Suicide Squeeze by Victor Gischler

Suicide Squeeze by Victor Gischler

I think it's official, Victor Gischler has entered the pantheon of writes whom I have to check out everything by. Suicide Squeeze is the second of his books that I have consumed, and consumed is the right term, and I am looking forward to the next one. The book follows a cast of noir caricatures   as they all seek the almighty yankee dollar and the so called American dream. In the case of Conner Samson, and I think he was created before The Venture Bros. Brock Samson, it's the money that he's after.... and why not he seems to loose over and over in life, failing out of college, loosing his baseball scholarship, and becoming one of those down on his luck bottom feeders who populate this type of hard boilded noir. He has a classic car, he owes money to bookies, and he's unemployed. Enter a caper involving a Joe DiMaggio baseball card, signed not only by Joe, but his one time wife, Marilyn Monroe, 

and film director Billy Wilder. It's a one of a kind, and a crazy collector from Japan wants it.. The story flows from that point, as our hero and his cast all run though the maze of plot, and story that riffs on geek culture, action films, of course the pulp worlds that inspire these kinds of story. The action is fast and you can almost feel the velocity of the words and the story, and it never slows or gets to bogged down on any kind of faux dept. Have no illusions, this is simply a fun romp that will have you laughing, smiling and grinning knowingly, and will leave you with a buzz not unlike that of a overly sugary snack.

The Return of Max and Angela

Slide By Kenn Bruen and Jason Starr

This was one of the few books that I have read where you can feel the velocity of the story while reading. It’s fast, it’s fun, and it’s even funny. You have the remaining cast of Bust racing towards meeting once again; the book is filled with unhinged, deluded criminal types getting caught up in their own stupidity and failing to achieve. Not only is the book a fun read, it was obviously a fun book to write… in that it’s very over the top, almost to the point of parody, but never getting too ridiculous… unless you want to think that an assault on one of the authors of the book happening in the book as an act that’s over the line. I do have The Max, which is the third book in the Max and Angela series on my bedside table, and plan to read it soon.