Bluebottle

Lew Griffin #5

by James Sallis

As Lew Griffin leaves a New Orleans music club with an older white woman he's just met, someone fires a shot and Lew goes down. When he comes fully to, Griffin discovers that most of a year has gone by since that night. What happened? Who was the woman? Which of them was the target? Who was the sniper? There are too many pieces missing, too few facts, and a powerful need to know why a year has been stolen from his life. Weaving Griffin's search for identity―one of the recurring themes in this magnificent series of novels―with a sensuous portrait of the people and places the define New Orleans, Sallis continues not only to unravel Griffin's past but to map his future…and our own. Somewhere in the Crescent City―and in the white supremacist movement crawling through it―there's an answer to the questions left by the shot that echoed through the night. But to get it, Griffin is going to have to work with the only people offering help, people he knows he should allies if he can trust them, and worse trouble for him if he can't. Bluebottle continues the mysterious journey begun in Sallis's The Long-Legged Fly and continues, too, to show the growth and mastery of one of America's finest crime fiction stylists.

Genres: Mystery, Crime, Noir, Mystery Thriller, Fiction, Detective

161 pages, Hardcover

First published March 17, 1999

About the author

James Sallis (born 21 December 1944 in Helena, Arkansas) is an American crime writer, poet and musician, best known for his series of novels featuring the character Lew Griffin and set in New Orleans, and for his 2005 novel Drive, which was adapted into a 2011 film of the same name.

Reviews

[Richard · Rating 4 out of 5]

That's what we're here for, Griffin. To bear witness, to take notice. Ever doubt that, you just look into a child's eyes.

When jumping into a book by James Sallis, especially the ones in the Lew Griffin series, I've learned not to expect that he'll be interested in focusing very much on plot. I don't read them for action, but I do read them for Sallis's evocative writing, and for the characters themselves. I've mentioned before that one of the most fascinating things about the Griffin series is the malleable chronology, the blurring of history and the parallels (which essayist Richard Martin calls "echoes) in Lew's life. In Bluebottle, the fifth and penultimate novel in the series, time is at it's most malleable here than in any of the previous books as Lew remembers a time in the seventies, after he was shot and lost a year of his life and memory, and the subsequent search for the white woman he was with at the time of the shooting.

Chekhov insists that once a story is written we cross out the end and beginning, since that's where we do most of our lying. What you have here, then, is all middle: all back and fill, my effort to reconstruct the year missing from my life, to hold on to it.

Sallis jumps back and forth and up and down through time as Lew recalls various aspects throughout his life, but it never felt too confusing. And there are many echoes of characters and situations from other parts of Lew's narrative, and sometimes it causes you to either doubt Lew's memory, or wonder at the significance. For example, the woman he's searching for, Dana Esmay, is eerily similar to Esmé Dupuy, the white journalist who was with Lew during the shooting in Black Hornet that is almost a straight parallel to the one here. There are more examples of this throughout all of these books and it makes for fascinating reading. There are some interesting plot elements this time around, like the missing writer that Lew ends up searching for, a man who begins to write his masterpiece by researching a white supremacist group, and might have ultimately began to commit fully to their cause.

I never found out exactly what it was that had hurt my friend so–something working in him a long time, that finally found purchase. In future years I'd come to recognize similar things scrabbling for footholds within myself. They were already there, of course, even then. Sometimes at night I heard them breathing.

[Toby · Rating 4 out of 5]

Working my way through this Lew Griffin series from James Sallis it has slowly become apparent that I am deeply effected by his work, on an emotional and spiritual and, almost certainly most important for existential noir, a gut level. The way Sallis discusses the meaning of life through the lens of his sometime PI, sometime author and at a consistently high level elevates him above just about everyone else I can think of who has written or is writing within the noir genre. First book aside, which functioned perfectly as its own contained universe, this is the high point of the series to date and sadly there is only one left for me to devour after it. A time jumping examination of fractured memory and contemplation of self and the mark you leave on the world; and in some ways I am left with the impression that perhaps this is a fever dream, that the events towards the end of The Eye of the Cricket have left Lew far more damaged than we were led to believe, this could even be alcohol based dementia or his death bed ramblings or from intensive care, such is the unreliable nature of the narration and the overlapping of details with previous cases. Just the same it's a powerful little novel that will forever cement Sallis a place in my personal literary canon.

