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Hoke Moseley #3
Sideswipe
Hoke Moseley has had enough. Tired of struggling against alimony payments, two teenage daughters, a very pregnant, very single partner, and a low paying job as a Miami homicide detective, Hoke moves to Singer Island and vows never step foot on the mainland again. But on the street, career criminal Troy Louden is hatching plans of his own with a gang including a disfigured hooker, a talentless artist, and a clueless retiree. But when his simple robbery results in ruthless and indiscriminate bloodshed, Hoke quickly remembers why he is a cop and hurls himself back into the world he meant to leave behind forever.
A masterly tale of both mid-life crisis and murder, Sideswipe is a page-turning thriller packed with laughs, loaded with suspense, and featuring one of the truly original detectives of all time.
A masterly tale of both mid-life crisis and murder, Sideswipe is a page-turning thriller packed with laughs, loaded with suspense, and featuring one of the truly original detectives of all time.
215 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1987
52 people are currently reading
676 people want to read
About the author
Charles Willeford
85 books426 followersCharles Willeford was a remarkably fine, talented and prolific writer who wrote everything from poetry to crime fiction to literary criticism throughout the course of his impressively long and diverse career. His crime novels are distinguished by a mean'n'lean sense of narrative economy and an admirable dearth of sentimentality. He was born as Charles Ray Willeford III on January 2, 1919 in Little Rock, Arkansas. Willeford's parents both died of tuberculosis when he was a little boy and he subsequently lived either with his grandmother or at boarding schools. Charles became a hobo in his early teens. He enlisted in the Army Air Corps at age sixteen and was stationed in the Philippines. Willeford served as a tank commander with the 10th Armored Division in Europe during World War II. He won several medals for his military service: the Silver Star, the Bronze Star, two Purple Hearts, and the Luxembourg Croix de Guerre. Charles retired from the army as a Master Sergeant. Willeford's first novel "High Priest of California" was published in 1953. This solid debut was followed by such equally excellent novels as "Pick-Up" (this book won a Beacon Fiction Award), "Wild Wives," "The Woman Chaser," "Cockfighter" (this particular book won the Mark Twain Award), and "The Burnt Orange Heresy." Charles achieved his greatest commercial and critical success with four outstanding novels about hapless Florida homicide detective Hoke Moseley: "Miami Blues," "New Hope for the Dead," "Sideswipe," and "The Way We Die Now." Outside of his novels, he also wrote the short story anthology "The Machine in Ward Eleven," the poetry collections "The Outcast Poets" and "Proletarian Laughter," and the nonfiction book "Something About A Soldier." Willeford attended both Palm Beach Junior College and the University of Miami. He taught a course in humanities at the University of Miami and was an associate professor who taught classes in both philosophy and English at Miami Dade Junior College. Charles was married three times and was an associate editor for "Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine." Three of Willeford's novels have been adapted into movies: Monte Hellman delivered a bleakly fascinating character study with "Cockfighter" (Charles wrote the script and has a sizable supporting role as the referee of a cockfighting tournament which climaxes the picture), George Armitage hit one out of the ballpark with the wonderfully quirky "Miami Blues," and Robinson Devor scored a bull's eye with the offbeat "The Woman Chaser." Charles popped up in a small part as a bartender in the fun redneck car chase romp "Thunder and Lightning." Charles Willeford died of a heart attack at age 69 on March 27, 1988.
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March 19, 2017
This is the third book in Charles Willeford's excellent series featuring Miami homicide detective Hoke Moseley. As the book opens, Hoke, although still only in his forties, wakes up to a full-blown mid-life crisis. He's completely unable to function irrespective of his responsibilities to his two teenage daughters who live with him, to his department, and to his partner, Ellita Sanchez, who is eight months pregnant (not by Hoke) and who also lives in Hoke's home.
Unable to cope, Hoke takes a leave of absence from his job and retreats to Singer Island, where his wealthy father lives. He takes a job running a small apartment building for his father and swears that he will never leave the island again.
In the meantime, Stanley Sinkiewicz, an elderly retiree who has moved to Florida from Detroit has a brush with the law and, although he is completely innocent, he is briefly forced to share a jail cell with a man claiming to be Robert Smith.
"Smith" is really a psychopathic career criminal named Troy Louden. He has a gift for reading people and immediately pegs Stanley for the sad, lonely man he is at heart. Louden befriends Stanley, schooling him in the way to best deal with the authorities, and before long, Stanley is convinced that Troy is his new best friend.
Louden is desperately hoping to have the charges against him dropped before a fingerprint check is returned and the police discover his real identity. To this end, he asks Stanley to do him a "small favor" once he is released, and, totally won over by his new buddy, the old man agrees. The ploy works and Louden, now free, enlists Stanley to help him pull off a big job he is planning.
Meanwhile, Hoke Mosley is discovering that it's a lot harder to simplify his life than he had hoped. His father is determined to help him get a new job with the local police force, although Hoke has absolutely no interest in the job. His younger daughter joins him on the island further complicating matters, and the tenants in the apartment house generally prove to be a major pain in the butt.
The Mosley story and the Stanley/Louden story proceed along parallel tracks and for a while the reader is left to wonder how Willeford is ever going to link them up. But it really doesn't matter because both stories are very entertaining.
Willeford has populated this book with a number of unique and very interesting characters and between the lines, he has a great deal to say about the nature of family and about the workings of the capitalist system in the United States. All in all, it's a very entertaining book that should appeal to large numbers of readers.
Unable to cope, Hoke takes a leave of absence from his job and retreats to Singer Island, where his wealthy father lives. He takes a job running a small apartment building for his father and swears that he will never leave the island again.
In the meantime, Stanley Sinkiewicz, an elderly retiree who has moved to Florida from Detroit has a brush with the law and, although he is completely innocent, he is briefly forced to share a jail cell with a man claiming to be Robert Smith.
"Smith" is really a psychopathic career criminal named Troy Louden. He has a gift for reading people and immediately pegs Stanley for the sad, lonely man he is at heart. Louden befriends Stanley, schooling him in the way to best deal with the authorities, and before long, Stanley is convinced that Troy is his new best friend.
Louden is desperately hoping to have the charges against him dropped before a fingerprint check is returned and the police discover his real identity. To this end, he asks Stanley to do him a "small favor" once he is released, and, totally won over by his new buddy, the old man agrees. The ploy works and Louden, now free, enlists Stanley to help him pull off a big job he is planning.
Meanwhile, Hoke Mosley is discovering that it's a lot harder to simplify his life than he had hoped. His father is determined to help him get a new job with the local police force, although Hoke has absolutely no interest in the job. His younger daughter joins him on the island further complicating matters, and the tenants in the apartment house generally prove to be a major pain in the butt.
The Mosley story and the Stanley/Louden story proceed along parallel tracks and for a while the reader is left to wonder how Willeford is ever going to link them up. But it really doesn't matter because both stories are very entertaining.
Willeford has populated this book with a number of unique and very interesting characters and between the lines, he has a great deal to say about the nature of family and about the workings of the capitalist system in the United States. All in all, it's a very entertaining book that should appeal to large numbers of readers.
