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Rene Shade #2
Muscle for the Wing
A darkly comic crime novel finds detective Rene Shade fighting for his survival--and that of the steamy Cajun hamlet of St. Bruno--against a group of ex-convicts determined to take over the town's illicit trade. Reprint.
168 pages, Paperback
First published September 1, 1988
5 people are currently reading
438 people want to read
About the author
Daniel Woodrell
27 books1,345 followersGrowing up in Missouri, seventy miles downriver from Hannibal, Mark Twain was handed to me early on, first or second grade, and captivated me for years, and forever, I reckon. Robert Louis Stevenson had his seasons with me just before my teens and I love him yet. There are too many others to mention, I suppose, but feel compelled to bring up Hemingway, James Agee, Flannery O'Connor, John McGahern, Knut Hamsun, Faulkner, George Mackay Brown, Tillie Olsen, W.S. Merwin, Brigit Pegeen Kelly, Andrew Hudgins, Seamus Heaney, Derek Wolco.
Daniel Woodrell was born and now lives in the Missouri Ozarks. He left school and enlisted in the Marines the week he turned seventeen, received his bachelor's degree at age twenty-seven, graduated from the Iowa Writer's Workshop, and spent a year on a Michener Fellowship. His five most recent novels were selected as New York Times Notable Books of the Year, and Tomato Red won the PEN West award for the novel in 1999. Winter's Bone is his eighth novel.
Daniel Woodrell was born and now lives in the Missouri Ozarks. He left school and enlisted in the Marines the week he turned seventeen, received his bachelor's degree at age twenty-seven, graduated from the Iowa Writer's Workshop, and spent a year on a Michener Fellowship. His five most recent novels were selected as New York Times Notable Books of the Year, and Tomato Red won the PEN West award for the novel in 1999. Winter's Bone is his eighth novel.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 60 reviews
February 12, 2013
This is an early novel from Daniel Woodrell, the second in his Louisiana Bayou trilogy featuring St. Bruno detective, Rene Shade.
In the parish of St. Bruno the local citizenry exists in an uneasy alliance with a gaggle of small-time mobsters who are headed by a local boss named Auguste Beaurain. A trio of ex-cons, members of a prison gang named The Wing, move in with intentions of taking over the town's action. They begin by knocking over a high stakes poker game that is protected by Beaurain. In the process, they kill a cop who was playing in the game, rather than guarding it as he was supposed to do.
The surviving players and the mobsters are naturally upset and so are the cops. Even though the dead man was at least slightly bent, he was one of their own, and they can't sit idly by and let the punks get away with this.
The mayor, who is in Beaurain's pocket, orders Rene Shade to team up with one of the local mob figures to go after the interlopers. What follows is a delicious tale of crime, corruption, sex and betrayal. Woodrell creates a great cast of characters and places them in a deftly-drawn setting. Atmosphere is a strong character in this book, and as a reader you can virtually feel yourself walking the dusty streets of St. Bruno and slamming beers with Rene Shade.
This book is not quite on a level with some of Woodrell's later work like Tomato Red and Winter's Bone, but fans of Woodrell will not want to miss it, and for that matter, neither will most other fans of crime fiction. 3.5 stars for me.
In the parish of St. Bruno the local citizenry exists in an uneasy alliance with a gaggle of small-time mobsters who are headed by a local boss named Auguste Beaurain. A trio of ex-cons, members of a prison gang named The Wing, move in with intentions of taking over the town's action. They begin by knocking over a high stakes poker game that is protected by Beaurain. In the process, they kill a cop who was playing in the game, rather than guarding it as he was supposed to do.
The surviving players and the mobsters are naturally upset and so are the cops. Even though the dead man was at least slightly bent, he was one of their own, and they can't sit idly by and let the punks get away with this.
The mayor, who is in Beaurain's pocket, orders Rene Shade to team up with one of the local mob figures to go after the interlopers. What follows is a delicious tale of crime, corruption, sex and betrayal. Woodrell creates a great cast of characters and places them in a deftly-drawn setting. Atmosphere is a strong character in this book, and as a reader you can virtually feel yourself walking the dusty streets of St. Bruno and slamming beers with Rene Shade.
This book is not quite on a level with some of Woodrell's later work like Tomato Red and Winter's Bone, but fans of Woodrell will not want to miss it, and for that matter, neither will most other fans of crime fiction. 3.5 stars for me.
October 20, 2022
Gritty, funny, dark and strange. This was a good read. Ozark meets Jim Thompson. Can't believe it was only written in 1990 though, it felt more dated than that.
