A review by mayoroffailure
The Black-Eyed Blonde, by Benjamin Black
4.0
It was the cover of this book that first drew me in when I saw it lofted up onto the "New Mystery" section at my local Barnes and Noble. Maybe it was the Marilyn Monroe esque face or the bright and bold titles but there was something that made me need to pick it up. I was even more thrilled when I learned that it was a detective story set in the early fifties (I hadn't heard of Phillip Marlowe before this book) and I knew that at some point I was going to need to buy this book.
A couple of months passed and after repeated trips to Barnes and Noble to read it more I finally cracked down and bought it. The Black Eyed Blonde then sat on my shelf for a while but once the books I needed to read before it were past then I opened it back up and began to read in a feverish state.
For those that don't know The Black Eyed Blond follows what is perhaps the most famous private detective ever put to page, Phillip Marlowe. In this new story our troubled hero finds himself under the charming spell of a Mrs. Clare Cavendish, a rich and beautifully intoxicating woman who tasks Phillip to find a long lost lover of hers. Quickly into the investigation Marlowe finds out that this man of hers is actually dead, but when she reveals that she saw him walk down the street Marlowe gets entangled into the most dangerous investigation of his career.
I don't think that many people out there are writing good old fashioned noir any longer and I certainly think that that's a sad fact. Maybe it's simply for a lack of fans or maybe it's just slipped from mainstream view, either way more books need to be written like this one. As someone who hasn't read Mr. Chandlers Marlowe I cant attest to how it matches up, and I'm sure that its no contest, but I do think that Mr. Black had written a really solid piece of noir fiction. The novel is hard boiled and does a fantastic job of sucking you in from the very beginning, but the best part by far in this novel is the tone.
Mr. Black does an incredible job of not only establishing the tone for this piece, but does an even better job of sustaining that tone for the next two hundred and eighty pages. There is such an overwhelming feeling of sadness within the pages that simply swallows up the reader and really makes them feel as though they understand the pain and sorrow that Marlowe feels over his all-but-broken life. The tone is also enhanced by some masterful dialogue both externally and internally, and this gives the reader the ability to really see that most of Marlowe's issues are self wrought, he knows that it's his own fault for ruining most of his life and Mr. Black makes sure that we know it too.
I think it takes a masterful writer to be able to create a first person novel, or at least one that is both engaging and well written. And while I've sung the praises of this novel for my whole review I must say that I was hoping to like it a lot more than I ended up actually feeling about it. I so expected to be able to put this book into my all time favorites but for some reason when I closed the back cover I knew, somewhere within my mind, that I simply wasn't going to be able to. I can't put my finger on what it is that's wrong but I just feel like something between these pages is missing, some crucial piece that seperates a masterfully written book and a masterpiece.
The Black Eyed Blond is a great book, especially if you love noir but much like our detective suspects of the femme fatale before him, there's just something missing.
A couple of months passed and after repeated trips to Barnes and Noble to read it more I finally cracked down and bought it. The Black Eyed Blonde then sat on my shelf for a while but once the books I needed to read before it were past then I opened it back up and began to read in a feverish state.
For those that don't know The Black Eyed Blond follows what is perhaps the most famous private detective ever put to page, Phillip Marlowe. In this new story our troubled hero finds himself under the charming spell of a Mrs. Clare Cavendish, a rich and beautifully intoxicating woman who tasks Phillip to find a long lost lover of hers. Quickly into the investigation Marlowe finds out that this man of hers is actually dead, but when she reveals that she saw him walk down the street Marlowe gets entangled into the most dangerous investigation of his career.
I don't think that many people out there are writing good old fashioned noir any longer and I certainly think that that's a sad fact. Maybe it's simply for a lack of fans or maybe it's just slipped from mainstream view, either way more books need to be written like this one. As someone who hasn't read Mr. Chandlers Marlowe I cant attest to how it matches up, and I'm sure that its no contest, but I do think that Mr. Black had written a really solid piece of noir fiction. The novel is hard boiled and does a fantastic job of sucking you in from the very beginning, but the best part by far in this novel is the tone.
Mr. Black does an incredible job of not only establishing the tone for this piece, but does an even better job of sustaining that tone for the next two hundred and eighty pages. There is such an overwhelming feeling of sadness within the pages that simply swallows up the reader and really makes them feel as though they understand the pain and sorrow that Marlowe feels over his all-but-broken life. The tone is also enhanced by some masterful dialogue both externally and internally, and this gives the reader the ability to really see that most of Marlowe's issues are self wrought, he knows that it's his own fault for ruining most of his life and Mr. Black makes sure that we know it too.
I think it takes a masterful writer to be able to create a first person novel, or at least one that is both engaging and well written. And while I've sung the praises of this novel for my whole review I must say that I was hoping to like it a lot more than I ended up actually feeling about it. I so expected to be able to put this book into my all time favorites but for some reason when I closed the back cover I knew, somewhere within my mind, that I simply wasn't going to be able to. I can't put my finger on what it is that's wrong but I just feel like something between these pages is missing, some crucial piece that seperates a masterfully written book and a masterpiece.
The Black Eyed Blond is a great book, especially if you love noir but much like our detective suspects of the femme fatale before him, there's just something missing.