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Junior Bender #4
Herbie's Game
Junior Bender, the clown prince of crime fiction, returns in his most hardboiled adventure yet—a tale that will take Junior Bender deep into a murderous conspiracy in present day Los Angeles and uncover an increasingly confusing legacy of his burglar-mentor, Herbie Mott, who until very recently was always one-step-ahead of just about everybody.
It’s everyday business when Wattles, the San Fernando Valley’s top “executive crook,” sets up a hit. He establishes a chain of criminals to pass along the instructions and the money, ensuring that the hitter doesn’t know who hired him. But one day Wattles finds his office safe open and a single item the piece of paper on which he has written the names of the crooks in the chain. When people associated with the chain begin to pop up dead, the only person Wattles can approach to solve his problem is Junior Bender, professional burglar and begrudging private eye for crooks.
But Junior already knows exactly who took Wattles’s the signature is too obvious. It was Herbie Mott, Junior’s burglar mentor—and when Junior seeks him out to discuss the missing list, he finds Herbie very unpleasantly murdered. Junior follows the links in the chain back toward the killer, and as he does, he learns disturbing secrets from Herbie’s hidden past.
It’s everyday business when Wattles, the San Fernando Valley’s top “executive crook,” sets up a hit. He establishes a chain of criminals to pass along the instructions and the money, ensuring that the hitter doesn’t know who hired him. But one day Wattles finds his office safe open and a single item the piece of paper on which he has written the names of the crooks in the chain. When people associated with the chain begin to pop up dead, the only person Wattles can approach to solve his problem is Junior Bender, professional burglar and begrudging private eye for crooks.
But Junior already knows exactly who took Wattles’s the signature is too obvious. It was Herbie Mott, Junior’s burglar mentor—and when Junior seeks him out to discuss the missing list, he finds Herbie very unpleasantly murdered. Junior follows the links in the chain back toward the killer, and as he does, he learns disturbing secrets from Herbie’s hidden past.
400 pages, Hardcover
First published July 15, 2014
About the author
Timothy Hallinan
50 books456 followersI'm a thriller and mystery novelist with 22 published books in three series, all with major imprints. I divides my time between Los Angeles and Southeast Asia, primarily Thailand, where I've lived off and on for more than twenty years. As of now, My primary home is in Santa Monica, California.
I currently write two series, The Poke Rafferty Bangkok Thrillers, most recently FOOLS' RIVER, and the Junior Bender Mysteries, set in Los Angeles, Coming up this November is NIGHTTOWN. The main character of those books is a burglar who works as a private eye for crooks.
The first series I ever wrote featured an overeducated private eye named Simeon Grist. in 2017 I wrote PULPED, the first book in the series to be self-published, which was actually a lot of fun. I might do more of it.
I've been nominated for the Edgar, the Macavity, the Shamus, and the Left, and won the Lefty in 2015 (?) for the Junior Bender book HERBIE'S GAME. My work has frequently been included in Best Books of the Year roundups by major publications.
I currently write two series, The Poke Rafferty Bangkok Thrillers, most recently FOOLS' RIVER, and the Junior Bender Mysteries, set in Los Angeles, Coming up this November is NIGHTTOWN. The main character of those books is a burglar who works as a private eye for crooks.
The first series I ever wrote featured an overeducated private eye named Simeon Grist. in 2017 I wrote PULPED, the first book in the series to be self-published, which was actually a lot of fun. I might do more of it.
I've been nominated for the Edgar, the Macavity, the Shamus, and the Left, and won the Lefty in 2015 (?) for the Junior Bender book HERBIE'S GAME. My work has frequently been included in Best Books of the Year roundups by major publications.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 143 reviews
July 2, 2014
Junior Bender is a burglar. That’s a fact. What keeps it from being a hard, cold fact is Bender’s heart. Bender has a set of codes by which he lives and a set of rules given him by his mentor, Herbie, by which he works. One of those rules “was to delay as long as possible the moment the mark realizes his stuff has been boosted.” That means not taking everything, nor making a mess. Another rule is not to take anything the mark can’t live without.
When Bender finds himself holding a matching set of brooches that prove to be irreplaceable, their pricelessness makes him less pleased than uneasy. And Herbie his mentor is dead--not just dead, but tortured. Bender wants to know why, and who was responsible.
Los Angeles is central to the action in this series, and Hallinan goes right for the nub of a characterization, be it cities or people. When entering a house, for instance, he might toss off a comment about the front lawn looking recently replaced:
Hallinan has a real knack for and sensitivity in portraying girls and women as whole beings. In this novel he has two new fourteen-year-old computer savants who already have a productive history of online theft from various state coffers. Bender recruits them to assist him in his search for Herbie’s killer, though he has twinges of conscience about it. One senses his deep compassion…for himself, but also for the girls. When one of them throws her popsicle stick out the window of his moving vehicle, he has to talk himself out of stopping to pick it up. He imagines becoming their mentor, now that his own has passed. It’s actually kind of frightening, though of all the mentors these girls could possibly meet, Junior Bender might be considered the finest still breathing.
