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A Nasty Piece of Work
Former CIA agent Lemuel Gunn left the battlefield of Afghanistan for early retirement in the desert of New Mexico, where he works as a private investigator from the creature comforts, such as they are, of a mobile home.
Into his life comes Ornella Neppi, a thirty-something woman making a hash out of her uncle's bail bonds business. The source of her troubles, Emilio Gava, was arrested for buying cocaine. Ornella has reason to believe he is planning to jump bail. Unless she can find him, her uncle is going to be $125,000 out of pocket.
For $95-a-day plus expenses (not to mention the pleasure of her company), Gunn agrees to help Ornella track the wayward suspect down. Curiously, no photographs of Gava seem to exist. Once Gunn begins his manhunt, he starts to wonder whether Gava himself existed in the first place.
Robert Littell has been widely praised as one of the best espionage writers of our time. Now, he's turned his formidable skills toward crime fiction in A Nasty Piece of Work, a novel that Le Monde has already praised as "one of those page-turning detective tales that feels like an instant classic.… A Chandleresque noir novel, as delightful as it is suspenseful."
Into his life comes Ornella Neppi, a thirty-something woman making a hash out of her uncle's bail bonds business. The source of her troubles, Emilio Gava, was arrested for buying cocaine. Ornella has reason to believe he is planning to jump bail. Unless she can find him, her uncle is going to be $125,000 out of pocket.
For $95-a-day plus expenses (not to mention the pleasure of her company), Gunn agrees to help Ornella track the wayward suspect down. Curiously, no photographs of Gava seem to exist. Once Gunn begins his manhunt, he starts to wonder whether Gava himself existed in the first place.
Robert Littell has been widely praised as one of the best espionage writers of our time. Now, he's turned his formidable skills toward crime fiction in A Nasty Piece of Work, a novel that Le Monde has already praised as "one of those page-turning detective tales that feels like an instant classic.… A Chandleresque noir novel, as delightful as it is suspenseful."
272 pages, Hardcover
First published April 25, 2013
30 people are currently reading
891 people want to read
About the author
Robert Littell
45 books436 followersAn American author residing in France. He specializes in spy novels that often concern the CIA and the Soviet Union. He became a journalist and worked many years for Newsweek during the Cold War. He's also an amateur mountain climber and is the father of award-winning novelist Jonathan Littell.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 114 reviews
May 2, 2024
Podobało mi się. Fajny klimat, wartka akcja i chandlerowski sznyt bardzo mi pasowały. Zakończenie naciągane, ale za to bohaterowie, surowy język i poczucie humoru z naddatkiem rekompensują braki fabularne. Szkoda, że to zamknięta historia, a nie seria, w każdym razie zamierzam lepiej poznać się z twórczością Roberta Littella.
March 11, 2014
I suspect this noir detective novel will be more enjoyable to those who are not fans of Robert Littell's work. Littell's oeuvre consists of spy novels. Although uneven with a few not-so-good works, his good works are GREAT works (e.g., The Company, The Sisters, The Defection of A.J. Lewinter, The Once and Future Spy). I have two Problems with this departure of Littell from his normal genre. First, it is way too similar to his earlier book Walking Back the Cat. Second, Walking Back the Cat wasn't one of his best books. If you are a Littell fan (as I am), I'd say this one can be skipped. If you're not a Littell fan, you might like it. Standing entirely on its own, the book isn't too bad. It just isn't too Littell either.
December 21, 2019
Robert Littell is an enigma to me. He's written some good spy novels, some really good ones, a few mediocres, and one of my favorite books of all time (The Company). 'A Nasty Piece of Work' falls decidedly in the 'mediocre' category, with a thin plot, decent writing, and a fizzled-out conclusion.
The 'star' and 'nasty piece of work' is Lemuel Gunn, ex-CIA, ex-New Jersey cop, and current private detective working out of a trailer in a small town in New Mexico. He's visited by a young lady who claims to be employed by a bail bondsman, trying to find a guy who skipped bail and who will personally cost her $150K if she's unable to locate him. She's also very hot..... So, of course he takes the gig, finds the guy in relatively short order (well, he is a licensed private detective, after all) and, after a couple plot twists, things wrap up in an unexpected way.