September 1, 2012
Muscle For The Wing opens in the middle of a piece of action – a bunch of interlopers rip off a protected gambling get-together and kill a cop in the process. The killers, led by the intelligent, ruthless Emil Jaddick, are part of a right-wing prison organisation that has tentacles which are reaching into legitimate spheres of society. With The Wing behind them, they feel indestructible. What they’re not prepared for is the might of the old-school crime-lord they’re up against.
Meanwhile, local cop Shade is chilling with his woman. At least he starts off chilling, for things heat up pretty quickly. After a night of passion, a week of camping the couple have planned is called off so that Shade can work the case.
Because the town’s mayor was at the card-game from the opening and because the mayor has strings he can pull, Shade is put out to work with an ex running mate from younger and darker times. The objective isn’t so much to apprehend the gang, but to destroy it.
So, ‘Shade and his woman’; what’s that about? It might not be a phrase I’d normally use, but here it’s completely apt. The society of Frogtown where the book is set, is interestingly structured. There’s an interesting contrast between a matriarchal world and one where women are regarded as objects to admire, have fun with and keep in line. The women are able to use this to their advantage much of the time, but when things get tough it’s the rule of a male fist that comes out on top.
There are so many things to love about the book.
It has an easy style that’s efficient with words and yet is full of wonder in the description of people and place. Here are a few to get the saliva going:
Willie Dastillon. Could he be behind the robbery and the murder? ‘Willie might steal a hen, but he wouldn’t break an egg.’ Brilliant.
Hard man and crime-lord Beaurain. Described in one phrase – ‘measured five foot seven standing on your neck.’
Frogtown: ‘Where the sideburns were longer, the fuses shorter, the skirts higher and the expectations lower.’
And Wanda has a behind that’s ‘harder’married life.’
It’s a sexy book. An action-packed one. It’s beautiful, violent, interesting and superbly paced. The characters rule the pages and their lives have damaged each of them.
I hope I’ve learned a thing or two about writing with this one. It’s quite superb. As well as a lot of positives, I’ve picked up that I should never call a character How – that can cause more than a few confusions for a reader with a memory like mine. How? Check that one out for yourself.
Meanwhile, local cop Shade is chilling with his woman. At least he starts off chilling, for things heat up pretty quickly. After a night of passion, a week of camping the couple have planned is called off so that Shade can work the case.
Because the town’s mayor was at the card-game from the opening and because the mayor has strings he can pull, Shade is put out to work with an ex running mate from younger and darker times. The objective isn’t so much to apprehend the gang, but to destroy it.
So, ‘Shade and his woman’; what’s that about? It might not be a phrase I’d normally use, but here it’s completely apt. The society of Frogtown where the book is set, is interestingly structured. There’s an interesting contrast between a matriarchal world and one where women are regarded as objects to admire, have fun with and keep in line. The women are able to use this to their advantage much of the time, but when things get tough it’s the rule of a male fist that comes out on top.
There are so many things to love about the book.
It has an easy style that’s efficient with words and yet is full of wonder in the description of people and place. Here are a few to get the saliva going:
Willie Dastillon. Could he be behind the robbery and the murder? ‘Willie might steal a hen, but he wouldn’t break an egg.’ Brilliant.
Hard man and crime-lord Beaurain. Described in one phrase – ‘measured five foot seven standing on your neck.’
Frogtown: ‘Where the sideburns were longer, the fuses shorter, the skirts higher and the expectations lower.’
And Wanda has a behind that’s ‘harder’married life.’
It’s a sexy book. An action-packed one. It’s beautiful, violent, interesting and superbly paced. The characters rule the pages and their lives have damaged each of them.
I hope I’ve learned a thing or two about writing with this one. It’s quite superb. As well as a lot of positives, I’ve picked up that I should never call a character How – that can cause more than a few confusions for a reader with a memory like mine. How? Check that one out for yourself.
April 6, 2016
Even better than the first Rene Shade. I think it was better because I'm familiar with the language a bit more, race wasn't a focus, and there was noir-level raunch that was just plain fun to read. I love all I've read by Daniel Woodrell......so good!
April 3, 2019
I read this almost immediately after Under The Bright Lights (the first of the trilogy), which is not like me, usually I like to leave a bit of a break, especially in such an enjoyable series, a chance to reflect.
I found this to be a diluted version of Bright Lights. In this, the plot plays more of an important role, whereas in the first of the series Woodrell’s language, humour and characterisation was much more to the fore. It’s an action-packed thriller and lacks the subtlety of Woodrell’s later work, but that trademark style of writing with its smattering of dark humour is there and makes it well worth reading nonetheless.