Hallinan has an instinctive ability to dots his i’s and cross his t’s (important in mystery and thriller-writing) and still move the action along in character-revealing scenes. His creation of the lovely Ting Ting, a slim-waisted martial arts bisexual that captures the hearts of bruisers and wasters, is not just an aside to the action…I argue it is the action. These characters have their basis in life, though perhaps not in lives we often encounter. Either Hallinan runs into folks like these on a regular basis, or they are all running around his head...pretty wild, even for southern California.
In his Afterword, Hallinan admits that he “had to kill off a few” characters he’d created earlier in the series because they were cluttering up the scenery, such that readers wanted them in every installment. Imagine creating such rich characterizations that we feel peripheral characters are neglected when we don’t see them.
Hallinan has a fluency born of long and deep reading, and constant writing. His other series featuring Poke Rafferty are set in Thailand, which is where I first discovered his unerring eye for what I call “the tell”: uncovering the (sometimes laughable, sometimes painful) characteristic of a place or a person that may define it, and that we recognize in our heart-of-hearts as true. My use of heart-of-hearts is not cliché. Hallinan has more “heart” than any other thriller/mystery writer I know. He and his characters seem to actively practice the Zen Buddhist (?) No Asshole Rule. And characters call each other on transgressions.
Reading Hallinan is just fun and because of that, it reminds me of the Don Winslow mystery series about surfing. I mean, really, can crime be more fun than hanging out with these guys? Junior Bender is such a softie, we don’t like to think of him actually killing people, though he does in this one. He carries a gun after all. It’s not just for show.
I received an advance copy of this title through Netgalley from Soho Publishers in exchange for an honest review.
When Bender finds himself holding a matching set of brooches that prove to be irreplaceable, their pricelessness makes him less pleased than uneasy. And Herbie his mentor is dead--not just dead, but tortured. Bender wants to know why, and who was responsible.
Los Angeles is central to the action in this series, and Hallinan goes right for the nub of a characterization, be it cities or people. When entering a house, for instance, he might toss off a comment about the front lawn looking recently replaced:
“Judging from the eye-ringing emerald hue of the lawn, the grass had never endured a dry minute since it was planted, about forty-five minutes ago. There are two schools of thought associated with good lawns: the British approach, which says you simply plant it and roll it for several centuries, and the Los Angeles nouveau-riche view, which says you just put in a new one whenever the old one gets a little ratty.”And this:
’I went into the kitchen and filled a very nice Baccarat glass with ice water and carried it into the big living room, with its art deco windows that faced east toward downtown. The window framed only a fragment of the usual view, since the top floors of our relatively small collection of skyscrapers disappeared abruptly into a line of yellow-brown smog as hard and sharp as the stripe on a shirt.”
Hallinan has a real knack for and sensitivity in portraying girls and women as whole beings. In this novel he has two new fourteen-year-old computer savants who already have a productive history of online theft from various state coffers. Bender recruits them to assist him in his search for Herbie’s killer, though he has twinges of conscience about it. One senses his deep compassion…for himself, but also for the girls. When one of them throws her popsicle stick out the window of his moving vehicle, he has to talk himself out of stopping to pick it up. He imagines becoming their mentor, now that his own has passed. It’s actually kind of frightening, though of all the mentors these girls could possibly meet, Junior Bender might be considered the finest still breathing.
Hallinan has an instinctive ability to dots his i’s and cross his t’s (important in mystery and thriller-writing) and still move the action along in character-revealing scenes. His creation of the lovely Ting Ting, a slim-waisted martial arts bisexual that captures the hearts of bruisers and wasters, is not just an aside to the action…I argue it is the action. These characters have their basis in life, though perhaps not in lives we often encounter. Either Hallinan runs into folks like these on a regular basis, or they are all running around his head...pretty wild, even for southern California.
In his Afterword, Hallinan admits that he “had to kill off a few” characters he’d created earlier in the series because they were cluttering up the scenery, such that readers wanted them in every installment. Imagine creating such rich characterizations that we feel peripheral characters are neglected when we don’t see them.
Hallinan has a fluency born of long and deep reading, and constant writing. His other series featuring Poke Rafferty are set in Thailand, which is where I first discovered his unerring eye for what I call “the tell”: uncovering the (sometimes laughable, sometimes painful) characteristic of a place or a person that may define it, and that we recognize in our heart-of-hearts as true. My use of heart-of-hearts is not cliché. Hallinan has more “heart” than any other thriller/mystery writer I know. He and his characters seem to actively practice the Zen Buddhist (?) No Asshole Rule. And characters call each other on transgressions.
Reading Hallinan is just fun and because of that, it reminds me of the Don Winslow mystery series about surfing. I mean, really, can crime be more fun than hanging out with these guys? Junior Bender is such a softie, we don’t like to think of him actually killing people, though he does in this one. He carries a gun after all. It’s not just for show.