Interestingly, Gunn's seemingly heavy duty background is rarely called upon throughout the book except for the occasional flashback to his days in Afghanistan. That was problematic for me, as I can't see why it's mentioned quite often but then not mined for its value. The characters were fairly interesting on the surface but not developed much at all and the dialogue between them just seemed a little off at times. In fact, the Gunn character appeared to come off as a bumpkin quite a lot, which to me was at odds with his background. So, in general not one of Littell's best but readable and thankfully short (although a longer effort might have resulted in better character development).
The 'star' and 'nasty piece of work' is Lemuel Gunn, ex-CIA, ex-New Jersey cop, and current private detective working out of a trailer in a small town in New Mexico. He's visited by a young lady who claims to be employed by a bail bondsman, trying to find a guy who skipped bail and who will personally cost her $150K if she's unable to locate him. She's also very hot..... So, of course he takes the gig, finds the guy in relatively short order (well, he is a licensed private detective, after all) and, after a couple plot twists, things wrap up in an unexpected way.
Interestingly, Gunn's seemingly heavy duty background is rarely called upon throughout the book except for the occasional flashback to his days in Afghanistan. That was problematic for me, as I can't see why it's mentioned quite often but then not mined for its value. The characters were fairly interesting on the surface but not developed much at all and the dialogue between them just seemed a little off at times. In fact, the Gunn character appeared to come off as a bumpkin quite a lot, which to me was at odds with his background. So, in general not one of Littell's best but readable and thankfully short (although a longer effort might have resulted in better character development).
December 13, 2013
Brief Summary:
A hot chick shows up on a PI's doorstep asking for help. She needs him to track down a bail jumper. Turns out the bail jumper was in the FBI's witness protection program and intentionally got caught buying coke so he could get out of the program and return to his life of crime. But the twist..wait for it..is that the chick was the bail jumper's lover and he beat her all the time. So when she and the PI find the bail jumper she impulsively kills him. The PI ends up using the dead body to trade for his adoptive daughter (who the bail jumper's family kidnapped) and then runs off with the chick. But because she's a murderer he decides he can't stay with her and tells her to haul off.
Review:
I heard about this book on NPR. The reviewer raved about it. I like crime fiction so I gave it a try. It's good that it was both an easy read and short. Otherwise I couldn't have finished. The plot was interesting but the dialogue was so terrible. The characters were way too quirky and annoying. It's almost like it was written as a satire of an old pulp fiction serial. But it wasn't. It's meant to be enjoyed at face value which I just couldn't do.
A hot chick shows up on a PI's doorstep asking for help. She needs him to track down a bail jumper. Turns out the bail jumper was in the FBI's witness protection program and intentionally got caught buying coke so he could get out of the program and return to his life of crime. But the twist..wait for it..is that the chick was the bail jumper's lover and he beat her all the time. So when she and the PI find the bail jumper she impulsively kills him. The PI ends up using the dead body to trade for his adoptive daughter (who the bail jumper's family kidnapped) and then runs off with the chick. But because she's a murderer he decides he can't stay with her and tells her to haul off.
Review:
I heard about this book on NPR. The reviewer raved about it. I like crime fiction so I gave it a try. It's good that it was both an easy read and short. Otherwise I couldn't have finished. The plot was interesting but the dialogue was so terrible. The characters were way too quirky and annoying. It's almost like it was written as a satire of an old pulp fiction serial. But it wasn't. It's meant to be enjoyed at face value which I just couldn't do.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 20, 2019
I don't have much to say about this book. It was an easy, quick read about a private eye who falls for his client while trying to solve her case. It was pretty good until the last quarter of the book, at which point I thought it became, er, unlikely. The book was fine. But there are at least 1,000 books you should read before this one.
December 20, 2013
A definite disappointment. A highly acclaimed author of spy thrillers, with a special affinity for the workings of the CIA, comes up with a formulaic, first-person, P.I. crime novel (with a loose, even forced CIA connection). At times I wondered if this was supposed to be a parody, but I couldn’t find any wit or humor to convince me. So, we have a typical, tough-but-tender, middle-aged bachelor (but not a drunk), who went from New Jersey Homicide detective to overseas CIA operative (an everyday career path, eh?), but was drummed out due to his high moral standards involving the cover-up of atrocities by an all-evil US Army squadron in Afghanistan, who is now a lowly P.I. living in a mobile home in the outskirts of Las Cruces, NM (but who can still get the younger women), and...