I found this to be a diluted version of Bright Lights. In this, the plot plays more of an important role, whereas in the first of the series Woodrell’s language, humour and characterisation was much more to the fore. It’s an action-packed thriller and lacks the subtlety of Woodrell’s later work, but that trademark style of writing with its smattering of dark humour is there and makes it well worth reading nonetheless.
November 30, 2014
My favourite bayou trilogy book. Only one man can stop a crew of psycho nutters... You know the rest.
September 22, 2022
5/5 Excellent
The 2nd in the Rene Shade trilogy and one of my favourite reads of the year.
Whilst short in length, it’s a powerful and brilliantly written tale of backwater America and all its colourful and loud characters.
It’s noir that sizzles and even at over 20 years old it reads like 2020.
Shade is a creation I love, he’s hard but just has that edge to try and do right whilst the rest of the world around him is broken and corrupt.
Absolutely top drawer crime
The 2nd in the Rene Shade trilogy and one of my favourite reads of the year.
Whilst short in length, it’s a powerful and brilliantly written tale of backwater America and all its colourful and loud characters.
It’s noir that sizzles and even at over 20 years old it reads like 2020.
Shade is a creation I love, he’s hard but just has that edge to try and do right whilst the rest of the world around him is broken and corrupt.
Absolutely top drawer crime
March 5, 2018
This one fell between two stalls for me - not as refined as Winter's Bone, not as brutal or as raw as the first in the Bayou trilogy.
The detective, Rene Shade, doesn't have a great deal to do in this story, in which a bunch of ne'er-do-wells foolishly attempt to rob local poker games and fall foul of the people in power, on either side of the law.
Woodrell is great at evoking a sense of place and time, and populating it with grimy, snaggle-toothed characters. But it was hard to relate to any of them in this story - Rene is a passive, easily influenced and uncertain figure in this book. The story tries to resolve an across-the-barricades relationship with a childhood friend who ended up on the opposite side of the criminal justice system - but this feels like an echo of Rene's interactions with his brother from the previous book.
So while the writing was superb, the storytelling fell a little short for me.
Hopefully, the third in the series will have a new story to tell...
6/10
The detective, Rene Shade, doesn't have a great deal to do in this story, in which a bunch of ne'er-do-wells foolishly attempt to rob local poker games and fall foul of the people in power, on either side of the law.
Woodrell is great at evoking a sense of place and time, and populating it with grimy, snaggle-toothed characters. But it was hard to relate to any of them in this story - Rene is a passive, easily influenced and uncertain figure in this book. The story tries to resolve an across-the-barricades relationship with a childhood friend who ended up on the opposite side of the criminal justice system - but this feels like an echo of Rene's interactions with his brother from the previous book.
So while the writing was superb, the storytelling fell a little short for me.
Hopefully, the third in the series will have a new story to tell...
6/10
August 3, 2021
This was a really fast read with lots of twists and sleazy characters just like the first one. Not sure which one I liked better because this one ended real fast to me but I’m really enjoying this series.
April 21, 2016
Description: After ex-con Emil Jadick and his bad boys--a national gang of ex-cons who call themselves The Wing--storm a local St. Bruno poker game, Rene Shade sets out to stop the newcomers dead in their tracks.
Opening: Wishing to avoid any risk of a snub at The Hushed Hill Country Club, the first thing Emil Jadick shoved through the door was double-barreled and loaded.
Rene and Nicole are planning a fishing trip to the Ouachita mountains via the sounds of Don't Get Around Much Anymore - Johnny Hodges (Alto Sax) .
Opening: Wishing to avoid any risk of a snub at The Hushed Hill Country Club, the first thing Emil Jadick shoved through the door was double-barreled and loaded.
Rene and Nicole are planning a fishing trip to the Ouachita mountains via the sounds of Don't Get Around Much Anymore - Johnny Hodges (Alto Sax) .This Dean Pugh character would need close watching. He was foul and lean, junk-food raised and opposed to dentistry judging by his greening teeth. His skin had a yellow tinge, beneath shitfly green eyes, and his brain was probably odd enough to posthumously set off a bidding frenzy among scientists. He generally seemed batty as a loon, goofy as a goose on ice, immaculately weird, with no stain of normalcy on him at all.'
