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...

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.

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.

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.

"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.

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.

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.

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.

This would have been a five-star novel if there hadn't been so many serious flaws in the plot, such as drug dealers not be very angry about losing $25,000 in cash to a junkie bagman. It is, however, laugh-out-loud funny at least once a chapter.

A somewhat enjoyable ramble of a mystery. It has no real plot, not much of a villain, and frankly the hero is somewhat repellent in the casually racist and misogynistic ways you find in heroes of 80s detective novels. The vibes are decent, but this is second tier stuff.

This is book 2 of the Hoke Mosely series. It grows on you. The structure of the plot is interesting. The murder mystery is more of an undercurrent than the main theme. The majority of the story centers around Hoke's personal life, his two daughters from a broken marriage, and his partner, Ellita, who is pregnant from a one-night stand. I got hooked on the personal stories. Less so on the murder mystery. Willeford's stories are unique. Hoke is a semi-dirty, but competent cop, sometimes likeable, sometimes gross. The author's sense of humor is sometimes offensive. Yet I couldn't put it down. You come away feeling slightly slimed by the story, but still glad you read it. Uncertain of my motives, I'm moving on to number 3.

This was more of a day-in-the-life story than a crime novel, but it was very good. Excellent dialogue and great characters- but not for the faint of heart. Hoke Moseley is quickly becoming my favorite crime/mystery protagonist.