(SPOILER ALERT).....
takes on both sides of a Mafia dispute and comes out on top.
Added bonuses: just in case you weren’t sure he was a good guy, he has an adopted Afghan daughter whom he rescued from the evil American forces. And there are enough metaphors to fill several books, often applied judgmentally to everyone he comes across. And the good cops c. 2010 don’t use (or understand, or apparently need?) computers, cell phones, etc. And did our narrator remind you more than once that he’s really a man for the past century? Gag me with another cliche....
Actually, the plot could have been right at home in an Elmore Leonard novel, but the writing would have been way different.
(SPOILER ALERT).....
takes on both sides of a Mafia dispute and comes out on top.
Added bonuses: just in case you weren’t sure he was a good guy, he has an adopted Afghan daughter whom he rescued from the evil American forces. And there are enough metaphors to fill several books, often applied judgmentally to everyone he comes across. And the good cops c. 2010 don’t use (or understand, or apparently need?) computers, cell phones, etc. And did our narrator remind you more than once that he’s really a man for the past century? Gag me with another cliche....
Actually, the plot could have been right at home in an Elmore Leonard novel, but the writing would have been way different.
June 3, 2021
Robert Litell hatte immer wieder mal Romane, die am Ende nicht ganz den Verheißungen der Gipfelmomente gerecht wurden, trotzdem aber jedes mal den Leseaufwand rechtfertigten. Das gilt leider nicht für diesen späten Aufguss von hard-boiled-Klischees, die ziemlich schlampig mit ein ein paar Accessoires aus dem 21. Jahrhundert aufgepeppt wurden, die einem allenfalls durchschnittlichen Schnüfflerroman, der allenfalls noch in den 80ern irgendwie funktioniert hätte, jegliche Glaubwürdigkeit raubte. Sobald der Hauptheld auf seine Afghanisaten-Erfahrungen als CIA-AGent von 2001ff verwies, verlor der Roman jeglichen Kredit bei mir.
Ermittlungen samt vordringen zu einem xfach abgeschirmten Staranwalt mit nichts als einer Visitenkarte, das geht nicht mehr im Zeitalter von Internet und Smartphones. Ein Zeugenschützer, der noch das Telefonbuch benutzt, um sich die Nummern von potenziellen undichten Stellen herauszusuchen, der Wechsel von IBM-Elektrik auf PC als Maßnahme in einem Polizeibüro im Jahr 2010 oder so, also wirklich....
Wen dergleichen Unstimmigkeiten nicht stören, der kann sich vielleicht an einem Rache-Porno mit Elmore-Leonard-Touch aufgeilen, das letzte Drittel erfüllt irgendwie diesen Tatbestand, allerdings ist Erzähler Lemuel Gunn ein Schmusebär und seine jüngste Flamme kommt nur bei Prügeln auf Touren, leider versagt der Altmeister auch bei der Gestaltung dieses Missverständnisses, da kann sich die Dame noch so nächtelang barbusig auf dem Beifahrersitz räkeln, während das Paar möglichst viel Meilen zwischen sich und das von beiden angezettelte Mafia-Massaker bringt. Ich weiß nicht, wer den alten Mann dazu gedrängt hat, diese erotische Phantasie zu veröffentlichen oder mit ein wenig frischer Technik aufzupeppen, ich glaube nicht, dass sich dieses Buch für irgend jemand ausgezahlt hat.
Ermittlungen samt vordringen zu einem xfach abgeschirmten Staranwalt mit nichts als einer Visitenkarte, das geht nicht mehr im Zeitalter von Internet und Smartphones. Ein Zeugenschützer, der noch das Telefonbuch benutzt, um sich die Nummern von potenziellen undichten Stellen herauszusuchen, der Wechsel von IBM-Elektrik auf PC als Maßnahme in einem Polizeibüro im Jahr 2010 oder so, also wirklich....
Wen dergleichen Unstimmigkeiten nicht stören, der kann sich vielleicht an einem Rache-Porno mit Elmore-Leonard-Touch aufgeilen, das letzte Drittel erfüllt irgendwie diesen Tatbestand, allerdings ist Erzähler Lemuel Gunn ein Schmusebär und seine jüngste Flamme kommt nur bei Prügeln auf Touren, leider versagt der Altmeister auch bei der Gestaltung dieses Missverständnisses, da kann sich die Dame noch so nächtelang barbusig auf dem Beifahrersitz räkeln, während das Paar möglichst viel Meilen zwischen sich und das von beiden angezettelte Mafia-Massaker bringt. Ich weiß nicht, wer den alten Mann dazu gedrängt hat, diese erotische Phantasie zu veröffentlichen oder mit ein wenig frischer Technik aufzupeppen, ich glaube nicht, dass sich dieses Buch für irgend jemand ausgezahlt hat.
