere con Ellita che è incinta di uno sconosciuto e le figlie.


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rnchrstll
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
March 26,2025
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A well-done sequel of sorts to Miami Blues, this one like its predecessor in its dark humor and deadpan style but unlike it in terms of the plot: there’s no equivalent to Junior here and the book is more leisurely paced. There are some crimes and Hoke solves them, but these are secondary to the portrait of a middle-aged detective trying to reclaim some of the dignity he lost so long ago that he can’t remember where he put it. There are also a few truly shocking moments where I covered my mouth with my hand. By any yardstick, Willeford’s a good writer.
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Palantire
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
March 26,2025
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Willeford's carefully drawn hero, Hoke Moseley, just gets better. His even-handed approach to policing and crime ends up solving his and his partner's housing problem in a rather unexpected manner. Again, little policing goes on, but the story unfolds at just the right place. Willeford writes sparely and beautifully.
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Bobledieu
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
March 26,2025
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"The world would look better if everybody drank a glassful of Wild Turkey in the morning."

I didn't like this book quite as much as the first (of four) in the Hoke Mosely series, as the central crime is less a mystery and mostly Hoke, though the book has its comic moments. My favorite characters in the first one were the two "villains" with Hoke kind of taking a back seat to them, coming in later. And the Hoke in this second book seems a little different than in the first book, as if Willeford were still trying to define him, making him both pretty capable cop and also kind of a dope. One thing that helped me figure out just what kind of cop this Hoke is, is that the sad-sack schleppy looking actor Paul Giamatti has been mentioned as possibly playing Hoke's part in a tv series. That helps me get what the intended vibe is with this guy.

This one focuses on the forever broke Hoke who has to move out of the flop house he has been living in since his ex-wife's divorce agreement put him there. He has to live within the Miami city limits. Then his ex decides to marry a rich athlete and dumps on him his two teen daughters that he has seen very little for two years. Hoke is supposed to be a decent cop, but hey, family comes first, he now needs something nice for his new family, and so he develops a scheme to defraud a woman (criminal) so he can take over her house in Miami for a few years; that's kinda the crime scene, here, well done (and related to the woman as he is eating raw oysters and drinking two pitchers of beer), but not all that memorable.

But the best moments in the book include the "sex talk" Hoke gives his daughters, and Hoke's hapless attempts to find an apartment in the city limits (one story involving a proposal for house-sitting a horny dog I can't tell here on a family social media site, but it made me laugh aloud).

What I particularly like about the Hoke series (and what I have heard generally about Willeford generally) is the comic send-up in these books of dumb white sexist males. Initially I thought it was Willeford who was (comically, not really all that offensively) sexist and racist, but I really don't think so! I am going to read more of Willeford and will report out my findings.
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oofek
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
March 26,2025
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The crime narrative in this book basically takes a walk for half the novel, and yet I still enjoyed the whole thing if for nothing other than Willeford's knack for dialogue and vivid descriptions of locations and characters.
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FiflyAnimeLover
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
March 26,2025
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As good as it gets

Charles Willeford was a decorated WWII vet, a college professor, a writer of softcore porn and hard boiled detective stories, a poet and on par with Crumley and Ford.
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Debozz
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
March 26,2025
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I love the vibe of this series, with middle aged, leisure suited, sad sack homicide detective Hoke Mosely who is just sharp enough that you never quite feel sorry for him. But it's a close thing. New Hope for the Dead develops at a relaxed pace, with the insouciant Hoke working several cold murder cases as well as a new one, all while dealing with a multitude of personal financial, family and housing issues. For Hoke, when it rains, it pours, and he just rolls with it. There isn't much action or suspense, but the story has a number of funny scenes, which Willeford pulls off without ever crossing the line into farce. My favorites feature Hoke trying his best to teach his teenage daughters (who his wife just dumped in his lap so she could runoff and remarry) some important life lessons in about as crass and tactless a manner as you could imagine.
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