the detective book

Added to the slow pace, was the fact that the story within a story didn't add anything to the overall plot development. In a way, it's easy to see why this novel was a best-seller in its day (inspiring a popular film starring Frank Sinatra): Thorp writes as very much the anti-Chandler or Hammett, eschewing their stylized private eyes for a weather-beaten wariness. “In The Good Detective McMahon skillfully blends the old and the new and weaves it into spun gold.”—Reed Farrel Coleman, New York Times bestselling author of Robert B. Parker’s Colorblind “The Good Detective is a debut with all of the ingredients: snappy procedural details, a sharp sense of place in the Deep South, and relentless momentum. Seems they’re all warning me that there’s nothing ahead that remotely redeems reading this book. We’d love your help.

It adheres to a classic trope where more than one case dovetails together, this time over the course of a very long career, and it was too goddamn long. This book really meanders, and for a novel called "The Detective," the main character is shockingly bad at doing just that. This story of Joe Leland's life was paced at such a dull speed because Thorpe wanted us to look at every clue and sign that Leland himself saw. It turns out that Leland and Colin MacIver served in the same military unit during Norma introduces Leland to her neighbor and former therapist, Dr. Wendell Roberts. I give up. Tesla was subsequently executed by electric chair. All that having been said, I’m abandoning this one. I was sick with a bad cold and didn't have the energy to go back to my shelves and pick something else.I may have put this book on my list for the wrong reason. There's an intriguing mysteryI can't imagine a book this slow-paced being published today — but it's very much a book of its times: a fascinating look into how World War II shaped the men who fought it, and how their return to civilian life went on to shape the communities in which they lived. Completely agree with the other reviewers who cite the novel’s tedious pacing and extended pages of navel-gazing dialogue. I am 80 pages in and I give up. As a character study of Leland (a war hero and jaded cop unable to separate his work and private lives), the book has some merits, but even these passages feel like they're jammed into the mystery plot without caring how they'll fit (the thinness of the supporting players doesn't help, either).

Certainly the book's sexual frankness (Leland's wife is a nymphomaniac, one suspect a tormented homosexuaWorkmanlike novel about Joe Leland, a cop-turned-PI whose investigation of a rich man's suicide dredges up memories of a case from his police past.

There is a lot of digression, retelling, and psychoanalyzing. Norma requests Leland personally because her husband had mentioned knowing him in the past. Read 25 reviews from the world's largest community for readers. The characters were dynamic and interesting, the mystery was compelling, and the extended flashbacks not only worked, but added depth to the characters and plot. Take note that this was made into the 1968 Sinatra movie. DNF at 25%. July 1st 1987 Let’s face it, 2020 is making us long for other timelines. Marsh is still struggling with his grief over the tragic death of his wife and son one year earlier.

This article is about the Roderick Thorp novel. What a way to start the new year.This was a very good story in the end. Joe Leland has a lot going on, and the more we find out about his wife, family and business, the more sense he makes. Imagine “My Dinner With Andre” super-imposed over the story of a detective on a case that may involve a murder but his entire investigation is more concerned with marital relations and divorce. Some of the attitudes don't hold up well with time, and there are passages that feel clipped straight from I like vintage crime novels, so I'm used to more dialog and less action, but holy smokes was this dull and actions were few and far between. I don’t see how, but okay. Nothing Lasts Forever is a sequeal to The Dective. If you are seriously considering that career field then read it, if not this book is too complex for you.I almost gave this a 5-star rating because, despite it's flaws, I was in this from start to finish. I finished it (all 500 pages) for 2 reasons: 1. It turned out that Colin MacIver was the true murderer. The movie Die Hard was based on the book Nothing Lasts Forever. Norma requests that Leland find out everything he can about her deceased husband. As a mystery, the book isn't up to much, with Thorp losing himself in thickets of exposition and digressions to the point that Leland's investigation vanishes.