November 20, 2013
Nominated for L’Express Magazine’s Readers’ Grand Prix, and the Grand Prix of Detective Fiction, A Nasty Piece of Work by Robert Littell is a pleasure to read as Littell switch from his usual spy themed story into the realm of crime fiction. What is most exciting about Littell is his mastery of the subtle art of storytelling
In this page-turning, delightful and suspenseful new detective novel by the master of espionage, we are introduced to a retired CIA Agent, Lemuel Gunn, a tough guy who was once tasked with defusing bombs in Afghanistan and lived to tell his tale. Putting his past life behind him, Lemuel lives and works out of his mobile home, moving from one desert to another, working as a wise-cracking private detective. And then he meets this beautiful bare-footed woman…
Ornella Neppi is no ordinary woman. Her reckless and irresponsible decisions are tearing apart the bail bonds business owned by her uncle. When Emilio Gava was sent to jail for buying drugs in large quantities, Ornella gives presented the surety and Gava was released on bail. But when Gava jumped bail, it is up to Ornella to either track him down or pay the bail off. But she is incapable of either one on her own. She approaches Lemuel who takes the job, and begins the search for the absconding criminal.
The task is easier said than done. Gava seems to have vanished into thin air. Faceless, there is no photograph. Unknown, no one seems to know him. It’s a strange case, no leads and no nothing. Lemuel finds himself in a hole where he’s never been before. Is strikingly beautiful but manipulative Ornella telling him everything he needs to know about Emilio Gava? Or is Gava a much bigger fish than he has been made out to be? What appears to be an ordinary case of a man jumping bail turns out to be nothing of the ordinary kind. Lemuel finds himself stranded in the middle of nowhere, and must retrace his steps if he is to bring the case to its conclusive end.
A Nasty Piece of Work is an irresistible piece of work by Robert Littell proving that he is as much a master of crime fiction as he is of espionage. The vivacious characters supporting the main cast are wonderfully conceived. The story is mishmash of organized crime, kidnapping, romance, suspense, and murder. It is superbly paced and wonderfully written. It is a book to be read in one sitting.
In this page-turning, delightful and suspenseful new detective novel by the master of espionage, we are introduced to a retired CIA Agent, Lemuel Gunn, a tough guy who was once tasked with defusing bombs in Afghanistan and lived to tell his tale. Putting his past life behind him, Lemuel lives and works out of his mobile home, moving from one desert to another, working as a wise-cracking private detective. And then he meets this beautiful bare-footed woman…
Ornella Neppi is no ordinary woman. Her reckless and irresponsible decisions are tearing apart the bail bonds business owned by her uncle. When Emilio Gava was sent to jail for buying drugs in large quantities, Ornella gives presented the surety and Gava was released on bail. But when Gava jumped bail, it is up to Ornella to either track him down or pay the bail off. But she is incapable of either one on her own. She approaches Lemuel who takes the job, and begins the search for the absconding criminal.
The task is easier said than done. Gava seems to have vanished into thin air. Faceless, there is no photograph. Unknown, no one seems to know him. It’s a strange case, no leads and no nothing. Lemuel finds himself in a hole where he’s never been before. Is strikingly beautiful but manipulative Ornella telling him everything he needs to know about Emilio Gava? Or is Gava a much bigger fish than he has been made out to be? What appears to be an ordinary case of a man jumping bail turns out to be nothing of the ordinary kind. Lemuel finds himself stranded in the middle of nowhere, and must retrace his steps if he is to bring the case to its conclusive end.
A Nasty Piece of Work is an irresistible piece of work by Robert Littell proving that he is as much a master of crime fiction as he is of espionage. The vivacious characters supporting the main cast are wonderfully conceived. The story is mishmash of organized crime, kidnapping, romance, suspense, and murder. It is superbly paced and wonderfully written. It is a book to be read in one sitting.
February 3, 2020
3 1/2 stars.