I received an advance copy of this title through Netgalley from Soho Publishers in exchange for an honest review.
January 6, 2018
Until I started reading this, I had forgotten that I had listened to two earlier books in the Junior Bender series about 3 1/2 years ago. Although the protagonist is a seasoned burglar, in this episode he is more like a private detective, trying to find out who killed Herbie Mott, his mentor in crime and father-figure, and why. Junior's peculiar life is full of kinky people, which adds to the fun. Like the earlier books, it is not a memorable story but is a lot of fun.
Peter Berkrot added to the enjoyment by attaching a unique, appropriate voice to each character. He even did a good job with women's voices. He's a 5-star narrator.
Tim Hallinan is also the author of the Poke Rafferty Mystery Series, as incongruous as that may seem.
Peter Berkrot added to the enjoyment by attaching a unique, appropriate voice to each character. He even did a good job with women's voices. He's a 5-star narrator.
Tim Hallinan is also the author of the Poke Rafferty Mystery Series, as incongruous as that may seem.
July 12, 2014
I first became aware of Tim Hallinan’s writing when I was asked to review the first Poke Rafferty thriller, A Nail Through the Heart, in 2008. The Rafferty books became staples of my reading; The Queen of Patpong is a book I’d like to see taught in schools.
The Rafferty books are pretty dark, though Hallinan knows how to add touches of humor to provide patches of blue sky and hope. These bits of humor are genuinely funny, so I was happy to hear he’d decided to write something intended to be humorous from the get-go, and started the Junior Bender series. The fourth Bender book, Herbie’s Game, launches tomorrow.
Junior Bender is either a burglar with a difference, or a private investigator with a difference. A burglar nonpareil, he’s fallen into a side gig of being PI to the underworld. All the guile and guts he’s used to make a living and stay out of jail as a burglar are put to good use, Hallinan’s tongue always buried in his cheek.
Herbie’s Game begins with Wattles, a crook who sets up hits as a matter of routine business. He uses an elaborate series of cutouts who pass instructions through blind drops so, theoretically, no one knows who ordered the hit and no one—except Wattles—knows who’s doing the actual killing. Until one day Wattles comes to work and finds his office burglarized; his chain of cut-outs’ names is all that’s missing. This is not the kind of thing one takes to the police, which means Junior gets the call.
This case is tough for Junior on two levels. He generally prefers to avoid the most of the people he’s dealing with, as they kill people for a living, and are not amused to have their activities looked into. Closer to home, references to Herbie Mott—Junior’s friend and mentor, whom he idolizes—turn up everywhere. Working his way through the chain one piece at a time, Junior learns things about Herbie he never suspected, and isn’t sure he wants to know.
The book works on multiple levels. As always, the humor is spot on, allowing Hallinan to have fun with his plotting in a way that would come across as inappropriate in the Rafferty books. Herbie’s Game, like The Fame Thief before it, also goes deeper, as Junior is forced to examine things about his life he wouldn’t have thought of, and might prefer to leave unexamined.
This is the most ambitious of the Bender books, and most resembles the Rafferty series in its introspection at times, but it’s still Junior Bender all the way. Hallinan has a gift for exploring similar themes from widely divergent contexts. As with all his books, Herbie’s Game is about the responses of people when relationships are unexpectedly and dramatically stressed. Herbie Mott was not at all who Junior thought him to be, and neither was their relationship. How this resolves, and how Junior gets his head around it, leads to an ending Westlake would have been proud of.
I discovered Hallinan’s writing through the Rafferty series, and still drop everything to read the newest Poke book, no matter how many titles are backed up on my increasingly OCD To Be Read List. I’ve come to like Junior maybe even a little more. I doubt any Bender book will have the visceral impact of The Queen of Patpong—they’re lighter by nature—but the message of Herbie’s Game is something more people have experienced, which will increase the impact while leaving a smile. That’s damned hard to do. If you want to see it done well, Herbie’s Game is the book for you.
The Rafferty books are pretty dark, though Hallinan knows how to add touches of humor to provide patches of blue sky and hope. These bits of humor are genuinely funny, so I was happy to hear he’d decided to write something intended to be humorous from the get-go, and started the Junior Bender series. The fourth Bender book, Herbie’s Game, launches tomorrow.
Junior Bender is either a burglar with a difference, or a private investigator with a difference. A burglar nonpareil, he’s fallen into a side gig of being PI to the underworld. All the guile and guts he’s used to make a living and stay out of jail as a burglar are put to good use, Hallinan’s tongue always buried in his cheek.
Herbie’s Game begins with Wattles, a crook who sets up hits as a matter of routine business. He uses an elaborate series of cutouts who pass instructions through blind drops so, theoretically, no one knows who ordered the hit and no one—except Wattles—knows who’s doing the actual killing. Until one day Wattles comes to work and finds his office burglarized; his chain of cut-outs’ names is all that’s missing. This is not the kind of thing one takes to the police, which means Junior gets the call.