[Karl · Rating 5 out of 5]

Time moves back and forth sometimes from paragraph to paragraph as the story's protagonist Lew Griffin (an African American writer, occasional PI and New Orleans college teacher) tries to make sense of his own personal history. We have in this, the fifth installment of the series, the story of the year that Griffin spent recovering from being shot when leaving a New Orleans bar with a white woman. He has lost a year of his life in recovery. Griffin also undertakes a parallel search for a missing writer who has been researching a group of white supremacists.

There is no one else in the mystery genre who writes as lyrically and with such a literary voice as Sallis does. His use of language is amazing as are his references to past writers creates it's own literary illusion.

These books are not really about the plot but the beauty of the story telling and are best when read in order.

First read in 1999 this is a re-read.

This copy is signed by the author.

[Lata · Rating 4 out of 5]

There are parallels between this book and an earlier Lew Griffin story, Black Hornet. Lew leaves a bar with a white woman, and he gets shot, and wakes up a year later. He embarks on an investigation, looming when appropriate, drinking, and trading witty and dry words with a gangster, Joe Walsh, and some white supremacists. We also see the wonderful Laverne, and how hers and Lew's relationship ends up where it does.
These episodes in Lew's life are fascinating; Laverne has him pegged right, and Lew's not yet in a place to hear it. Sallis hits all the right notes with this installment; I saw Lew do his loose-limbed walk as he walked his way through New Orleans, and his way of just taking people as they are, and his deep regard for those he cares for. The case had moments of violence and humour in good balance, along with terrific dialogue, as always. I'm actually a little sad that this is the penultimate book in a terrific series.

[Jeff · Rating 4 out of 5]

James Sallis writes mysteries that refuse to be constrained by the genre. He writes what Mystery News has referred to as existential mystery. I’d be hard-pressed to tell you what existential mystery is, except that, in this case, it is Lew Griffin, a black private investigator in pre-Katrina New Orleans, equally at home with Mozart as Blind Willie McTell, as quick to quote Chekhov (Anton, not Lieutenant) as Chandler, searching for the answers to a shooting that leaves him temporarily blinded and robs him of a year of his life. Bluebottle is a literate mystery, a study of racism and identity. It is a mystery that builds to a satisfying conclusion, even as it leaves an array of messy, unanswered questions.

[Tanuj Solanki · Rating 5 out of 5]

I believe it is Sallis's appreciation of Derek Raymond's novels that makes him employ the novel-within-a-novel trope in a way that bears more than a little resemblance to the English writer's first novel in the Factory Series, He Died With His Eyes Open.

[Stephen Terrell · Rating 5 out of 5]

The detective thriller as literature. A typical detective story is: crime, detective gets hired, bad guys beat up detective, detective solves crime and kills bad guys.

Bluebottle is not your typical detective story.

The story is disjointed in the way our lives are disjointed. It does not flow in smooth even fashion, but instead takes us on the trip that Detective Lew Griffin takes, from the opening scene as doctors try to save his life, to the reflective final scene.

If you like your hard-nosed detective to be able to quote poetry and reflect on our place in the universe, James Sallis is worth reading.

[Johnny · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don't know when it happened, but it's becoming quickly obvious that the Lew Griffin books are all one giant novel. It's not that they do not stand on their own, they do. But together, they create a stunning portrait of a man and his world.

As expected, BLUEBOTTLE is beautifully written with insight and humanity. If it's not already obvious, I'm a huge Sallis fan.

The most interesting aspect of this book is the variation-on-a-theme aspect and its relationship to his earlier Lew Griffin novel BLACK HORNET. But you'll have to read them both to discover that for yourself.

[Gregory Van Den Berg · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book is the fourth one in the Lew Griffin series. This is a fascinating series because it does not follow any specific genre. The stories are well written and will capture your attention. Lew Griffin has many hats. He is an author, "debt" collector, private investigator, and whatever he needs to do at the moment. The setting of the story is New Orleans. Mr. Sallis in his stories writes about the racial bias which still need exists in the South. The story is timely even though he wrote the book in 1999. He wrote the rising tide of white supremacy in our nation. What is ironic is the fact a man of color is investigating the cult of white supremacy. You must read this series. However, the stories are stand alone but build upon the previous stories. You will need to begin with the first book of the series. Enjoy.