October 27, 2022
I felt like I was reading a crime fiction novel written by Raymond Carver. Melancholic crime fiction? I don't know if Sideswipe can be classified as a crime fiction novel. After Willeford achieved success with Miami Blues, he really cranked it up a few notches, wrote the novels that he wanted to write. Hoke Moseley is the exact opposite of a tough cop. He seems to be resigned to his fate, stops talking to his police partner and daughter and moves back in with his father who gives him a job managing a vacation resort sort of place.
But Moseley springs into action when a suave, smooth talking barbarian carries out violent robberies of department stores. The character of the barbarian is described from the point of view of an aging middle class drone who finances his most ambitious operation (mostly to find some kind of excitement in what has been a dull life). So we are not really sure if his narrative is completely reliable.
The best Charles Willeford novel I have read so far.
But Moseley springs into action when a suave, smooth talking barbarian carries out violent robberies of department stores. The character of the barbarian is described from the point of view of an aging middle class drone who finances his most ambitious operation (mostly to find some kind of excitement in what has been a dull life). So we are not really sure if his narrative is completely reliable.
The best Charles Willeford novel I have read so far.
February 6, 2023
4.5 stars. The plot of this third Hoke Mosely novel goes nowhere in a hurry, but that was fine with me. It's more of a character study, as Hoke suffers a midlife crisis and returns to his boyhood home on leave, aiming to simplify his life by cutting out everyone and everything he can. Alternating chapters follow a lonely elderly gentleman who seems harmless enough as he becomes entangled with, and bizarrely attached to, a psychotic criminal. Of course their paths eventually cross, though very late in the game, with a denouement that quickly comes full circle on a number of loose plot threads and is bittersweet and deeply poignant. I read these Hoke Moseley books a bit out of order, and this was the last one I had left unread. I finish it with a bittersweet feeling myself, wishing that Willeford had written more than just the four.
February 2, 2022
Detective-Sergeant Hoke Moseley suffers a mental breakdown, quits the Miami PD and heads to remote Singer Island to recuperate at his dad’s house and try his hand at a new, seemingly less-stressful career as a property manager. Meanwhile, retiree Stanley Sinkiewicz accidentally gets himself thrown in jail where he meets charismatic psychopath Troy Louden who ropes him into his web of crime and moider…
Charles Willeford’s Sideswipe is a journey. A very, very slow-burning journey where you wait and you wait and you wait for the two storylines to sync up, as you know they inevitably will - Hoke’s a cop, Troy’s a robber - but it takes the entire length of the novel until they do and then things are quickly wrapped up in the last 25 pages or so! I still say it was a worthwhile journey to take though.
Hoke’s storyline is definitely the least interesting out of two not particularly interesting storylines - at least to start with. He has his breakdown - which I’m sure is realistic; PTSD/mental breakdowns probably do come out of the blue and strike hard - then goes to convalesce at his dad’s place and begin his new life. But nothing that exciting happens at Singer Island.
At some point he helps solve the case of the burglaries at his dad’s wife’s apartment complex (considering she’s nearly his age, “stepmother” is a stretch), otherwise he’s doing diddly-squat for almost the entire novel. Still, as easy to put down as the novel was, it’s a credit to Willeford’s writing ability that I never considered abandoning it because the chapters always contained moments of uniquely surprising oddity and amusement.
Like the fact that Hoke decides, to simplify his life more, he’ll buy a pair of yellow poplin jumpsuits to wear - to cut down on the laundry, of course! Just the image alone of this maniac going about his days wearing yellow jumpsuits made me smile. And then later on his teenage daughter Aileen comes to stay with him - yeah, he just abandons his two daughters in Miami with his preggo partner, because that’s what you did in the ‘80s - and he finds out she’s bulimic but he doesn’t know what that means so he freaks out and sends her packing on a red eye to California where “the nuns'' will straighten her out (and amazingly they do!).
It’s just unexpectedly funny like that. And Hoke comes across some odd tenants like academic Itai (named after the Japanese word for “hurt”) who’s meant to be writing a novel but is really fascinated with horseflies.
The best part of the novel is when Troy is introduced after a similarly absurd episode lands hapless Stanley in the slammer temporarily. Willeford writes charismatic psychos superbly, like he did in Miami Blues, and Sideswipe is no exception. Troy’s charming and you can see why Stanley valued him so quickly as a friend, but he’s also very unpredictable and extremely violent at times. He’s a very compelling character to read about.
I liked how each time Stanley would meet Troy he would get dragged further and further into his dark criminal lifestyle but also didn’t mind it because they genuinely get along and retirement was clearly boring to Stanley. The novel became more engrossing the more Stanley stayed in Troy’s world and the supermarket heist is a helluva exciting chapter.
While the way Willeford wrote about Hoke’s PTSD at the start seemed realistic, Hoke just happens to snap out of it when he’s needed back in Miami to help catch Troy - is that realistic? I honestly don’t know but it seems a little convenient from a narrative perspective. One minute he can’t move out of his chair and is practically catatonic, the next he’s back to his old self, running a complex investigation. Hmm.
Sideswipe wasn’t as good as Miami Blues - which is seeming more and more a one-off firecracker of a book - but if you don't mind a very slow narrative/you’re a very patient reader, it’s worth checking out. Basically Sideswipe is a Willeford fans-only read.
Charles Willeford’s Sideswipe is a journey. A very, very slow-burning journey where you wait and you wait and you wait for the two storylines to sync up, as you know they inevitably will - Hoke’s a cop, Troy’s a robber - but it takes the entire length of the novel until they do and then things are quickly wrapped up in the last 25 pages or so! I still say it was a worthwhile journey to take though.
Hoke’s storyline is definitely the least interesting out of two not particularly interesting storylines - at least to start with. He has his breakdown - which I’m sure is realistic; PTSD/mental breakdowns probably do come out of the blue and strike hard - then goes to convalesce at his dad’s place and begin his new life. But nothing that exciting happens at Singer Island.
At some point he helps solve the case of the burglaries at his dad’s wife’s apartment complex (considering she’s nearly his age, “stepmother” is a stretch), otherwise he’s doing diddly-squat for almost the entire novel. Still, as easy to put down as the novel was, it’s a credit to Willeford’s writing ability that I never considered abandoning it because the chapters always contained moments of uniquely surprising oddity and amusement.
Like the fact that Hoke decides, to simplify his life more, he’ll buy a pair of yellow poplin jumpsuits to wear - to cut down on the laundry, of course! Just the image alone of this maniac going about his days wearing yellow jumpsuits made me smile. And then later on his teenage daughter Aileen comes to stay with him - yeah, he just abandons his two daughters in Miami with his preggo partner, because that’s what you did in the ‘80s - and he finds out she’s bulimic but he doesn’t know what that means so he freaks out and sends her packing on a red eye to California where “the nuns'' will straighten her out (and amazingly they do!).
It’s just unexpectedly funny like that. And Hoke comes across some odd tenants like academic Itai (named after the Japanese word for “hurt”) who’s meant to be writing a novel but is really fascinated with horseflies.