This case is tough for Junior on two levels. He generally prefers to avoid the most of the people he’s dealing with, as they kill people for a living, and are not amused to have their activities looked into. Closer to home, references to Herbie Mott—Junior’s friend and mentor, whom he idolizes—turn up everywhere. Working his way through the chain one piece at a time, Junior learns things about Herbie he never suspected, and isn’t sure he wants to know.
The book works on multiple levels. As always, the humor is spot on, allowing Hallinan to have fun with his plotting in a way that would come across as inappropriate in the Rafferty books. Herbie’s Game, like The Fame Thief before it, also goes deeper, as Junior is forced to examine things about his life he wouldn’t have thought of, and might prefer to leave unexamined.
This is the most ambitious of the Bender books, and most resembles the Rafferty series in its introspection at times, but it’s still Junior Bender all the way. Hallinan has a gift for exploring similar themes from widely divergent contexts. As with all his books, Herbie’s Game is about the responses of people when relationships are unexpectedly and dramatically stressed. Herbie Mott was not at all who Junior thought him to be, and neither was their relationship. How this resolves, and how Junior gets his head around it, leads to an ending Westlake would have been proud of.
I discovered Hallinan’s writing through the Rafferty series, and still drop everything to read the newest Poke book, no matter how many titles are backed up on my increasingly OCD To Be Read List. I’ve come to like Junior maybe even a little more. I doubt any Bender book will have the visceral impact of The Queen of Patpong—they’re lighter by nature—but the message of Herbie’s Game is something more people have experienced, which will increase the impact while leaving a smile. That’s damned hard to do. If you want to see it done well, Herbie’s Game is the book for you.
February 3, 2014
I got this book free from Firstreads. This is my honest review.
Is there such a thing as honor amongst thieves and hit men? It would seem so in Hallinan's series about Junior Bender, whose friend and mentor, Herbie, has taught him everything he knows about breaking into places and choosing the right things to take from others. Now years later, Junior is also an investigator on behalf of crooks, who for good reasons, aren't comfortable with going to the cops.
Waddles has devised a scheme that insures that no one would be able to finger him as the person setting up a "hit". He created a chain of people to pass along money, and only the next name on the list--eventually, giving the last envelope to the hit man with his pay and the name of the person to be killed. But he also wrote this chain out and placed the list in his safe. Someone has robbed him of this list and Junior is hired to find the culprit.
Junior realizes that Herbie was the thief but when he goes to talk to him , he finds Herbie has been tortured to death. Now Junior is on a crusade to find out what happened. In the process, more crook acquaintances are found dead. This sends Junior into a philosophical journey into his life thus far--including his relationship with his ex, his daughter, and his present girlfriend.
Though this is a serious subject, Hallinan puts a wonderfully humorous twist onto the whole story. Reading this book is somewhat like watching a thunderstorm. It feels beautiful and dangerous at the same time. His quips and rationalizations are laugh out loud funny but often brilliant too. Hallinan's writing reminds me of Laurence Block's Burglar series with a large helping of Lorna Lutts and Carl Hiaasen. Now to go back and read the first three installments of this series!
Is there such a thing as honor amongst thieves and hit men? It would seem so in Hallinan's series about Junior Bender, whose friend and mentor, Herbie, has taught him everything he knows about breaking into places and choosing the right things to take from others. Now years later, Junior is also an investigator on behalf of crooks, who for good reasons, aren't comfortable with going to the cops.
Waddles has devised a scheme that insures that no one would be able to finger him as the person setting up a "hit". He created a chain of people to pass along money, and only the next name on the list--eventually, giving the last envelope to the hit man with his pay and the name of the person to be killed. But he also wrote this chain out and placed the list in his safe. Someone has robbed him of this list and Junior is hired to find the culprit.
Junior realizes that Herbie was the thief but when he goes to talk to him , he finds Herbie has been tortured to death. Now Junior is on a crusade to find out what happened. In the process, more crook acquaintances are found dead. This sends Junior into a philosophical journey into his life thus far--including his relationship with his ex, his daughter, and his present girlfriend.
Though this is a serious subject, Hallinan puts a wonderfully humorous twist onto the whole story. Reading this book is somewhat like watching a thunderstorm. It feels beautiful and dangerous at the same time. His quips and rationalizations are laugh out loud funny but often brilliant too. Hallinan's writing reminds me of Laurence Block's Burglar series with a large helping of Lorna Lutts and Carl Hiaasen. Now to go back and read the first three installments of this series!
April 29, 2014
You can read the long version here at my reading journal blog, or you can satisfy yourself with what little I've said here. Either way, what you'll find is that I get nothing but pure pleasure from reading these books, and I highly recommend them all.
Herbie's Game begins as our burglar hero Junior Bender is asked by a "contractor" named Wattles to retrieve some property of his that has been stolen. Wattles, whose memory is "not what it used to be," would
"arrange anything, from a cautionary faceful of knuckles or a modest supermarket fire all the way up to a whack, for the right fee."
