xterminal's review
4.0
Moxie Mezcal, Sweet Dream, Silver Screen (Moxie Mezcal Publishing, 2009)
Moxie Mezcal. Two drinks that, mixed, would probably combine to form the worst taste you've ever had in your mouth. Thankfully, you don't have to drink it to want to read it. Tough, literate (if amateur at times), fun slice of neo-noir reminiscent more than once of what might have happened had Kathy Acker decided to try and write Raymond Chandler. I should probably take points off for the meta, but I'd just end up adding them back on for the wit and honesty: “I was behind the wheel while he thumbed through the dog-eared paperback I had been lugging around in my backpack. It was a cheap murder mystery called Invisible Ink that tried to ape the old hard-boiled detective stories of Mickey Spillane and Raymond Chandler with mixed results.” Indeed. I've read a number of complaints with the ending; I didn't see it. I'm wondering if folks didn't get it (while Mezcal drops enough hints to what's going on, she doesn't point them out—and I'm factoring in that I could be totally misreading it myself) or whether it's just too ambiguous for the average reader, but I didn't have such problems. Good stuff from a solid new voice in thrillers. Check it out. ****
Moxie Mezcal. Two drinks that, mixed, would probably combine to form the worst taste you've ever had in your mouth. Thankfully, you don't have to drink it to want to read it. Tough, literate (if amateur at times), fun slice of neo-noir reminiscent more than once of what might have happened had Kathy Acker decided to try and write Raymond Chandler. I should probably take points off for the meta, but I'd just end up adding them back on for the wit and honesty: “I was behind the wheel while he thumbed through the dog-eared paperback I had been lugging around in my backpack. It was a cheap murder mystery called Invisible Ink that tried to ape the old hard-boiled detective stories of Mickey Spillane and Raymond Chandler with mixed results.” Indeed. I've read a number of complaints with the ending; I didn't see it. I'm wondering if folks didn't get it (while Mezcal drops enough hints to what's going on, she doesn't point them out—and I'm factoring in that I could be totally misreading it myself) or whether it's just too ambiguous for the average reader, but I didn't have such problems. Good stuff from a solid new voice in thrillers. Check it out. ****
More...