The best part of the novel is when Troy is introduced after a similarly absurd episode lands hapless Stanley in the slammer temporarily. Willeford writes charismatic psychos superbly, like he did in Miami Blues, and Sideswipe is no exception. Troy’s charming and you can see why Stanley valued him so quickly as a friend, but he’s also very unpredictable and extremely violent at times. He’s a very compelling character to read about.
I liked how each time Stanley would meet Troy he would get dragged further and further into his dark criminal lifestyle but also didn’t mind it because they genuinely get along and retirement was clearly boring to Stanley. The novel became more engrossing the more Stanley stayed in Troy’s world and the supermarket heist is a helluva exciting chapter.
While the way Willeford wrote about Hoke’s PTSD at the start seemed realistic, Hoke just happens to snap out of it when he’s needed back in Miami to help catch Troy - is that realistic? I honestly don’t know but it seems a little convenient from a narrative perspective. One minute he can’t move out of his chair and is practically catatonic, the next he’s back to his old self, running a complex investigation. Hmm.
Sideswipe wasn’t as good as Miami Blues - which is seeming more and more a one-off firecracker of a book - but if you don't mind a very slow narrative/you’re a very patient reader, it’s worth checking out. Basically Sideswipe is a Willeford fans-only read.
August 20, 2014
Hoke Moseley truly is a one of a kind protagonist and Sideswipe is his most uniquely Willefordian case yet. A detective novel where the crime occurs in the last chapter, that alternates between the plotting of a heist and the workings of a policeman are not exactly rare you might say but in the hands of Charles Willeford this generic plot takes on a whole new life.
Instead of intricate details of who goes where and when, a recce of the bank in question and potential getaway routes led by a criminal mastermind we are treated to the chess like machinations of a criminal psychopath as seen through the eyes of a clueless Florida retiree.
And anybody who's picked up a Hoke Moseley novel will happily tell you that Hoke is no hero cop, no genius detective, no gumshoe with keen insight in to the criminal mind, Hoke is a middle aged man without any teeth currently going through a midlife crisis as he faces up to living with his two teenaged daughters and his former detective partner currently eight months pregnant, all the while being inundated with mind numbing desk work.
The majority of the novel then is NOT your typical pulp crime shenanigans; it is a treatise on how two men are lost in an America changing beyond their recognition or their abilities to cope, there's an affecting look at how family can mean many different things to different people and can be made up of many different people not just those you are born to, and yet Hoke is still a decent cop who does some solid work when not wearing yellow jumpsuits and moonlighting as an apartment manager to avoid responsibilities.
The invention of Stanley the retired automotive worker is a particular high point for me, the poor clueless guy who just wants to find a place for himself in society with what's left of his life has a true innocence to the way he sees the world and the way he is introduced to the reader is the work of a genius. Willeford twists and turns the reader around in that opening chapter until it ends with a full on "holy fuck, did that really just happen?!" moment. Willeford was a prolific and much respected author but this has to be right up there with his finest moments, and probably the finest moments ever captured in crime fiction.
Instead of intricate details of who goes where and when, a recce of the bank in question and potential getaway routes led by a criminal mastermind we are treated to the chess like machinations of a criminal psychopath as seen through the eyes of a clueless Florida retiree.
And anybody who's picked up a Hoke Moseley novel will happily tell you that Hoke is no hero cop, no genius detective, no gumshoe with keen insight in to the criminal mind, Hoke is a middle aged man without any teeth currently going through a midlife crisis as he faces up to living with his two teenaged daughters and his former detective partner currently eight months pregnant, all the while being inundated with mind numbing desk work.
The majority of the novel then is NOT your typical pulp crime shenanigans; it is a treatise on how two men are lost in an America changing beyond their recognition or their abilities to cope, there's an affecting look at how family can mean many different things to different people and can be made up of many different people not just those you are born to, and yet Hoke is still a decent cop who does some solid work when not wearing yellow jumpsuits and moonlighting as an apartment manager to avoid responsibilities.
The invention of Stanley the retired automotive worker is a particular high point for me, the poor clueless guy who just wants to find a place for himself in society with what's left of his life has a true innocence to the way he sees the world and the way he is introduced to the reader is the work of a genius. Willeford twists and turns the reader around in that opening chapter until it ends with a full on "holy fuck, did that really just happen?!" moment. Willeford was a prolific and much respected author but this has to be right up there with his finest moments, and probably the finest moments ever captured in crime fiction.
January 22, 2021
The third in Charles Willeford’s Hoke Mosely series, and by far the best of the three, the best written, where Hoke’s character is well-fleshed out (and he’s out of shape, too). I’m not saying that there aren’t pleasures to be had in the reading of the first two, Miami Blues and New Hope for the Dead, for sure. I much prefer my mysteries with angst and anguish and existential dread, but this one clearly highlights the funny stuff and I laughed quite a bit, actually. (Laughter needed in conjunction with US inauguration, and related issues). I couldn’t help see Hoke as Paul Giamatti, who was also in a popular movie, Sideways, and Hoke’s life is going sideways here, too, for most of the book.
In this one two main separate plotlines converge; in the first, Hoke, overworked, has a kind of breakdown and “retires” (takes an unpaid leave) from the Miami police force to manage an apartment building for his father Frank on Singer Island; one daughter drops out of high school to work in a car wash, the other may have an eating disorder. He’s broke, disillusioned. He still has a house he is renting with his eight-month-pregnant (police) partner, Ellita Sanchez.
The other plotline involves a retired auto worker, Stanley, who ends up in jail, wrongfully accused of molesting a minor, and there meets a psychopathic lifetime criminal, Tracy.
“What’s a psychopath, Tracy?” the old, trusting Stanley asks.
“A psychopath makes no distinction between right and wrong.”
“You mean you don’t know the difference?”
“No, no! I know the difference, I just don’t give a shit.”
The old guy wants a more interesting life so agrees to the more edgy life of crime. He listens for hours to Tracy, a pretty funny smooth-talkin’ philosopher psycho who befriends and takes him in on one of his robbery schemes (gone wrong), also undertaken by a disfigured stripper who can’t dance and a terrible artist, which then involves Hoke’s partner getting shot, the crime roping Hoke back into policework.
The conclusion is suddenly more serious and violent than I expected, given the humor of the book, but well done and satisfying. What I noticed is that both Hoke and Stanley are both lost sideways American guys, and so finally there’s really a kind of existential undercurrent Willeford accomplishes, and we like both these schleppy guys.
In this one two main separate plotlines converge; in the first, Hoke, overworked, has a kind of breakdown and “retires” (takes an unpaid leave) from the Miami police force to manage an apartment building for his father Frank on Singer Island; one daughter drops out of high school to work in a car wash, the other may have an eating disorder. He’s broke, disillusioned. He still has a house he is renting with his eight-month-pregnant (police) partner, Ellita Sanchez.
The other plotline involves a retired auto worker, Stanley, who ends up in jail, wrongfully accused of molesting a minor, and there meets a psychopathic lifetime criminal, Tracy.
“What’s a psychopath, Tracy?” the old, trusting Stanley asks.
“A psychopath makes no distinction between right and wrong.”
“You mean you don’t know the difference?”
“No, no! I know the difference, I just don’t give a shit.”
