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criminolly's review against another edition
4.0
A solidly enjoyable mystery with all the elements such a thing requires.
adperfectamconsilium's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Richard Aleas has written a fast paced hard-boiled crime novel incorporating many tropes but making it interesting with twists and some memorable characters.
Private investigator John Blake takes on a personal case when he sees a newspaper headline with the news of a death of a stripper. The thing is that the face staring out at him from the newsprint is that of his college girlfriend from ten years ago, Miranda Sugarman.
She was supposed to have gone to university and then have followed her career choice of becoming an eye doctor out in the Midwest so how on earth has she ended up working as a stripper in a seedy New York club and who has murdered her?
John is warned off from uncovering the truth but he can't let it go. For the sake of his memories of Miranda he has to know what's happened and before he knows it he's in deep with his life in danger from club bosses and drug dealers and goodness knows what else.
Following John's investigation is a crime fiction treat and I only worked out part of the answer a little before he did.
There's a good supporting cast and it's an engaging mystery.
A quick read at 221 pages.
Private investigator John Blake takes on a personal case when he sees a newspaper headline with the news of a death of a stripper. The thing is that the face staring out at him from the newsprint is that of his college girlfriend from ten years ago, Miranda Sugarman.
She was supposed to have gone to university and then have followed her career choice of becoming an eye doctor out in the Midwest so how on earth has she ended up working as a stripper in a seedy New York club and who has murdered her?
John is warned off from uncovering the truth but he can't let it go. For the sake of his memories of Miranda he has to know what's happened and before he knows it he's in deep with his life in danger from club bosses and drug dealers and goodness knows what else.
Following John's investigation is a crime fiction treat and I only worked out part of the answer a little before he did.
There's a good supporting cast and it's an engaging mystery.
A quick read at 221 pages.
duparker's review against another edition
4.0
Great story and style. I really enjoyed the drama and the smokiness of the story. There was a clear understanding of the drama and the methodology of the crime. There was no over done grit to it, and no false sense of myth to the thrill of a crime, either.
amichaelbraun's review against another edition
challenging
dark
mysterious
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
dee9401's review against another edition
1.0
Since I should say something nice, this book made me want to have a cuppa hazelnut coffee.
misterjay's review against another edition
4.0
Every good private detective has two first cases - the one that makes him want to be a P.I. and the one that makes him want to stop. This story is the latter case for John Blake and with good reason. When his first love turns up dead at a seedy stripclub, Blake takes the case not so much because he wants to but because he has to. His conscience won't let him do otherwise.
Like all the Hard Case Crimes books, Little Girl Lost is fast and quickly paced. Things move along in the direction you expect, right up until you reach the twist, which we've also come to expect. All in all, a solid read that's easy to start.
Like all the Hard Case Crimes books, Little Girl Lost is fast and quickly paced. Things move along in the direction you expect, right up until you reach the twist, which we've also come to expect. All in all, a solid read that's easy to start.
dantastic's review against another edition
4.0
P.I. John Blake's childhood girlfriend, Miranda Sugarman, is found dead on top of a strip club. John follows her backtrail from her enrollment in medical school to a relationship with another woman, to a career touring the strip club circuit and a million dollar robbery. Only, things aren't as they seem at first glance.
I hate to admit it since I was prepared to write off Richard Aleas/Charles Ardai as a phony before I read his stuff but the man knows how to turn out a paperback original. The story had plenty of twists and turns and I only figured out what was really going on a few pages ahead of Blake. Great stuff.
I hate to admit it since I was prepared to write off Richard Aleas/Charles Ardai as a phony before I read his stuff but the man knows how to turn out a paperback original. The story had plenty of twists and turns and I only figured out what was really going on a few pages ahead of Blake. Great stuff.
glimnore's review against another edition
5.0
Pardon my language, but Little Girl Lost by Richard Aleas was 'unexpectedly fucking brilliant.'
Quick and easy prose frames this slow-burn, hard-boiled detective novel. What surprised me the most was that LGL manages to pay homage to older classical works while simultaneously innovating on traditional tropes often seen within the genre.
Wrapped up in pulpy goodness, Aleas' staging and plotting help accelerate the novel to its stone-cold ending. And I can't help but find myself simply clamoring for more.
Fortunately, there is a sequel! Onward!
Quick and easy prose frames this slow-burn, hard-boiled detective novel. What surprised me the most was that LGL manages to pay homage to older classical works while simultaneously innovating on traditional tropes often seen within the genre.
Wrapped up in pulpy goodness, Aleas' staging and plotting help accelerate the novel to its stone-cold ending. And I can't help but find myself simply clamoring for more.
Fortunately, there is a sequel! Onward!
twilliamson's review against another edition
4.0
Little Girl Lost, published in 2004 by Charles Ardai under his pseudonym, is a great novel. It has all the seediness of a proper pulp detective novel, but also blends in a more modern sensibility of character drama and narrative flair. In fact, the book has some beautifully written sequences relying as much on a readerly sense of nostalgia for a past unrecoverable as it does on the suspenseful plot common to detective novels.
The plot, though, is probably the book's weakest area, as it feels like Ardai only introduces information about the setting when it becomes convenient to the book, and so much of the narrator's constant figuring and "detecting" seems to serve to hide the fact that the "twist" of the novel is so utterly predictable.
The book's sexual politics, though, are at least fairly interesting; there's a femme fatale and a male detective, and yet much of the book illustrates just how fragile the male detective is (emotionally and physically) and how powerful the femme fatale can be. This is not to say that the book is some feminist masterpiece; on the contrary, the novel's overarching structure reiterates traditional gender roles, but its complications are at least welcome in a genre dominated by rigid gender archetypes.
It's really the narrative "flashbacks," though, that I find most compelling through the novel, and the noir craftsmanship is worth the read. It's a fine read, and another great addition to the Hard Case Crime print.
The plot, though, is probably the book's weakest area, as it feels like Ardai only introduces information about the setting when it becomes convenient to the book, and so much of the narrator's constant figuring and "detecting" seems to serve to hide the fact that the "twist" of the novel is so utterly predictable.
The book's sexual politics, though, are at least fairly interesting; there's a femme fatale and a male detective, and yet much of the book illustrates just how fragile the male detective is (emotionally and physically) and how powerful the femme fatale can be. This is not to say that the book is some feminist masterpiece; on the contrary, the novel's overarching structure reiterates traditional gender roles, but its complications are at least welcome in a genre dominated by rigid gender archetypes.
It's really the narrative "flashbacks," though, that I find most compelling through the novel, and the noir craftsmanship is worth the read. It's a fine read, and another great addition to the Hard Case Crime print.
haf59's review against another edition
4.0
Well-written, gripping, brutal mystery. Strippers, drugs, betrayal, NYC, memories. Private detective. Innocence lost. Really pretty damn good. Can't say how mysterious the mystery is in the end, but ... it's a good read. And a very nice cover, too.