[Andy Weston · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the fifth outing for Sallie’s black detective, Lew Griffin, but for me, a starting point for his adventures.
At the outset he is regaining consciousness, struggling to remember details of an incident in a bar where he was meeting a white female reporter, they embrace before leaving and there is then the sound of nearby gunfire, and her being the target. But he cannot recall who she was, or why they, or she, was targeted. It’s a year until he recovers and can investigate properly.

Sallis is usually light on plot, and much is left undetermined, but this is particularly so. His writing is good of course, and keeps me coming back, though I do tend to get that feeling similar to still being hungry after eating a rather well-presented meal.

[Theodore Kinni · Rating 4 out of 5]

Have a tough time keeping up with Sallis when he kicks the doors of perception down, but his Lew Griffin noirs are always amazing reads. This one, in which his hero is, as usual, in the wrong place at the wrong time and catches a bullet meant for someone else that leads to the mob and white supremacists, is no exception.

[Trisha · Rating 4 out of 5]

My first taste of Sallis, and Lew Griffin, and I can say what a delightful morsel it was! Dry humour, punchy characters, and a story line weaving all the little threads into a web that caught me good and proper!

I found so much to love - wit, eloquence, dialogue done well, and so many brilliant quotable quotes!

Thanks to the author - short but very rewarding read!

4⭐️

[Infamous Ginger · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked it overall. The detective story was OK. The cliche of the alcoholic detective who solves cases while his personal life is a mess was too much. It was a good beach read.

[Taju Noor · Rating 3 out of 5]

Slightly weaker than the others

[Tyler Collison · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved it, as I've loved each of Sallis' Lew Griffin books. Griffin is an educated black man with a ceaseless work ethic and blind care for all people. He takes on cases with no regard for his own life, but he'll gladly acknowledge the people he loves in the process: It's for this that these novels are so enjoyable.

These aren't the "mysteries" in which the protagonist is solely driven by whatever work falls into his lap; rather, Griffin is motivated by parallels he finds to his own life. (In this case, getting shot, as Bluebottle begins, is an outlier, but he picks up "side jobs" that hit him more subtly.) It's for this reason that his fondness for literature (many valuable allusions throughout) acts as a gift and a curse: it's a gift for all readers; a curse for his mind, as he always knows when to dig deeper, even if it may bring him personal harm.

So if you're looking for something hard-boiled, this isn't the place. It is, however, if you want a unique writing style and a conversational narrator who can talk you through his pages swiftly. You'll be through Bluebottle before you know it, and you'll want to read the next in the series immediately.

[Daniel Blok · Rating 4 out of 5]

Any mystery novel that already on page 1 celebrates the joys of doo wop songs, just has to be good. And this book is. I don’t now whether Bluebottle is representative of all of Sallis’ books, but to me it’s a nice introduction. An intelligent and well-written private eye novel with a – black – protagonist who has his problems with alcohol and women (what else is new? Well, what’s new is that Lew Griffin also quotes poetry, to name but one thing), set in New Orleans, with a plot that is not too messy but contains enough sidetracks to keep it interesting. Rather moody as well, with echoes of Raymond Chandler, Walter Mosely and James Crumley.

[Rogue Reader · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pete Dexter's Train sent me back to some other favorites - James Sallis' Lew Griffin series is one. Raw and smooth at the same time, Lew Griffin navigates the multicolored world of New Orleans with intelligence and hurt. I should read these in order to see the arc of his character and the maturation of this marvelous writer.

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

This story begins with Lew getting shot and then recovering for a year. Overall the plot was too disjointed and lacking purpose. Try reading any other Lew Griffin novel for a much better reading experience.

[Charles · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's hard to decide between this and Ghost of a Flea for my favorite Griffin novel. I thought this one was a somewhat better story while "Ghost" was the more emotionally powerful.

[Corey · Rating 5 out of 5]

A gritty, poetic, modern noir, and a great evocation of New Orleans (before the flood). I love Sallis' books.

[Lisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

A bit difficult to read but overall enjoyable. Plus, beggars (babysitters sifting through shelves of families) can't be choosers!

[BrianC75 · Rating 5 out of 5]

Literature with a crime twist!! Amazing writer with a wonderful control of dialogue. The prose crackles - requires pausing to reread and enjoy all over again.