The old guy wants a more interesting life so agrees to the more edgy life of crime. He listens for hours to Tracy, a pretty funny smooth-talkin’ philosopher psycho who befriends and takes him in on one of his robbery schemes (gone wrong), also undertaken by a disfigured stripper who can’t dance and a terrible artist, which then involves Hoke’s partner getting shot, the crime roping Hoke back into policework.
The conclusion is suddenly more serious and violent than I expected, given the humor of the book, but well done and satisfying. What I noticed is that both Hoke and Stanley are both lost sideways American guys, and so finally there’s really a kind of existential undercurrent Willeford accomplishes, and we like both these schleppy guys.
June 2, 2023
Sideswipe , the third book in the Hoke Moseley series, finds Hoke at a crossroads in his life and unsure of what he would do if he quit the police department. While this one continues Hoke’s character study, it rolls into the criminal’s character study while setting up the crime mystery. It reminded me of book one in the sense that is a fifty-fifty split between the good and the bad guys.
My rating is less than average for this one and it boils down to the fact that I didn’t find that much appealing about the criminal in this book, unlike Junior who featured in book one. And the focus solely on Hoke with his daughter’s and partner being mostly sidelined didn’t help maintain my interests. It wasn’t a bad book by any means; I just didn’t enjoy it as much as the first two books (which is kind of funny since some reviewers felt this one was the best in the series thus far).
Tightly written, it’s another tribute to Willeford’s worth as an author.
My rating is less than average for this one and it boils down to the fact that I didn’t find that much appealing about the criminal in this book, unlike Junior who featured in book one. And the focus solely on Hoke with his daughter’s and partner being mostly sidelined didn’t help maintain my interests. It wasn’t a bad book by any means; I just didn’t enjoy it as much as the first two books (which is kind of funny since some reviewers felt this one was the best in the series thus far).
Tightly written, it’s another tribute to Willeford’s worth as an author.
April 16, 2024
At the tail end of a long writing career, Willeford catapaulted to newfound fame with his four Hoke Moseley novels beginning with Miami Blues. What was it about this series that found new audiences for Willeford’s work? Lawrence Block in the introduction says that “Willeford wrote quirky books about quirky characters, and seems to have done so with a magnificent disregard for what anyone else thought.” Moseley is an odd hero for a police detective series. He is a prematurely-balding denture-wearing 43-year-old, divorced, and just has an odd lookout in life.
That odd lookout stands out quite clearly in “Sideswipe” which begins with Hoke having a nervous breakdown from dealing with too many cold cases, caring for his two teenage daughters who his ex-wife had shipped to him on the greyhound bus when she married a professional ballplayer who was not interested in having her kids around, and watching over his partner, Ellita Sanchez, who is on maternity leave and living with him and his daughters in a suburban house he managed to borrow from a possible murderess since he needed a stable homestead. This fine day Hoke wakes up, gets the paper, sits in his chair on the back patio, and does not get up or say a word for hours. When he is shipped off to Singer Island where his father, Frank Moseley lives with second wife Helen, Hoke decides maybe he has had enough of everything and wants to simplify his life. He decides he is never leaving the little barrier island, that he will buy two sets of coveralls, and not get a telephone. Simplify. Simplify. Simplify.
Willeford though offers us a parallel narrative with one Stanley Sinkiewicz in Riviera Beach, Florida, who had retired from the Ford Motor Plant’s assembly line where he hand-painted with a steady hand a stripe on the side of each car because a machine-ruled line lacked the raciness a hand-drawn line gives to a finished automobile. Maya, his wife, missed the cold slushy Detroit winters and her friends and family. Stanley just wanted to live his simple life on his pension and social security. But, unlike Hoke who rode the night train to simple life, Stanley’s life is about to turn upside down as he is unjustly accused of child molestation, makes pals with his cell mate until the complaint is withdrawn, and when his former cellmate who just happens to be a psychopathic killer, shows up at his now-bachelor pad in Florida, Stanley decides he will join in whatever his buddy Troy Louden is doing. That includes sending a threatening note to the guy Troy held up when he was hitchiking and joining Troy’s little quirky crime family which consists of Troy, a Barbadan painter, and a woman with a body that drew favorable looks from every man but a face destroyed so bad plastic surgery could never fix. It is an odd story about how Stanley, having no one else who seemed to care about him now that Maya had left him, throws in with this odd assortment of losers and psychopaths and plays his part in a violent affair that in retrospect seems a bit ill-planned and off-kilter.
But perhaps that is the magic that Willeford captured in the Hoke Moseley series in the 1980’s – the fact that, once you get to know people, you find out they are all a bit quirky and a bit off-kilter if given half a chance with nothing left to lose. Scratch the surface of the ticky-tacky suburban sprawl and you find that not all is peachy and that everyone you meet might just be treading water above a nervous breakdown.
That odd lookout stands out quite clearly in “Sideswipe” which begins with Hoke having a nervous breakdown from dealing with too many cold cases, caring for his two teenage daughters who his ex-wife had shipped to him on the greyhound bus when she married a professional ballplayer who was not interested in having her kids around, and watching over his partner, Ellita Sanchez, who is on maternity leave and living with him and his daughters in a suburban house he managed to borrow from a possible murderess since he needed a stable homestead. This fine day Hoke wakes up, gets the paper, sits in his chair on the back patio, and does not get up or say a word for hours. When he is shipped off to Singer Island where his father, Frank Moseley lives with second wife Helen, Hoke decides maybe he has had enough of everything and wants to simplify his life. He decides he is never leaving the little barrier island, that he will buy two sets of coveralls, and not get a telephone. Simplify. Simplify. Simplify.
Willeford though offers us a parallel narrative with one Stanley Sinkiewicz in Riviera Beach, Florida, who had retired from the Ford Motor Plant’s assembly line where he hand-painted with a steady hand a stripe on the side of each car because a machine-ruled line lacked the raciness a hand-drawn line gives to a finished automobile. Maya, his wife, missed the cold slushy Detroit winters and her friends and family. Stanley just wanted to live his simple life on his pension and social security. But, unlike Hoke who rode the night train to simple life, Stanley’s life is about to turn upside down as he is unjustly accused of child molestation, makes pals with his cell mate until the complaint is withdrawn, and when his former cellmate who just happens to be a psychopathic killer, shows up at his now-bachelor pad in Florida, Stanley decides he will join in whatever his buddy Troy Louden is doing. That includes sending a threatening note to the guy Troy held up when he was hitchiking and joining Troy’s little quirky crime family which consists of Troy, a Barbadan painter, and a woman with a body that drew favorable looks from every man but a face destroyed so bad plastic surgery could never fix. It is an odd story about how Stanley, having no one else who seemed to care about him now that Maya had left him, throws in with this odd assortment of losers and psychopaths and plays his part in a violent affair that in retrospect seems a bit ill-planned and off-kilter.
But perhaps that is the magic that Willeford captured in the Hoke Moseley series in the 1980’s – the fact that, once you get to know people, you find out they are all a bit quirky and a bit off-kilter if given half a chance with nothing left to lose. Scratch the surface of the ticky-tacky suburban sprawl and you find that not all is peachy and that everyone you meet might just be treading water above a nervous breakdown.
June 17, 2021
"Life is short and deserves a better cause."
