TWWDN is American noir set in Miami, the final book in the series featuring the shambling but endearing character Hoke Mosely; the series began with "Miami Blues" in 1984 and ended with this novel, Willeford's last in 1988. The hallmark of CW's writing is the ease with which he sets up scenes, the simple detail he provides that portray the sultry setting which belie the surprises that the unflappable Mosely manages to discover.

CW is the kind of guy you would like to take a writing class form, have a beer with in a dark nameless bar but that will not be happening. I mean, what's not to like about a guy who wrote a book called "Deliver Me From Dallas"?

I was late to the party in discovering Willeford. Now I am reading all of his published work. Unfortunately, this finishes off the Hoke Moseley series. I thought this particular work started off slow, but it really packed a lot in the second half. I was particularly impressed with the author's creation of a cafeteria for the poor, run by the highly skilled (can make something of nothing Mary,) his fight slaughter scene at the farm where he was sent to explore the death of a Haitian immigrant, the scene where his roommate and former partner runs off with a criminal just out of prison for killing his (the criminal's) brother and threatening violence to Hoke and his ragtag brood. Willeford was a true watcher of the little things in life that build into a personality. I would suggest, as I did, to read the Hoke Moseley books in chronological order. After this, I will be reading his other work the same, regardless of topic as I want to watch for growth in his writing craft.

This book was published in 1988, a time of AIDS, Haitian refugees, and crack cocaine. Miami police detective Hoke Moseley works cold cases and grapples with all of those social problems in this book. It's a very strange book, featuring three distinct stories. First, a killer who vowed revenge on Hoke for his capture and imprisonment has been paroled and rented a vacant house across the street from Hoke's home. Rather than using violence, the affluent killer apparently means to disrupt Hoke's life by embedding himself in the detective's unusual homelife. The second story focuses on an old cold case that Hoke is trying to solve with the help of a mostly inept younger cop. The murder victim was a rich doctor whose death financially benefited his former business partners and his widow. One of those business partners is now married to that former spouse. The third case is an odd and violent interlude in the middle of the book when Hoke is asked to go undercover in a nearby rural environment to solve the mysterious disappearance of Haitian migrant workers. Moseley is a flawed character but good detective and the book mostly works in the way it resolves each of these tales. However, it is odd to have them all mixed together -- it's almost as if Willeford didn't want to commit a full book to any of these tales -- each of them probably would have made for a decent short story. Or episodes in a television series. Around the time this book came out, an earlier Hoke Moseley books was being made into a film starring Alec Baldwin (as the violent criminal). As I recall (it's been a long time since I saw the film), Fred Ward played Hoke somewhat haplessly in 1990's "Miami Blues."

Everything a noir should be - sad, weird, violent, funny and difficult to predict. Willeford's Hoke Mosely novels play a tune in yr. head that's all their own, and this is the one that brings it all home, kind of like The Long Goodbye, set in Florida. Don't read this one first if you're going to read the series, though, because none of the rest quite measure up.

I Hoke (d) it would be better. A substandard silly plot.

I finished the last of Willeford's Hoke Moseley novels with no small measure of regret. Going from Patterson to Willeford is like going from McDonald's (which might not be fair to McDonald's) to mom's home cooking (no Michelin stars but the stuff that makes the heart glow) - the difference between these two authors, both of whom write fiction that primarily 'entertains,' could not be starker. Willeford's prose is clean and evocative; he is brilliant with characterizations and detailing; he is funny; he is masterly with Florida's pied ethnic enclaves; and he is no slouch at telling a damn good tale.

The Way We Die Now was the last of the Hoke Moseley novels as Willeford died of a heart attack on March 27, 1988, not long after its publication.

Miami homicide detective Moseley goes undercover, leaving his two daughters and his former partner—who is nursing her infant—just as a man he convicted ten years ago is released from prison and moves into the house across the street from him. Moseley surrenders his badge, deserts his family, leaves his jurisdiction, his teeth, and makes a bloody mess of an undercover assignment.

Why would a man risk so much? Leave his family in danger?

Willeford, in the style of Elmore Leonard, writes hard-nose mysteries where the characters are revealed through their actions. The knucklehead action and decisions Moseley makes drove me batty. But on the last page, I saw I was not alone. In a classic final page, true to its genre’s roots, Willeford reveals that his flawed character was incapable of escaping himself. His destruction lies within.
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Taunt. Tight. Fast. Sometimes humorous. Often violent. This is a hard-boiled detective tale told with great economy of words.

Last of the Hoke Mosely's - and that is sad. The book ends most poignantly with Alita gone (to an enemy of Hoke's). This one covers a lot of ground- from an enemy of Hoke released from prison and moving across the street, to a long adventure in the backwoods with Hoke undercover. The baddies discover he is undercover and things are very iffy for a bit before Hoke blasts out of it with a pretty satisfying action / violent episode. Anyhow, back to Miami to solve a pretty confusing cold case file. Then, at the end, Hoke gets his reward- a big fat promotion to Lieutenant - in charge of internal affairs, which he comes to appreciate. Kind of an upper to end the series with.

L'ultima avventura di Hoke, ci penso e ne soffro terribilmente perché ne vorrei ancora. Willeford morì nel 1988 poco dopo l'uscita di questo ultimo libro.
Che è spettacolare, come i tre precedenti, direi assolutamente imperdibili per tutti gli amanti del genere.
Un'ultima avventura che di ultimo ha molto poco, visto che c'è un quinto manoscritto mai pubblicato e visto che l'intenzione di Willeford, probabilmente, era di proseguire con le gesta di questo poliziotto dal cuore buono e i modi spicci. Che agisce senza ripensamenti, sottostando al volere dei suoi capi ma fidandosi solamente di se stesso.
Tocca farselo bastare, magari rilegge la tetralogia ciclicamente e non dimenticarsi mai dei romanzi di questo autore enorme.

Three and a half stars. I read Miami Blues years ago and thought it was brilliant and fun - a sociopathic con man and occasional haiku author goes on a crime spree with the stolen gun and badge (and false teeth!) of a curmudgeonly Miami police detective named Hoke Mosley, and opens with the death of a Hari Krishna from a broken finger. Great quirky pulp with lots of memorable moments that didn't take itself too seriously. The Way We Die Now doesn't have the hook and pace of the first novel in the series, but I think it's more substantial. Miami is changing, the police force is changing, and Hoke's family is changing, he grumbles and plows forward despite the perceived absurdity of it all. Half way through Hoke is again without his gun, badge, and his choppers far from Miami in the Florida backwoods and in a heap of trouble, but Hoke's at home in all this desperation, more so than his actual home where his observational talents don't seem to work as well. "If I'm not a detective... I'm nothing," Hoke reflects. What's a good crime novel without a little existential crisis wrapped in?

Another pleasantly meandering tale in this series. Willeford has a way of taking his time before anything happens, and when it happens in this book, it's unexpectedly violent. And then eveything settles down again and just coasts to an ending. Too bad it's the last one.

The last of Willeford's fantastic Hoke Mosely series. Great story telling. This was my second read of the quartet and they hold up brilliantly.