"This Wicked
World" by Richard Lange (Little, Brown and Company, ISBN 9780316017374,
$23.99)
Jimmy Boone tends bar at the Tick Tock on Hollywood Boulevard, and the
owner's son who manages the place is one of those Los Angeles nit-wit, high
life wannabes who shakes down street dealers and makes his barkeeps behind
the stick pay fines if they don't greet each customer. Boone swallows this
pettiness because he knows that the Tick Tock is never going to be Musso and
Frank's, but mostly because he is an ex-con and needs a job. Still on paper
with his monthly pee check at his PO's office, Boone is trying hard to
rebuild a life that went south when he made a few mistakes. The City of
Angels, in Richard Lange's first novel "This Wicked World," doesn't make it
easy.
Boone is a hard guy trying to be a decent guy. His first marriage didn't
work out. His job as a well-paid bodyguard ended in the pen when he let his
desire to do the right thing turn into a beating that went bad. His
associates are Robo, a massive Latino bouncer, a lawyer who knows a guy who
knows a guy that helps cons, and an off the grid Russian immigrant doctor
working out of a watch repair shop patching everything from bullet holes to
the flu for those who don't want to pay the licensed docs. Robo's got lots
of kids and takes odd muscle jobs here and there that need back-up from a
guy like Boone. One thing leads to another. "This Wicked World" has a plot
that relentlessly moves to its inevitable inconclusive conclusion.
Not only does Lange know the Los Angeles we see on the screen, he also knows
the people and places that don't get in the lights. He knows that with a
population more than 60% Latino, the city's talk is more Spanish than
English and white guys are more often out of place than not. His characters
drive beat up Subaru's not BMW's, and their scams are small time with a
violent edge. He knows the dog-fights, drugs, runaways, and lost souls.
Watch out Michael Connelly, Richard Lange is looming large in your rear view
mirror. This is a terrific debut novel.
Review by
Bruce Jacobs,
July 30, 2009
Back
to Reviews