- Karl Kraus
"'By the way, Dr. Fairbairn said I was overdue for my prostate massage'. Helen signed, and then she smiled. 'I'll get the Crisco.'"
- Charles Willeford, Sideswipe
Book three in Willeford's four Hoke Moseley mystery novels. Hoke has had a breakdown and is sent to live with his father and his stepmother on Singer Island. His partner is pregnant and living with him and his daughters. His daughters have their own challenges. Meanwhile, a psychopath has met an old man in jail and is putting together a team for a perfect crime. Sometimes, not even a meltdown lets you get away from work for more than a month.
Willeford has an off-beat naturalism that might not be everyone's jam, but he's my jam and toast for sure. He has an insight into human nature and Miami that is hard to rival.
- Karl Kraus
"'By the way, Dr. Fairbairn said I was overdue for my prostate massage'. Helen signed, and then she smiled. 'I'll get the Crisco.'"
- Charles Willeford, Sideswipe
Book three in Willeford's four Hoke Moseley mystery novels. Hoke has had a breakdown and is sent to live with his father and his stepmother on Singer Island. His partner is pregnant and living with him and his daughters. His daughters have their own challenges. Meanwhile, a psychopath has met an old man in jail and is putting together a team for a perfect crime. Sometimes, not even a meltdown lets you get away from work for more than a month.
Willeford has an off-beat naturalism that might not be everyone's jam, but he's my jam and toast for sure. He has an insight into human nature and Miami that is hard to rival.
September 11, 2018
Great stuff. You get the sense that Willeford almost resented the borderline commercial success of his Hoke Moseley books, and enjoyed rubbing unsuspecting readers' faces in the dirt... not to mention screwing with his publishers!
May 15, 2023
11/2015
The character of Stanley Sinciewicz, and what happens to him, is the best part.
The character of Stanley Sinciewicz, and what happens to him, is the best part.
August 20, 2022
Now that I have finished all four of Charles Willeford's Hoke Moseley novels, all I can say is that I wish the author had lived long enough to write more of them. Sideswipe is my favorite of the police procedurals set in Miami. Hoke is a police sergeant in homicide who is tired of his work, so he decides to live on an island north of the city where his wealthy father owns a number of properties. Parallel to the tale of Hoke's disenchantment is the tale of a retiree whose wife leaves him because he has been accused (falsely) of molesting a 9-year-old girl. (It was she who molested him.) In prison, he meets Troy Loudon, a criminal psychopath who is planning a heist.
Willeford gives us one chapter of Hoke followed by another with Stanley Sienkewicz, the retiree, until they come together at the end.
Unlike most police novels, Willeford's detective is decidedly soft-edged. He keeps his false teeth in a glass at night, and he must put up with his teenaged daughters who have been foisted on him by his ex-wife, who ran off with a rich ballplayer. And, at the beginning, he is also living with his police squad partner, a pregnant Cuban woman who was thrown out by her parents for having a child out of wedlock (BTW not fathered by Hoke).
A delightful book.
Willeford gives us one chapter of Hoke followed by another with Stanley Sienkewicz, the retiree, until they come together at the end.
Unlike most police novels, Willeford's detective is decidedly soft-edged. He keeps his false teeth in a glass at night, and he must put up with his teenaged daughters who have been foisted on him by his ex-wife, who ran off with a rich ballplayer. And, at the beginning, he is also living with his police squad partner, a pregnant Cuban woman who was thrown out by her parents for having a child out of wedlock (BTW not fathered by Hoke).
A delightful book.
December 6, 2016
The Hoke Moseley novels are about a detective, but they are not novels in the detective genre. Charles Willeford never dangles any clues or misdirection in front of the readers, and the actual crime that needs to be solved doesn't happen until the tail end of the book. Instead, he holds the readers interest with remarkably vivid portraits of his characters, various locales in Miami area and of course the themes he brings up (How easily decent (but gullable) people can sometimes be turned to crime, the american dream, sub-urban life, modern art, mid-life crisis, public education, etc.). Charles keeps a swift pace and never lingers on any one particular issue, always rewarding the readers with more interesting tid-bits to chew on, but admittedly, readers accustomed to more formulaic crime novels will be left in the cold (not only does the crime only happen at the end of the book, but for the majority of the novel Hoke is on leave from the force and very intent on never coming back). This novel challenges the conventions of the set formulas and challenges the reader (if only so slightly), but hey, I would expect nothing less from a literary-genre novel.
November 27, 2011
I'm not sure what's going on, but I think I've started to develop a little crush on Hoke Moseley. I know, right? I mean, he pees his pants within the first ten pages of this book. But I feel such a strong affection toward him for some reason.
The structure of this book is more similar to Miami Blues in that every other chapter is about Hoke, and the odd ones deal with another storyline about a criminal sociopath (Troy) who isn't Junior, but might as well be. I completely loved the way it all came together at the end. It's shitballs crazy awesome. And I love how even though throughout the plots of these books Hoke's life is fairly shitty, at the end he gets a nice little pick me up and you're ready to move on thinking the old guy is going to be okay.
My favorite thing about Willeford is the little details. The fact that Hoke tries to cheat at Monopoly. His recipe for beef stew. I love it all.
The structure of this book is more similar to Miami Blues in that every other chapter is about Hoke, and the odd ones deal with another storyline about a criminal sociopath (Troy) who isn't Junior, but might as well be. I completely loved the way it all came together at the end. It's shitballs crazy awesome. And I love how even though throughout the plots of these books Hoke's life is fairly shitty, at the end he gets a nice little pick me up and you're ready to move on thinking the old guy is going to be okay.
My favorite thing about Willeford is the little details. The fact that Hoke tries to cheat at Monopoly. His recipe for beef stew. I love it all.
July 18, 2018
Both parallel threads of this novel seem to meander, never seeming to move the story forward. But don't be deceived—the two unrelated narratives come together in a crashing climax. Halfway through the book the action starts building momentum so slowly the reader is not fully aware that the story is moving forward at breakneck speed by the last two chapters.
Interestingly enough, the book is a rewrite of an earlier Willeford novel No Experience necessary, or at least the Pop Sinkiewicz half.
Interestingly enough, the book is a rewrite of an earlier Willeford novel No Experience necessary, or at least the Pop Sinkiewicz half.
December 15, 2011
The description on the back of the jacket begins with the line, “There comes a time in every detective's life when he's had enough.” After reading that, and not knowing anything about the character, Hoke Mosely, you might assume this story was about a law and order man pushed to the edge of sanity by the degenerate dredges of society, akin to a right-wing revenge fantasy like Clint Eastwood as Dirty Harry or Charles Bronson as Paul Kersey in Death Wish. You’d be wrong, kind of, but you’d also be pleasantly surprised.
What pushes Hoke Mosley to the edge isn’t so much the scum of the earth committing senseless acts of depravity—although there’s plenty of this; Willeford is delightfully unafraid of being politically incorrect in his depictions of police life—but more mundane, everyday problems: a teenage daughter who wants to drop out of high school, another daughter who develops an eating disorder, busywork at the office, financial strife, and a pregnant roommate/coworker who eats her eggs in the most excruciating way possible. All this leads Hoke to a nervous breakdown that takes him out of Miami and back to the sleepy rural Florida vacation community he grew up in, charged with only the mundane tasks of maintaining his father’s hotel in an effort to “simplify his life.”