November 7, 2024
DND at over halfway through the book. The main character is a misogynistic asshole with basically no redeeming qualities. Nope.
February 21, 2021
This was a mostly fun but uneven read. A few false notes in dialog (e.g., when the bartender is describing what he remembers the night of the drug bust and when Ornella is telling Gunn what she's heard about him--the details in those speech bubbles just didn't sound in any way natural and more a vehicle to bring the reader up to speed and fill in backstory) are offset by sentences that are written so well I found myself immediately rereading them just to savor them or laugh. A good example of the latter is the first sentence of chapter nine: "If the original Garden of Eden was anything like East of Eden Gardens in Las Cruces, old Adam and his overcurious ribmate, Eve, were lucky to get evicted." Ha. I found myself getting a little distracted throughout by trying to determine the year in which this tale was set. At one point Gunn seems amused by a new word he's never encountered--"Googled" as a verb--so that helps. He doesn't own or know how to use a cellphone, so that helps. His police officer friend is still using a typewriter and lamenting the imminent move to a new police station that will instead have newfangled word processors, so that helps. Payphones were still pretty ubiquitous by the mid-1990s, but their presence sharply declined not long after that, so that helps (because at one point Gunn is noting the dilapidated state of any payphone in view). Given that detail and the fact that "Googled" was added to the dictionary in the early 2000s, I ended up guessing the setting was mid- to late-'90s, but who knows? In the end, I'd definitely read another Lemuel Gunn adventure.
First lines:
"Some things you get right the first time. With me it was cutting fuses to booby-trap Kalashnikovs being shipped to footloose Islamic warriors looking for a convenient jihad."
First lines:
"Some things you get right the first time. With me it was cutting fuses to booby-trap Kalashnikovs being shipped to footloose Islamic warriors looking for a convenient jihad."
June 15, 2014
Lemuel Gunn, now a private detective in New Mexico, once was a CIA agent in Afghanistan before being unceremoniously sent home and cashiered out of the service, and, before that, a policeman in New Jersey. While he holds a PI license, he basically whiles his time away in a gigantic trailer built for Douglas Fairbanks Jr. while he was making a movie.
That is, until one day he is approached by Ornella Neppi, a beautiful but tarnished bail bondswoman who put up $150,000 to spring one Emilio Gava after he was arrested on a cocaine charge. Her problem (and she has lots of them) is that Gava has skipped town and she is in danger of losing the funds if he doesn’t show up in court. She asks Gunn to find Gava, and he undertakes the task. And what an adventure it becomes.
The author, known for his spy thrillers, has proved he can write a detective novel with the best of them, with excellent characters, unexpected plot turns, and interesting human emotions. The plot keeps moving forward at a steady pace, and even the description of a My Lai-type massacre in the present-day Asian action is startling.
Recommended.
September 26, 2018
The main character in this book is a sort of cross between Jack Reacher and Phillip Marlow (and there was actually a pleasing reference to Raymond Chandler’s creation towards the end of the book) and I enjoyed the sort of hard-boiled, fast-talking detective which I recognise more from film noir than other books if I’m honest. Brilliantly written at times with intelligent prose I was however disappointed with the plot and almost lost interest about two thirds of the way through. There was an unexpected twist at the end but I got the impression this was put in hurriedly more because it seemed a good idea to have some sort of twist than for any other reason and it didn’t seem to work well for me. Overall therefore I thought this particular story was a bit of a disappointment but I will certainly look for other books by the same author, perhaps with different characters simply because of the clever and imaginative writing style.
August 12, 2016
Robert Littell has written sophisticated spy novels, including The Amateur. It would be glib to say A Nasty Piece of Work lives up to its title. It is a workmanlike, formula, gumshoe-detective novel. The protagonist is a worn-out, burned-out, world-weary intelligence operative. He's retired to the desert. He gets dragged into a case, and a buddied-up search, by a beautiful, young dame. The bad guys are unscrupulous and vicious, with Mob ties, embedded in the gambling racket. The ending dishes out great gobs of graphic violence, justified Charles-Bronson style because the guy by now has permission to give back as good as he and his client have gotten. If you like pulp fiction and want a new idea that's stood the test of time, go for it. Granted, authors of spy thrillers have had to rethink their mission since the Cold War, but this, in my opinion, was a wrong turn for Mr. Littell.