Someone hired Wattles to do a hit, and he'd written down the chain of "disconnects" that were to be involved. He stashed the list of names in his safe and now it's been taken. Wattles wants it back. Signs point to Junior's old mentor and surrogate dad Herbie Mott as the thief, but when Junior goes to see him, Herbie is dead. after being tortured in a not-so-very-nice way. Tracking down the disconnects takes on new meaning for him, as he not only reflects on Herbie's importance to him in his life, but finds out more about Herbie than he's ever known. He also runs up against someone who seems to be a step or two ahead of him each time, someone who leaves behind dead bodies but no clues.
If you've lived in Los Angeles for any length of time, then you're aware that Hallinan knows not only the area, but the people who live there. I have seen pretty much all of his archetypes on the streets and on the beaches there, and his characters are spot on. He has created a genius ensemble of people surrounding Junior, along with a host of others, who make these books work and work well -- because despite the fact that they're all pretty much involved in some form of crime or another, they come off as realistic people you grow to care about.
Each and every one of these books has had their laugh-out-loud moments, and this one is no exception. At the same time, Herbie's Game has its somber moments as Junior works through his grief over the loss of Herbie. And in the midst of all of the comedy, Hallinan's characters will take a few moments to ponder social and economic injustices, a trait which elevates this book, and indeed the entire series, to something well beyond being just another "caper" novel.
Do not start the series with Herbie's Game, but read them all from the start. To get the most out of Junior's character and of Mr. Hallinan's quirky writing style, you have to start from the very beginning. I love this series and as long as the books continue to be written, I'll be reading them.
Herbie's Game begins as our burglar hero Junior Bender is asked by a "contractor" named Wattles to retrieve some property of his that has been stolen. Wattles, whose memory is "not what it used to be," would
"arrange anything, from a cautionary faceful of knuckles or a modest supermarket fire all the way up to a whack, for the right fee."
Someone hired Wattles to do a hit, and he'd written down the chain of "disconnects" that were to be involved. He stashed the list of names in his safe and now it's been taken. Wattles wants it back. Signs point to Junior's old mentor and surrogate dad Herbie Mott as the thief, but when Junior goes to see him, Herbie is dead. after being tortured in a not-so-very-nice way. Tracking down the disconnects takes on new meaning for him, as he not only reflects on Herbie's importance to him in his life, but finds out more about Herbie than he's ever known. He also runs up against someone who seems to be a step or two ahead of him each time, someone who leaves behind dead bodies but no clues.
If you've lived in Los Angeles for any length of time, then you're aware that Hallinan knows not only the area, but the people who live there. I have seen pretty much all of his archetypes on the streets and on the beaches there, and his characters are spot on. He has created a genius ensemble of people surrounding Junior, along with a host of others, who make these books work and work well -- because despite the fact that they're all pretty much involved in some form of crime or another, they come off as realistic people you grow to care about.
Each and every one of these books has had their laugh-out-loud moments, and this one is no exception. At the same time, Herbie's Game has its somber moments as Junior works through his grief over the loss of Herbie. And in the midst of all of the comedy, Hallinan's characters will take a few moments to ponder social and economic injustices, a trait which elevates this book, and indeed the entire series, to something well beyond being just another "caper" novel.
Do not start the series with Herbie's Game, but read them all from the start. To get the most out of Junior's character and of Mr. Hallinan's quirky writing style, you have to start from the very beginning. I love this series and as long as the books continue to be written, I'll be reading them.
October 5, 2014
"I had all this grief-energy, Herbie would say, turn it into something useful, like fury.
… If you can’t get closure, get even.”
In case you haven't been an ardent follower of Junior Bender, as you should be, I will tell you he is one of the best burglars in Los Angeles and the man crooks go to when they need crimes solved. He sort of stumbled into the business, but an honest crook is hard to find! Junior is well known as a good guy, he's also a dad and a self taught scholar. You will always find him living in one of those hilarious theme motels that seem to find their niche in places like Southern California or Las Vegas. This book it's The Bitsy Birds Nest! "I was sitting, surrounded by wallpaper birds, in a feverishly avian room—bird bedspread, bird lighting fixture, bird knickknacks, actual, somewhat depressed-looking birds caged glumly in the corner." There is also a huge bed with massage fingers called The Birdy Rub and stairs that tweet as you step on them. Such places exist!?!?
This book finds Junior hired by Wattles who has been robbed of a single piece of paper; some things are never meant to be written - but Wattles was getting old. Junior immediately knows who did it, his mentor and surrogate father, Herbie. When he goes to speak to Herbie he's too late, someone already got to him and it wasn't pretty. Obviously, it's now personal and Junior is not above putting people in the ground.