Meanwhile, adopting the same parallel narrative structure from Miami Blues, Willeford introduces us to Stanley, a retired auto-worker who disowns his family after they fail to rush to his aid when he’s falsely accused of molesting a child, and Troy, a self-described psychopath who enlists Stanley’s aid to get out of prison and later recruits Stanley for his gang/family (Troy also admits to being an admirer of Charles Manson), along with a struggling Barbadian painter, and an emotionally damaged and physically deformed stripper.
The middle of the story dragged a little, and at first the premise of Hoke having a nervous breakdown seemed a little forced, but by the time you reach the climax, almost everything seems to come together brilliantly. Willeford has a gift for using minute but bizarre details to either set up jaw-dropping plot twists or hilarious diatribes that seem to stem from his own cynical grievances. Without giving too much away, the robbery gone awry—again an element repeated from Miami Blues—is one of the best, and most brutal chapters of crime fiction I’ve ever read. It might be his personal history as a decorated combat veteran, but the man knows how to write a gruesome gunshot wound.
What I didn’t like: If there’s one criticism I have, it’s that he writes pretty weak female and minority characters. A reoccurring theme between this book and Miami Blues is whores who are good at housework, weak-willed and irrational, they sit around being told what to do by a man who abuses and exploits them, although this could be Willeford commenting on the degrading effects on the psyche of life in the sex industry. Or he could just be a misogynist.
What I did like: The parallels. He jokes about this with a throwaway line in the last chapter, but I really enjoyed the way Willeford juxtaposes events in Stanley’s/Troy’s timeline with events in Hoke’s. He emulates but differentiates the climax and the ending of this book from the ending and climax of Miami Blues. Ellita, Hoke’s partner, attempts to apprehend Troy by the book, firing a warning shot when she attempts to apprehend him, and she’s punished for this, but when Hoke encounters Junior at the end of Miami Blues, he takes the law into his own hands, executing him coldly and deliberately. At the beginning of the book as Hoke’s family falls apart, Troy’s family assembles, and at the end of the book as Hoke’s family rejoins in resolution, Troy’s family disperses in bloody carnage. We’re left not entirely sure if Troy really wanted to live happily ever after at The Hotel Oluffsson (I’ve been there!) with his family/gang, or if he merely snapped when a seemingly routine robbery went haywire due to mundane details overlooked, thus serving as a callback to the inciting incident of Hoke’s nervous breakdown.
What pushes Hoke Mosley to the edge isn’t so much the scum of the earth committing senseless acts of depravity—although there’s plenty of this; Willeford is delightfully unafraid of being politically incorrect in his depictions of police life—but more mundane, everyday problems: a teenage daughter who wants to drop out of high school, another daughter who develops an eating disorder, busywork at the office, financial strife, and a pregnant roommate/coworker who eats her eggs in the most excruciating way possible. All this leads Hoke to a nervous breakdown that takes him out of Miami and back to the sleepy rural Florida vacation community he grew up in, charged with only the mundane tasks of maintaining his father’s hotel in an effort to “simplify his life.”
Meanwhile, adopting the same parallel narrative structure from Miami Blues, Willeford introduces us to Stanley, a retired auto-worker who disowns his family after they fail to rush to his aid when he’s falsely accused of molesting a child, and Troy, a self-described psychopath who enlists Stanley’s aid to get out of prison and later recruits Stanley for his gang/family (Troy also admits to being an admirer of Charles Manson), along with a struggling Barbadian painter, and an emotionally damaged and physically deformed stripper.
The middle of the story dragged a little, and at first the premise of Hoke having a nervous breakdown seemed a little forced, but by the time you reach the climax, almost everything seems to come together brilliantly. Willeford has a gift for using minute but bizarre details to either set up jaw-dropping plot twists or hilarious diatribes that seem to stem from his own cynical grievances. Without giving too much away, the robbery gone awry—again an element repeated from Miami Blues—is one of the best, and most brutal chapters of crime fiction I’ve ever read. It might be his personal history as a decorated combat veteran, but the man knows how to write a gruesome gunshot wound.
What I didn’t like: If there’s one criticism I have, it’s that he writes pretty weak female and minority characters. A reoccurring theme between this book and Miami Blues is whores who are good at housework, weak-willed and irrational, they sit around being told what to do by a man who abuses and exploits them, although this could be Willeford commenting on the degrading effects on the psyche of life in the sex industry. Or he could just be a misogynist.
What I did like: The parallels. He jokes about this with a throwaway line in the last chapter, but I really enjoyed the way Willeford juxtaposes events in Stanley’s/Troy’s timeline with events in Hoke’s. He emulates but differentiates the climax and the ending of this book from the ending and climax of Miami Blues. Ellita, Hoke’s partner, attempts to apprehend Troy by the book, firing a warning shot when she attempts to apprehend him, and she’s punished for this, but when Hoke encounters Junior at the end of Miami Blues, he takes the law into his own hands, executing him coldly and deliberately. At the beginning of the book as Hoke’s family falls apart, Troy’s family assembles, and at the end of the book as Hoke’s family rejoins in resolution, Troy’s family disperses in bloody carnage. We’re left not entirely sure if Troy really wanted to live happily ever after at The Hotel Oluffsson (I’ve been there!) with his family/gang, or if he merely snapped when a seemingly routine robbery went haywire due to mundane details overlooked, thus serving as a callback to the inciting incident of Hoke’s nervous breakdown.
Read
November 11, 2020following the botched supermarket heist things get real anticlimactic real fast, but willbro's command of what i would classify as "sad bachelor stuff" (games of solitaire; adding extra onions to canned stew; shooting the breeze with the downstairs neighbor about horseflies; having strong opinions about the best & worst stouffers frozen entrees) remains unrivaled. gotta love as well the perversity of a crime novel where the detective makes just wildly wrong deductions (lol @ concluding that stanley's spent his life in prison). on to moseley #4!
January 7, 2013
Weird book. Not sure that it qualifies as a mystery. Not much of a mystery to it. Just two stories that eventually intersect, with the detective in the story being the point of intersection.
September 10, 2020
Giro di vita
Il Noir riempie le pagine e la vita di molti autori, anche quando credono di scrivere altro, perché è un'atmosfera, un mood.
Come il Blues. Due colori.
Willeford ci gira intorno a modo suo, in maniera molto personale e con l'indolenza di chi, al pari del suo sergente Hoke Moseley, non ha nulla da dimostrare. Non gli interessa.
In particolare qui, nel terzo capitolo della saga di Miami, imbastisce una storia dividendola in due dando il meglio proprio in quella senza il suo Moseley, che nel frattempo è andato fuori di testa e vuole lasciare la Polizia per fare l'amministratore di condominio. Che tipo.
Così, mentre il suo protagonista vive questo cambiamento, Willeford imbastisce una trama parallela partendo da un fatto che oserei dire comico se non fosse serio come quello dell'abuso di minori, e ci presenta il pensionato Stanley, il 'pittore' James, la sfigurata Dale, e soprattutto Troy, uno psicopatico con tendenze criminali che merita il posto d'onore, una personalità spiccata, seducente e pericolosa.