December 10, 2013
Lemuel Gunn, former soldier, homicide cop and CIA asset, works as a private eye in the southwest. He is approached by a bail bondsman (woman,actually) who is soon due to be out 175,000K unless the bail-jumper (who ratted himself out to the cops) is found. Gunn goes after the jumper. He gets involved with the client (almost inevitably). And then everyone's real motives get unearthed. There's a couple of good surprises toward the end, the local color is good, and the main characters are interesting enough to spend a couple of hours with. Having scruples (as he did before the CIA fired him), Gunn may not make a fortune as a p.i., though he is tough and smart.
February 4, 2014
Looking for a few hours of escape, picked this up at the library. Got through it, but only just. Unbelievable plot, wooden characters, dialogue loaded with howlers. I assume some of the tossed-off plot points (Afghanistan, adopted orphan) must relate to earlier books. Littell is supposedly a pretty well-regarded thriller writer, but this must have been dashed off when he had a boat payment due.
September 25, 2017
Honestly hard to get through...I felt like the heart of the story could have really been told in 5o pages. The author seemed to be using filler words and details to develop a certain personality of the main character, but never really got there
August 5, 2019
Not a fan of this one.
I do not particularly enjoy noir novels in general, and even less when they are full of groan inducing one-liners.
But there are points when the author's talent really peeks through, and I would consider reading something else from him in a different genre.
I do not particularly enjoy noir novels in general, and even less when they are full of groan inducing one-liners.
But there are points when the author's talent really peeks through, and I would consider reading something else from him in a different genre.
February 14, 2021
Complex storyline and tbh just boring
July 24, 2025
I got this one at the library book sale, and as promised on the book jacket, it is an old fashioned crime noir novel in the vein of Raymond Chandler. It is a novel of a complicated, world weary private detective that gets hired by a young woman to track someone down. He is somewhere in his mid forties, she is in her mid to late twenties. It is set in New Mexico, and spends all it's time in the southwest, travelling to Arizona, the border of California, and spending a lot of time in the dessert.
As the novel progresses, it becomes a strange mix of anachronisms, which I found distracting. It is not set in the 1950s, like many of the crime noir novels. I found myself looking at when this was published - 2013. There are weird cultural references to the 1980s - a brief reference to President Ronald Reagan, and campaign posters for Senator McCain. However, the detective spent time in Afghanistan in his past, a much more modern theater of war. The Detective charges $95 a day plus expenses, and is predictably down on his luck. This continues throughout the novel, always catching me and distracting me. My reaction - that doesn't make sense. He is a luddite and does not have a cell phone, but the woman does. He uses telephone booths, but laments that they are harder and harder to find. He does not know what Google is, and does not have a computer. The criminal family he is investigating has computers, and Googles him, and gets kind of classified information on Gunn quite easily, which seems unlikely.
The plot is fine, it is similar to the novels I have read that are in the crime noir genre. Some reviewers were pretty hard on this one, giving 2 stars, and picking at the pace and ending. I was fine with most of that, it was a quick summer read, and I enjoyed the basic plot. I found the detective, Lemuel Gunn, to be somewhat typical of the type, but more human somehow. He is complicated, and a loner, but more of a thinker, and less sarcastic and hard-boiled. It is said in the novel that he was born in the wrong century, and that may be true, but I found the constant sprinkling of culture hard to follow, and found myself questioning when he WAS born, and where he got his old fashioned, but somewhat charming ideals from.
From other reviews I found out that this is not the author's usual genre, that he is very good with spy novels. I may have to read one of those...
As the novel progresses, it becomes a strange mix of anachronisms, which I found distracting. It is not set in the 1950s, like many of the crime noir novels. I found myself looking at when this was published - 2013. There are weird cultural references to the 1980s - a brief reference to President Ronald Reagan, and campaign posters for Senator McCain. However, the detective spent time in Afghanistan in his past, a much more modern theater of war. The Detective charges $95 a day plus expenses, and is predictably down on his luck. This continues throughout the novel, always catching me and distracting me. My reaction - that doesn't make sense. He is a luddite and does not have a cell phone, but the woman does. He uses telephone booths, but laments that they are harder and harder to find. He does not know what Google is, and does not have a computer. The criminal family he is investigating has computers, and Googles him, and gets kind of classified information on Gunn quite easily, which seems unlikely.