I'm glad to see Herbie's Game take the time to give Junior a few cathartic moments about his relationship with his daughter Rina, who is a great character by the way. His wife divorced him for several reasons but one of them was because Junior's criminal lifestyle was no way to raise a child. Did Kathleen marry a sexy good hearted burglar? Yes. Do all women, and hopefully couples, have a tacit understanding that once you have an egg you need a safe nest? Yes. Has Juniors profession put Rina in jeopardy in this and previous stories? Yes! At the very least he's facing that if not facing up to that.
Great story, will continue reading Junior Bender. Try one!
August 20, 2014
Always entertaining. Always interesting. Always a good read listen.
February 13, 2022
These books really are hit or miss, the last one was a miss for me, this one was a split 4.5 star hit. Junior was back on track and solving the murder of his mentor. Ali g the way he was learning done uncomfortable truths about Herbie and himself. The overarching theme that came through for me is that we never really know the people in our lives. The ones we sometimes hold on a pedestal can be the ones to inflict the worst betrayals, yet the overlooked everyday people people are often our staunchest support system. In this book Junior is forced to face his choices and the effect they have/had on his marriage and parenting both past, present and in the future and it will be interesting to see if he makes any changes.
Overall it was a fast paced, gritty, witty, humorous, murderous read 😃😃 and I still don’t like the narrator.
Overall it was a fast paced, gritty, witty, humorous, murderous read 😃😃 and I still don’t like the narrator.
June 24, 2018
Well, the best laid plans and all that. I was going to take a break after finishing the first three Junior Bender books in relatively short order. But Nancy had already downloaded #4, and the expiration clock was already ticking, so now I've read the first four in the series. And I'm glad I did. I found it significantly more satisfying than #3, primarily because the people to plot ratio was more in line with what I favor. Junior's relationship with the women in his personal life - Kathy, Rina and Ronnie for the most part - are expanding and contracting in interesting ways in this book. And the same can be said for Junior's backstory, which is in some ways the centerpiece of the novel. Plus, you always bump into several exceptionally interesting new people when spend some time with Junior. Fun stuff.
June 21, 2017
I so enjoy these books. Lots of stuff happens among a number of colorful crooks.
June 17, 2014
"Talking is old media" is my favorite line in a book full of memorable lines and characters. Herbie's Game is full of funny, thoughtful, selfish, bitter, greedy, bloody, flawed, loving and all around human characters. Some you'll love and some you'll hate but they are all memorable, from the geriatric goombah to the teen-aged lesbian hackers. But mostly, there's Junior, our flawed anti-hero, who, when not breaking the law, is trying to do the right thing. This is the first of Timothy Hallinan's books that I've read but it won't be the last. I've been looking for a new favorite detective series since Robert Parker died. I may have just found it.
July 3, 2014
Cat burglar Junior Bender, who also works as a detective to other crooks returns in book 4 of Timothy Hallinan's excellent mystery series. A criminal named Wattles hires Junior to find an important list of crooks’ names that was stolen from his office. During his search, Junior discovers that his mentor and second father, Herbie Mann, was murdered. Junior’s determination to find Herbie’s killer takes him on a wild, dangerous ride where he meets colorful characters along the way. Filled with Hallinan’s signature humor, “Herbie’s Game’’ is a fun read.
August 25, 2014
Another really cool Junior Bender story. This one is a little longer, a little more introspective and a little more intriguing as well. We have a fantastic cast of characters in this one, some old and lots of new. The noir theme is there but the usual Junior tongue in cheek is still a major entertainment factor. The scene where the girlfriend meets the ex-wife is priceless! Always a good time with Junior, I look forward to the next one.
February 24, 2014
I won this in a Goodreads First Reads free giveaway. The thought of a criminal chain was intriguing so I decided to register. Once I began to read the book I was hooked and had to find out what would become of Junior and the unusual characters in his life. I will definitely read another Junior Bender Mystery.
August 4, 2014
I got used to thinking of the Junior Bender series as the light stuff in between the darker Poke Rafferty books, but this 4th Junior Bender book closes the gap a bit, and gives lots of insight into Bender. Wonderfully plotted, filled with terrific characters, humorous and serious both, Herbie's Game is a terrific read.
April 21, 2014
My favorite Junior Bender novel so far. If you liked any or all of the first three, you will love this one. At one point Hallinan absolutely floored me with a brilliant insight about the character of Superman.
August 11, 2014
I don’t know where Hallinan draws his inspiration from to create his characters but I hope it is a very deep well so that he can keep them coming.
Reading a book written by Timothy Hallinan is just great fun – don’t miss out.
Review at http://birch-bark.blogspot.ca/
March 19, 2014
fantastic new noir styled
June 16, 2014
Hallinan back on his game, best of the series.
July 16, 2014
I just really, really like these Junior Bender books. Can't wait for the next one.
August 2, 2014
Well written, well plotted, touching and hilarious! I should go back through it and pull out some of my favorite quotes, but I'm too lazy...it's summer. A wonderful read!
August 22, 2014
This was a sweet and funny book. The Junior Bender series gets better and better!
August 29, 2014
Fantastic Book and series. I cant get enough of the Junior Bender series of late. With a nice mix of great storyline and sarcasm makes for a great read.