May 24, 2013
The second book in this trilogy is so much better than the first that I want to give it a 5 star rating but compared to Woodrell's Ozark books it isn't in the same league so it will have to suffice with a four. A hardboiled, southern, crime noir set in Louisiana, this is the second time we meet Rene Shade, a tough but honest (in his own way) cop, ex-boxer who deals with the riff-raff, bad cops and mobsters of a backwoods town. The first in this series was also Woodrell's first book but by this time the author has ironed out his kinks and this is a fine gritty (and literary) crime novel. Set in the seventies, the book is about crime rather than a mystery as the reader knows more than the detective. Shade is a complicated character and this book has him in a relationship with a woman plus goes into detail about his relationships with his brothers and the people in town he grew up with. We get to know Shade's background and upbringing and while he is involved in a hardcore case the real mystery for the reader to contemplate is why Shade became a cop instead of a criminal. A very fast read that had me immersed.
October 15, 2008
Short, taut and entirely nasty. Muscle for the Wing was a great book, and a good example of modern noir. It much rather made me feel like I was sitting in on some sort of Ozarkian chapter of Pulp Fiction, with it's characters talking on various things in a great Southern way.
The author has a stunning ear for dialogue. "Don't worry, we'll get through these hogs as quick as a rake through shit." Just one particular example that I remember. More than a few times I chuckled up over the various turns of phrase the characters dropped.
I agree with the collegue who recommended me this book, it feels like you're missing out on something. Like it's part of a series that you've come into part way through. It ends like that too, but then that's something good about it. It starts in the action, presents you with characters who had lives outside this particular story, and leaves you at just as bad a place in the end.
Great stuff!
The author has a stunning ear for dialogue. "Don't worry, we'll get through these hogs as quick as a rake through shit." Just one particular example that I remember. More than a few times I chuckled up over the various turns of phrase the characters dropped.
I agree with the collegue who recommended me this book, it feels like you're missing out on something. Like it's part of a series that you've come into part way through. It ends like that too, but then that's something good about it. It starts in the action, presents you with characters who had lives outside this particular story, and leaves you at just as bad a place in the end.
Great stuff!
November 9, 2012
Meh. Lots of very dated 80s references. Once again, there are two rival factions of criminals and a boring cop caught between them. Tolerable, not recommended.
August 10, 2025
This is the second book in Woodrell’s Bayou Trilogy that takes us back to St. Bruno, where ex-boxer-turned-cop Rene Shade navigates the fuzzy lines between law enforcement and the criminal underworld. This time, a violent gang of ex-cons known as the Wing comes into town, setting off a chain of events that leaves blood on the streets and loyalties tested.
Woodrell’s prose is still sharp and vivid, full of grit, humidity, and a certain poetic streak. I enjoyed the language, and the sense of place is strong. The dialogue has moments of real punch, though sometimes conversations ran a little long for me. And often enough I didn't really get the gist of what was being said. By the end, I wasn’t entirely sure who counted as “cop” and who counted as “criminal,” but perhaps that’s the point, Woodrell obviously likes living in the moral gray areas.
The violence is intense (and not my favorite part), but it’s in keeping with the crime genre.The women frequently seem to draw the short straw, they are bashed up, used, even Shade's language towards them is questionable.
I’m not usually a crime novel reader, and this one didn’t grab me as much as Under the Bright Lights, the first in the trilogy. Still, it’s a well-crafted piece of Southern noir, just not one of my favorites of the series so far.
Woodrell’s prose is still sharp and vivid, full of grit, humidity, and a certain poetic streak. I enjoyed the language, and the sense of place is strong. The dialogue has moments of real punch, though sometimes conversations ran a little long for me. And often enough I didn't really get the gist of what was being said. By the end, I wasn’t entirely sure who counted as “cop” and who counted as “criminal,” but perhaps that’s the point, Woodrell obviously likes living in the moral gray areas.
The violence is intense (and not my favorite part), but it’s in keeping with the crime genre.The women frequently seem to draw the short straw, they are bashed up, used, even Shade's language towards them is questionable.
I’m not usually a crime novel reader, and this one didn’t grab me as much as Under the Bright Lights, the first in the trilogy. Still, it’s a well-crafted piece of Southern noir, just not one of my favorites of the series so far.
May 27, 2017
In Woodrell's early fiction, notably in his Bayou Trilogy or Rene Shade books, he didn't much believe in denouement. This makes not only for a very quick read, but a taut thriller, mostly meat, not much fat. It's interesting that he likes to use the metaphor of gumbo and creole food in these books, because his writing doesn't much reflect that. This isn't a slight; these books are noir in the truest sense of that genre, hard, fast, rough, and violent. Justice may be ultimately served, but not without some broken bones and bruised psyches left behind. I find it interesting to visit Woodrell's early noir after having read Winter's Bone and The Outlaw Album, both of which are nearly perfect. It's clear that Woodrell was learning how to craft a story, playing with language, and having a pretty good time.