Quando le trame si uniscono, il Noir richiama Willeford tra le sue braccia e scatena le forze in poche efficaci pagine, come quei temporali brevi ma intensi che mica me l'aspettavo.
Poi torna la quiete, e il respiro.
Per il modo di incedere con cui è stato concepito, il romanzo può apparire lento, o addirittura noioso. Mica vero.
Willeford ha avuto una carriera militare ventennale e:
“Una buona metà degli uomini che si incontrano sotto le armi sono psicopatici. Esistono molti punti in comune fra la popolazione carcerarie e quella militare. È così che ho conosciuto tanti uomini come Troy”
Il Noir riempie le pagine e la vita di molti autori, anche quando credono di scrivere altro, perché è un'atmosfera, un mood.
Come il Blues. Due colori.
Willeford ci gira intorno a modo suo, in maniera molto personale e con l'indolenza di chi, al pari del suo sergente Hoke Moseley, non ha nulla da dimostrare. Non gli interessa.
In particolare qui, nel terzo capitolo della saga di Miami, imbastisce una storia dividendola in due dando il meglio proprio in quella senza il suo Moseley, che nel frattempo è andato fuori di testa e vuole lasciare la Polizia per fare l'amministratore di condominio. Che tipo.
Così, mentre il suo protagonista vive questo cambiamento, Willeford imbastisce una trama parallela partendo da un fatto che oserei dire comico se non fosse serio come quello dell'abuso di minori, e ci presenta il pensionato Stanley, il 'pittore' James, la sfigurata Dale, e soprattutto Troy, uno psicopatico con tendenze criminali che merita il posto d'onore, una personalità spiccata, seducente e pericolosa.
Quando le trame si uniscono, il Noir richiama Willeford tra le sue braccia e scatena le forze in poche efficaci pagine, come quei temporali brevi ma intensi che mica me l'aspettavo.
Poi torna la quiete, e il respiro.
Per il modo di incedere con cui è stato concepito, il romanzo può apparire lento, o addirittura noioso. Mica vero.
Willeford ha avuto una carriera militare ventennale e:
“Una buona metà degli uomini che si incontrano sotto le armi sono psicopatici. Esistono molti punti in comune fra la popolazione carcerarie e quella militare. È così che ho conosciuto tanti uomini come Troy”
December 18, 2024
I really liked this book. The understated way he describes the life of Hoke and the life of Stanley, as a matter of fact, that it is natural to behave the way they do. The result is a very unusual crime novel.
Hoke a police detective and Stanley a retired factory worker who unwittingly gets pulled into a life of crime.
Interlaced with all kinds of witty society critical remarks.
Hoke's and Stanley's characters and life is very well fleshed out. We know that this will not end well. The lead up to the final climax takes the majority of the book but I didn't mind at all. In a very entertaining way we get there and then it goes very quick.
Two story lines.
One with Hoke as the central character. It's written with dry wit and humor.
Very intriguing course of events. Good story.
With Hoke Moseley at the centre. An improbable hero. Reluctant detective who is burned out and wants to retitre. But when he takes over his fathers apartment complex as a manager, trouble follows him.
How this played out is superbly described. The colour locale of Singer Island enhances the athmosphere of the story.
In the other story line we follow Troy and Stanley. Experienced from Stanley's point of view.
Great insight and conversation between our main villain (the self proclaimed psychopathic career criminal) Troy Louden and the naive, gullible seventy-one year old Stanley Sinkiewicz. They meet in jail and Troy gives Stanley advice how to handle the inevitable psychological assessment. Stanley being in jail, is based upon a misinderstanding, but Troy is a different story...
Troy also turns out to be a life coach for Stanley. He has his own life philosophy to which he abides.
The reader will sense that this will lead to disaster...
Written: 1987
Charles Willeford: 1919 - 1988
Hoke a police detective and Stanley a retired factory worker who unwittingly gets pulled into a life of crime.
Interlaced with all kinds of witty society critical remarks.
Hoke's and Stanley's characters and life is very well fleshed out. We know that this will not end well. The lead up to the final climax takes the majority of the book but I didn't mind at all. In a very entertaining way we get there and then it goes very quick.
Two story lines.
One with Hoke as the central character. It's written with dry wit and humor.
Very intriguing course of events. Good story.
With Hoke Moseley at the centre. An improbable hero. Reluctant detective who is burned out and wants to retitre. But when he takes over his fathers apartment complex as a manager, trouble follows him.
How this played out is superbly described. The colour locale of Singer Island enhances the athmosphere of the story.
In the other story line we follow Troy and Stanley. Experienced from Stanley's point of view.
Great insight and conversation between our main villain (the self proclaimed psychopathic career criminal) Troy Louden and the naive, gullible seventy-one year old Stanley Sinkiewicz. They meet in jail and Troy gives Stanley advice how to handle the inevitable psychological assessment. Stanley being in jail, is based upon a misinderstanding, but Troy is a different story...
Troy also turns out to be a life coach for Stanley. He has his own life philosophy to which he abides.
The reader will sense that this will lead to disaster...
Written: 1987
Charles Willeford: 1919 - 1988
October 6, 2021
I really liked how Willeford pulled the book together at the end. Lots of really kooky characters doing kooky stuff. I won't go into detail, just know that you will be entertained. Waiting on the final chapter of this series. Read it, you won't be disappointed.
February 6, 2021
Best of the Hoke Moseley novels so far. I’ve got one left, but this’ll be hard to top.
Alternates back and forth between two unrelated stories until a violent intersection at the end. Funny, strange, and twisted.
Alternates back and forth between two unrelated stories until a violent intersection at the end. Funny, strange, and twisted.
May 5, 2022
SIDESWIPE - DNF
I did not finish this book. I got to chapter 12, and I just couldn't go on. But I did skim to the end, just to verify I was right about things.
I've been reading all the Hoke Mosley books, some are great, some not so great. This book was terrible.
Sideswipe has many problems. Some people will think it doesn't age well. It has racist jokes from main characters, sexism, stereotypes, etc. None of that crap matters to me. That's not why I hate this book.
This book doesn't hold with the characters that have already been established. I understand, people can change - but not that much. I think if we we're all watching the new Star Wars, and Luke Skywalker was suddenly a drag queen, we'd all say, "Now hold on just a minute." And we'd all be right.
The characters have not changed for the better either. Instead of being a damaged, loveable loser, Hoke is now a selfish, sexist, asshole, with NO redeeming qualities. I love reading about flawed people, that's why I like noir. But if a book has not one person I can stand, there's a problem.
Hoke Mosley in the previous two books was a self made loser. He'd wear the same shirt for three days in a row, he'd refuse to take exams, so he wouldn't get promoted, and he lived in rat trap hotel because it was free. He didn't put pressure on himself - ever. He always did the bare minimum to get by, even when his daughters came to live with him. Hoke is not big on change, so having the responsibility of his daughters took some getting used to. But that's just it, once he got used to it, no problem. He decided to move in with his new partner, Ellita, because she would help him with his girls. With Hoke, it's always the path of least resistance.