September 8, 2014
I don't think there is anything better than a Junior Bender novel.
Just read them.
Just read them.
August 16, 2014
Really fun mystery series.
March 16, 2017
After writing three very funny crime novels featuring the professional burglar Junior Bender, Timothy Hallinan produced Herbie’s Game. It’s not as funny. In this fourth novel in the series, Hallinan waxes philosophical in lengthy contemplative passages that show Junior’s serious side. It’s well written, as were its predecessors, and the story is engaging (if improbable). Despite the relative lack of laugh-out-loud material, Herbie’s Game is a fun read.
Junior Bender lives in a world populated by characters with names such as Louie the Lost, Stinky Tetwiler, Wattles, Handkerchief Harrison, Monty Carlo, and Burt the Gut. Every one of these individuals, all criminals to a fault, enters into the tale Hallinan tells in Herbie’s Game. The Herbie of the title is Junior’s mentor and surrogate father, the man who taught him the burglary trade. “If I were ever sufficiently misguided to write my own life story,” he muses, “the hero of most of Act One would be a burglar named Herbie Mott.”
The game of the title is, of course, burglary. But it’s not run-of-the-mill, hit-and-run burglary of the sort perpetrated by drug addicts. This is a thoroughly professional approach, and Junior;s name has never surfaced in police files. For example, one of Herbie’s precepts is never to take everything valuable when burglarizing a home. Always leave the one item that its owners are likely to find most precious. That way they’ll think “At least, they didn’t take that.”
Junior’s misfortune is to be known among the criminal class in the Los Angeles world as a crack investigator, the equal of the best that any police force can offer. Thus, when some clueless malefactor commits a crime against a powerful crook, Junior is likely to be called in to track down the perpetrator. Asking the police for help is, obviously, not a good idea. Herbie’s Game tells the story of Junior’s latest venture into investigative work.
A criminal go-between named Wattles has called for Junior’s help because someone has stolen the list of people who serve as a sequence of cut-outs in what he calls a “chain.” For example, if someone contacts Wattles to arrange a hit, he will pass a huge envelope to the first person in a chain, who in turn will pass along the large envelope inside the one he received, who in turn will pass the somewhat smaller envelope inside it to a third person, and so forth. Every envelope contains a large sum of cash. In theory, no person knows the identity of anyone other than the one who passed along the envelope and the one he or she, in turn, passes to. That way, no one can connect the hitman (or hitwoman) who may be the sixth or seventh person at the end of the chain to Wattles, much less to the person who ordered the hit. Though Junior is aghast that Wattles should have written down all these names, he is forced to take on the job because Wattles threatens to set his own hitman on Junior if he doesn’t.
Junior’s investigation turns deadly as soon as he learns that Herbie, the likeliest suspect, has been brutally murdered. As Junior pursues his inquiry, working gradually down the chain in hopes of identifying the hitman, threats against his life come to light. Even worse, there are threats against his ex-wife and the 13-year-old daughter they both dote on. The mounting danger leads Junior into rethinking the choices he’s made in his life. Feeling ambivalent about his work, he muses that “those of us who chose Herbie’s Game faced a lifetime of wearing a mask, of lying, or making—sooner or later—the kind of decision that had cost me my wife and daughter. I probably hadn’t even figured out yet all the things that choosing Herbie’s Game had cost me.”
Junior Bender lives in a world populated by characters with names such as Louie the Lost, Stinky Tetwiler, Wattles, Handkerchief Harrison, Monty Carlo, and Burt the Gut. Every one of these individuals, all criminals to a fault, enters into the tale Hallinan tells in Herbie’s Game. The Herbie of the title is Junior’s mentor and surrogate father, the man who taught him the burglary trade. “If I were ever sufficiently misguided to write my own life story,” he muses, “the hero of most of Act One would be a burglar named Herbie Mott.”
The game of the title is, of course, burglary. But it’s not run-of-the-mill, hit-and-run burglary of the sort perpetrated by drug addicts. This is a thoroughly professional approach, and Junior;s name has never surfaced in police files. For example, one of Herbie’s precepts is never to take everything valuable when burglarizing a home. Always leave the one item that its owners are likely to find most precious. That way they’ll think “At least, they didn’t take that.”
Junior’s misfortune is to be known among the criminal class in the Los Angeles world as a crack investigator, the equal of the best that any police force can offer. Thus, when some clueless malefactor commits a crime against a powerful crook, Junior is likely to be called in to track down the perpetrator. Asking the police for help is, obviously, not a good idea. Herbie’s Game tells the story of Junior’s latest venture into investigative work.