The plot is fine, it is similar to the novels I have read that are in the crime noir genre. Some reviewers were pretty hard on this one, giving 2 stars, and picking at the pace and ending. I was fine with most of that, it was a quick summer read, and I enjoyed the basic plot. I found the detective, Lemuel Gunn, to be somewhat typical of the type, but more human somehow. He is complicated, and a loner, but more of a thinker, and less sarcastic and hard-boiled. It is said in the novel that he was born in the wrong century, and that may be true, but I found the constant sprinkling of culture hard to follow, and found myself questioning when he WAS born, and where he got his old fashioned, but somewhat charming ideals from.
From other reviews I found out that this is not the author's usual genre, that he is very good with spy novels. I may have to read one of those...
February 19, 2023
The plot was good enough, but this one fell short on several levels, reading like a journeyman’s immitation of a John D. MacDonald novel. I didn’t like the strained smart-guy dialog, the wisecracks that fell flat or the banter between main character Lemuel Gunn and his girl Friday, aka Ornella Neppi. Much of the humor and wit just wasn’t that funny, though it might appeal to an older generation. Neither Gunn nor Neppi came off as fully-formed characters worth caring about until the very end.
I didn’t feel like the book lived up to the high praise on the back cover. Littell is generally known for his spy novels, and perhaps those are, as Alan Cheuse remarks, the work of a gifted creator of intelligent entertainment. But this book, a step outside his genre of choice, is not the “instant classic” another reviewer proclaims. Problems with characters, dialog, and logic often detracted from an otherwise strong plot.
Though the story takes place in New Mexico, Arizona, and Nevada, many of the characters talk like they’re from New Jersey–even the Mexicans. Another nagging problem was characters divulging information too readily. Would a top-flight criminal defense lawyer really tell someone he’d just met that his client was a Mafia turncoat in the witness protection program? Would a young woman tell a detective she’d known for all of five minutes that she was passing secret messages between a Mafia boss and a thug in hiding–and then divulge the contents of those messages?
Finally, the reader does not need a detailed report from the main character every time his girlfriend’s nipples show through her blouse, or when her supple thigh emerges from the slit of her skirt, neither of which should be happening during the climactic confrontation with the villain. For God’s sake, that’s not what the protagonist should be looking at when he’s about to get his brains blown out.
The ending is quite strong, and the plot is suspenseful enough to keep you engaged, despite the problems listed above. When Gunn and Neppi finally emerge as full-fledged characters in the final chapters, you can’t help but wish they’d had that depth and color all along.
I didn’t feel like the book lived up to the high praise on the back cover. Littell is generally known for his spy novels, and perhaps those are, as Alan Cheuse remarks, the work of a gifted creator of intelligent entertainment. But this book, a step outside his genre of choice, is not the “instant classic” another reviewer proclaims. Problems with characters, dialog, and logic often detracted from an otherwise strong plot.
Though the story takes place in New Mexico, Arizona, and Nevada, many of the characters talk like they’re from New Jersey–even the Mexicans. Another nagging problem was characters divulging information too readily. Would a top-flight criminal defense lawyer really tell someone he’d just met that his client was a Mafia turncoat in the witness protection program? Would a young woman tell a detective she’d known for all of five minutes that she was passing secret messages between a Mafia boss and a thug in hiding–and then divulge the contents of those messages?
Finally, the reader does not need a detailed report from the main character every time his girlfriend’s nipples show through her blouse, or when her supple thigh emerges from the slit of her skirt, neither of which should be happening during the climactic confrontation with the villain. For God’s sake, that’s not what the protagonist should be looking at when he’s about to get his brains blown out.
The ending is quite strong, and the plot is suspenseful enough to keep you engaged, despite the problems listed above. When Gunn and Neppi finally emerge as full-fledged characters in the final chapters, you can’t help but wish they’d had that depth and color all along.
February 13, 2018
A nasty piece of work was just okay, kind of a forgettable thriller that adds nothing new, their one moment where you think the story is over, but there's a final twist, that I liked, I thought there was a lot more to the characters I just never really grew attached to them.
The Plot: Lemuel Gunn is a cheap private eye that works out of mobil home that used to be a stars movie trailer, and has a case dropped in on him by Ornella Neppi a bail bondswoman whose looking for Emilio Gava who has vanished off the planet with all the proof of his existence before his trial date. Gunn starts investigating and draws the attention of the two mob families and the FBI.