November 30, 2023
This year I started meeting with this dude, through a charity, who's not in a great space. Been trying to get him to read a bit more and he's mainly into British true crime stuff, so I've been giving him some American easy to read crime novels that are meant to be good. Don't read them normally and I read the books before I give them to him so we can talk about them and to make sure they're OK / not TOO depressing.
I read this book very quickly, short chapters and big font. I did enjoy it though, it set the scene of the Louisiana town and inhabitants very well. Also liked that there are no definite good or bad guys in it. Would have been a great holiday read.
I read this book very quickly, short chapters and big font. I did enjoy it though, it set the scene of the Louisiana town and inhabitants very well. Also liked that there are no definite good or bad guys in it. Would have been a great holiday read.
May 8, 2017
This felt more like one of the writers from the Wire, rather than the author of Winter's Bone. Not only is the main character of this trilogy, Rene, a cool customer with enough flaws you can definitely root for. The criminals caught up in this robbery are just as charismatic and interesting, making for a great story of low-level criminals on par with "Rum Punch" from Elmore. Thoroughly enjoyable.
May 19, 2019
The Bayou Trilogy is pretty unremarkable. I don't think I'm going to read the third installment. This one was even worse than the first, which I thought was pretty so-so. What's interesting about these books is to see how Woodrell developed from a pulp crime writer to a serious author. I don't think these are required reading though unless you're a Woodrell completist or you don't mind reading second-rate crime novels.
January 8, 2022
Well written early novel but Woodrell but he gets way too many things wrong about Louisiana and it makes the book feel inauthentic.
The details are what jerk me out of the story and give it a lower rating. It feels like the books were originally written about his Missouri home and then transplanted into Louisiana.
That said it's a nice and brutal piece of crime fiction and a sign of things to come from Woodrell.
The details are what jerk me out of the story and give it a lower rating. It feels like the books were originally written about his Missouri home and then transplanted into Louisiana.
That said it's a nice and brutal piece of crime fiction and a sign of things to come from Woodrell.
August 3, 2023
De 1988, 2a novel.la de la trilogia dels pantants. Novel.la negra. Woodrell i fue el 'Country Noir', en un ambient rural de l'Amèrica dura i marginal.
El protagonista és el policía René Shade que ja es presenta a la 1a novel.la. El policía corrupte Shuggie Zeck i amic de la infància. Dones: Wanda, Nicole, Hedda, Ma Blanqui, la madre del protagonista.
Tema : delinquència i control del territori.
Context: ribera del Mississippi
El protagonista és el policía René Shade que ja es presenta a la 1a novel.la. El policía corrupte Shuggie Zeck i amic de la infància. Dones: Wanda, Nicole, Hedda, Ma Blanqui, la madre del protagonista.
Tema : delinquència i control del territori.
Context: ribera del Mississippi
February 13, 2018
Daniel Woodrell is one of the most amazing writers I've ever encountered. Style strikes you first, but plotting and characterization will stun you, too. Oh, and setting. A fantastic mystery. Every writer could benefit from reading his novels.
May 10, 2024
This man is a great writer and the book is complex and entertaining, but I don’t think he had hit his stride yet when he wrote it; hence just three stars. But eventually I will have read all his books.
August 9, 2017
Fun southern noire
January 13, 2018
The Outlaw Album, Death of Sweet Mister, and Winter's Bone were all hits for me. I especially loved the short story collection. Sadly, this book fell short of them.
February 12, 2018
Terrific read that I couldn't put down. I think enough has been said about the plot already, so I'll just add that the ending was fierce and compelling.
February 9, 2019
Pretty simple paint by the numbers of a crime caper gone bad
February 4, 2020
THREE-AND-A-HALF. Just like the first in this series, I liked it but I'm not sure I'd rush to recommend it to anyone who wasn't already a fan of grimy, southern fried pulp noir.
March 23, 2020
Part 2 of the Bayou Trilogy is even better than the first volume, and I've just started reading the third book. It's on a par with Woodrell's best work.
May 15, 2022
has some Justified B-storyline flair, otherwise largely forgettable
abandonados
May 4, 2023Que igual es la traducción, pero que no.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 60 reviews