A criminal go-between named Wattles has called for Junior’s help because someone has stolen the list of people who serve as a sequence of cut-outs in what he calls a “chain.” For example, if someone contacts Wattles to arrange a hit, he will pass a huge envelope to the first person in a chain, who in turn will pass along the large envelope inside the one he received, who in turn will pass the somewhat smaller envelope inside it to a third person, and so forth. Every envelope contains a large sum of cash. In theory, no person knows the identity of anyone other than the one who passed along the envelope and the one he or she, in turn, passes to. That way, no one can connect the hitman (or hitwoman) who may be the sixth or seventh person at the end of the chain to Wattles, much less to the person who ordered the hit. Though Junior is aghast that Wattles should have written down all these names, he is forced to take on the job because Wattles threatens to set his own hitman on Junior if he doesn’t.
Junior’s investigation turns deadly as soon as he learns that Herbie, the likeliest suspect, has been brutally murdered. As Junior pursues his inquiry, working gradually down the chain in hopes of identifying the hitman, threats against his life come to light. Even worse, there are threats against his ex-wife and the 13-year-old daughter they both dote on. The mounting danger leads Junior into rethinking the choices he’s made in his life. Feeling ambivalent about his work, he muses that “those of us who chose Herbie’s Game faced a lifetime of wearing a mask, of lying, or making—sooner or later—the kind of decision that had cost me my wife and daughter. I probably hadn’t even figured out yet all the things that choosing Herbie’s Game had cost me.”
May 25, 2022
The third star in my rating was given reluctantly. It was, at best, a 2.5 star worthy but I rounded up.
I went through various stages as I read this book. The first quarter I considered adding this to my small DNF list but I slogged on. A little after that I grew to like it but the second half convinced me that, although not worthy of a DNF it certainly wasn't a "good" book. I felt that the prose was the product of a shotgun marriage between Webster's Dictionary and Roget's Thesaurus and the baby had a case of word diarrhea.
The plot was overly complicated and implausible. It didn't allow me to ignore reality.
I had not read any of Mr. Hallinan's work before Herbie's Game and for now he goes on me not to be ordered list
I went through various stages as I read this book. The first quarter I considered adding this to my small DNF list but I slogged on. A little after that I grew to like it but the second half convinced me that, although not worthy of a DNF it certainly wasn't a "good" book. I felt that the prose was the product of a shotgun marriage between Webster's Dictionary and Roget's Thesaurus and the baby had a case of word diarrhea.
The plot was overly complicated and implausible. It didn't allow me to ignore reality.
I had not read any of Mr. Hallinan's work before Herbie's Game and for now he goes on me not to be ordered list
June 27, 2017
The premise that a master thief makes a good "detective for underworld figures" is wonderfully realised in this series.
Junior Bender is a fully-formed character with confidence in his abilities and a way of staying alive while getting involved with some really strange and nasty types including con artists, snitches, standover men, hitmen (and women), bodyguards, bosses and big bosses while also staying one step ahead of the police.
Timothy Hallinan is a consummate story teller. He lets us glimpse parts of Junior's character that Junior himself seems unaware of, while deftly concealing elements so that the reader is kept guessing until the final chapter.
Highly recommended!
Junior Bender is a fully-formed character with confidence in his abilities and a way of staying alive while getting involved with some really strange and nasty types including con artists, snitches, standover men, hitmen (and women), bodyguards, bosses and big bosses while also staying one step ahead of the police.
Timothy Hallinan is a consummate story teller. He lets us glimpse parts of Junior's character that Junior himself seems unaware of, while deftly concealing elements so that the reader is kept guessing until the final chapter.
Highly recommended!
June 11, 2022
I just completed the 4th book in the 8 book series. The first book published in 2012 and the 8th book published this month, June 2022.
Fun murder/mysteries with an eclectic cast of characters whom Mr. Hallinan is not afraid to bump off (usually in a very violent manner). And just after you get to know them. Mr. Hallinan claims too many voices in his head. I like that excuse.
The over-arching theme is Junior's struggle with being a 'good' person. Within his own ethical structure and how Junior's ethical structure changes through these stories.
Fun murder/mysteries with an eclectic cast of characters whom Mr. Hallinan is not afraid to bump off (usually in a very violent manner). And just after you get to know them. Mr. Hallinan claims too many voices in his head. I like that excuse.
The over-arching theme is Junior's struggle with being a 'good' person. Within his own ethical structure and how Junior's ethical structure changes through these stories.
April 7, 2025
*** Possible Spoilers ***
This was an okay book but not quite as fast paced as the others. In addition there's a good deal of soul searching and introspection. It appears the author has been bitten by the 'character development' virus spread through university creative writing courses and further promoted by editors. There's sufficient plot to maintain interest but not so much as to rate a fifth star. These books have been going down hill ... slowly mind you but deteriorating nonetheless. I'll give one more a try and if things get worse I'll finish it there.
This was an okay book but not quite as fast paced as the others. In addition there's a good deal of soul searching and introspection. It appears the author has been bitten by the 'character development' virus spread through university creative writing courses and further promoted by editors. There's sufficient plot to maintain interest but not so much as to rate a fifth star. These books have been going down hill ... slowly mind you but deteriorating nonetheless. I'll give one more a try and if things get worse I'll finish it there.
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