What I liked: The repeating jokes through out about the name "Gunn" and how it is spelled, the twist on twist at the end.
What I didn't like: The characters are all kind of boring, The Afghanistan story felt out of place where it was told and didn't have that much relevance to the story over all, over than how Gunn feels about torture even if it is a guilty man.
I would recommend this to older readers who want a cool plot twist but with little other value. An okay, solid read.
The Plot: Lemuel Gunn is a cheap private eye that works out of mobil home that used to be a stars movie trailer, and has a case dropped in on him by Ornella Neppi a bail bondswoman whose looking for Emilio Gava who has vanished off the planet with all the proof of his existence before his trial date. Gunn starts investigating and draws the attention of the two mob families and the FBI.
What I liked: The repeating jokes through out about the name "Gunn" and how it is spelled, the twist on twist at the end.
What I didn't like: The characters are all kind of boring, The Afghanistan story felt out of place where it was told and didn't have that much relevance to the story over all, over than how Gunn feels about torture even if it is a guilty man.
I would recommend this to older readers who want a cool plot twist but with little other value. An okay, solid read.
December 13, 2019
Not a bad book, but some errors that shouldn't have occurred which are disconcerting. He refers to Witness Protection program with an FBI agent in charge of Western US. Witness Protection is a function of the US Marshall's Service, not FBI.
He mentions several times that Lemuel Gunn does not know what Google is and does not know much about computers or the internet at all. However, Gunn was a police sergeant and then joined CIA for several years, to include long service in Iraq or Afghanistan. At one point he was in charge of watching monitors that showed what was happening outside the compound in multiple locations. He would have to know a lot about computers, the internet, Google, etc.
He mentions several times that Lemuel Gunn does not know what Google is and does not know much about computers or the internet at all. However, Gunn was a police sergeant and then joined CIA for several years, to include long service in Iraq or Afghanistan. At one point he was in charge of watching monitors that showed what was happening outside the compound in multiple locations. He would have to know a lot about computers, the internet, Google, etc.
October 13, 2019
Former CIA agent Lemual Gunn has been drummed out of the agency, and is working as a private detective in the southwest when he's hired by a beautiful young woman. She's running her father's bail bond operation, and someone she's bonded has skipped out on $125,000; if she can't find him, she'll be out the money. Gunn, with her along, goes in search of the perp, and it leads to witness protection program and a small town on the California/Nevada border, run by two competing mob families. Good characterization and sense of time and place, a good ending.
August 29, 2017
An interesting thriller, taking place mostly in New Mexico, with some action in Nevada. Gunn, the protagonist, is an ex-cop, ex-CIA operative who runs a one-man detective agency from a mobile home in Hatch, New Mexico. Gunn is called on by a bail bondswoman to chase down a mob-connected bail jumper, and runs into a variety of law enforcement, mob players and others on his quest. Enough humor to keep it light, but enough action and intrigue to keep it interesting.
April 8, 2018
An entertaining read. I thought it was a bit silly at first, but it had a good pace and the ending was strong as well as much different from what I expected. It's not one of my favorite books ever, but I'm glad I read it. If you're looking for entertainment with some deep underlying life meaning (if you pay attention), then I recommend it.
January 23, 2019
What should be a fun quick read is weighted down by exhausting writing. Everyone speaks in way too colorful declarative sentences and even the description is essentially like reading a cross between the Maltese Falcon and Gilmore Girls (and while that could be good, it’s not.) I finished it in part because the plot hums along nice, but doing so wasn’t a certain thing.
April 5, 2022
It is possible that many readers, particularly men, would like this book but it did not work for me. The story was thin yet contrived as well as stereotypical although, to be fair, there were odd flashes of wit sprinkled lightly through the pages - just not enough to make a difference - so I skipped to the last 5 pages and called it a day as there are a thousand plus books on my to read list.
August 9, 2022
Couldn't get past the first third of the book. Writing style, character dialogue, and plot line were wanting. I gave the book a chance because of Robert Little reputation but this book didn't live up to his prior works.
July 12, 2024
Ho letto alcuni recensori che lamentavano un calo dell'autore, noto per le spy stories, in questo noir giallo. Personalmente non lo avevo mai letto prima e l'ho apprezzato, anche se i personaggi non mi hanno convinto molto.
Buona la versione audiolibro.
Buona la versione audiolibro.
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