If Hoke took pride in anything, it'd be his job. He's good at it, he knows it, and that's enough. He's not a type A, go-getter, so he doesn't have the stress that goes with it. These established facts are why this book doesn't work.
It begins with Hoke having a stress related nervous breakdown. Why? There's no major life stressor. He's got a new house, his girls are almost grown. He lives with his partner Ellita, who does most of the heavy lifting with his daughters, so again, I ask why? I'm thrown out, because this does not fit with the character. He also becomes a consummate asshole, who doesn't care if his daughters, his colleagues, or his family lives or dies. Who is this man? He's not Hoke Mosley.
There's a parallel story about an old man and a psychopath. I won't even bore you with the review of that. It's so far removed from what could actually happen in the real world, it's not worth reviewing.
There's another side plot about a man who's burglarizing condos. It's so telegraphed and trite, I could hardly believe his editor left it in.
I won't go into much of this, but in this book, Hoke's sexist views and remarks are predatory and offensive. In the last two books, you laughed at his ignorance. The joke was on him, he just didn't realize it. But in this book, you cringe at the things he says to the women around him. Also, every single woman in this book is a useless simp. His daughters, his partner, even side characters are all helpless and irritating. This is another change from the previous two books, and not for the better.
Summation: If you liked Miami Blues and New Hope for the Dead DON'T READ THIS BOOK! The characters are not the same as the first two books in this series. They are not likeable or believable. The stories are boring and telegraphed. There's not one well drawn or likable character in this book. Save your precious reading time for something that's worthy of you.
I did not finish this book. I got to chapter 12, and I just couldn't go on. But I did skim to the end, just to verify I was right about things.
I've been reading all the Hoke Mosley books, some are great, some not so great. This book was terrible.
Sideswipe has many problems. Some people will think it doesn't age well. It has racist jokes from main characters, sexism, stereotypes, etc. None of that crap matters to me. That's not why I hate this book.
This book doesn't hold with the characters that have already been established. I understand, people can change - but not that much. I think if we we're all watching the new Star Wars, and Luke Skywalker was suddenly a drag queen, we'd all say, "Now hold on just a minute." And we'd all be right.
The characters have not changed for the better either. Instead of being a damaged, loveable loser, Hoke is now a selfish, sexist, asshole, with NO redeeming qualities. I love reading about flawed people, that's why I like noir. But if a book has not one person I can stand, there's a problem.
Hoke Mosley in the previous two books was a self made loser. He'd wear the same shirt for three days in a row, he'd refuse to take exams, so he wouldn't get promoted, and he lived in rat trap hotel because it was free. He didn't put pressure on himself - ever. He always did the bare minimum to get by, even when his daughters came to live with him. Hoke is not big on change, so having the responsibility of his daughters took some getting used to. But that's just it, once he got used to it, no problem. He decided to move in with his new partner, Ellita, because she would help him with his girls. With Hoke, it's always the path of least resistance.
If Hoke took pride in anything, it'd be his job. He's good at it, he knows it, and that's enough. He's not a type A, go-getter, so he doesn't have the stress that goes with it. These established facts are why this book doesn't work.
It begins with Hoke having a stress related nervous breakdown. Why? There's no major life stressor. He's got a new house, his girls are almost grown. He lives with his partner Ellita, who does most of the heavy lifting with his daughters, so again, I ask why? I'm thrown out, because this does not fit with the character. He also becomes a consummate asshole, who doesn't care if his daughters, his colleagues, or his family lives or dies. Who is this man? He's not Hoke Mosley.
There's a parallel story about an old man and a psychopath. I won't even bore you with the review of that. It's so far removed from what could actually happen in the real world, it's not worth reviewing.
There's another side plot about a man who's burglarizing condos. It's so telegraphed and trite, I could hardly believe his editor left it in.
I won't go into much of this, but in this book, Hoke's sexist views and remarks are predatory and offensive. In the last two books, you laughed at his ignorance. The joke was on him, he just didn't realize it. But in this book, you cringe at the things he says to the women around him. Also, every single woman in this book is a useless simp. His daughters, his partner, even side characters are all helpless and irritating. This is another change from the previous two books, and not for the better.
Summation: If you liked Miami Blues and New Hope for the Dead DON'T READ THIS BOOK! The characters are not the same as the first two books in this series. They are not likeable or believable. The stories are boring and telegraphed. There's not one well drawn or likable character in this book. Save your precious reading time for something that's worthy of you.
November 12, 2023
Writer friends I trust kept telling me to read Willeford—so when I finally did, picking up the third in the Hoke Moseley series, I at first wondered what the hell they were talking about. This book, and more notably, the character was going nowhere and not much was happening. Actually, nothing was happening. This book was a 2-star at most, and I thought about bailing. But I didn’t. And I don’t know why.
For sure the writing was top notch, sharp, clean, all the things I like. But when the so-called detective falls into a catatonic stupor, and the twinned storyline about some goofy senior citizen with marital problems seems to be going nowhere, I questioned what these other writers were talking about. When detective Hoke does come out of the trance, brought on by too much work, he decides to run an apartment building for his father, and to somehow simplify his life. Along the way we get to know about his daughters, one with an eating disorder, his ex-wife who is now married to a professional baseball player, his pregnant partner, and seemingly a bunch of stuff that doesn’t really matter. There is a long exchange with a tenant who studies Ethiopian horseflies, I kid you not.
The other mentioned storyline is just as meandering. Stanley Sinkiewicz the retired auto factory worker gets tossed in jail after a bogus charge, where he meets Troy Louden. There is some intrigue as we began to understand Troy is not playing with a full deck, or the cards he has are potentially really violent–that forced metaphor makes as much sense as the rest of the book. Later we meet a non-objective painter from the Bahamas, and a stripper with a horrific facial injury. Are you still with me?
The weirdest thing happened, though—with the slowest of burns, the tension grows, so much so I had to put the book down and take a break. I knew something bad was going to happen and it was going to be explosive. But holy crap, Willeford trusted his readers to stay with him a long time before things broke loose… or else he didn’t care. For the first several hundred pages, there really is no crime in this book. But for the last twenty-five, not only could I not put it down, the realization that all that came before mattered. And wow, does it explode.
This book cast a strange spell on me, and made me see crime fiction in a whole new light. The two-star book became a five, or if possible a six-star read. It's a novel that broke the rules and changed the game. Sadly, I doubt Sideswipe would get published in today’s market. It asks a lot of the reader... mainly patience. But if you stick with it, the resonance of this novel, and Hoke Moseley, will stay with you a very long time.
I am off to read everything Willeford has written.
For sure the writing was top notch, sharp, clean, all the things I like. But when the so-called detective falls into a catatonic stupor, and the twinned storyline about some goofy senior citizen with marital problems seems to be going nowhere, I questioned what these other writers were talking about. When detective Hoke does come out of the trance, brought on by too much work, he decides to run an apartment building for his father, and to somehow simplify his life. Along the way we get to know about his daughters, one with an eating disorder, his ex-wife who is now married to a professional baseball player, his pregnant partner, and seemingly a bunch of stuff that doesn’t really matter. There is a long exchange with a tenant who studies Ethiopian horseflies, I kid you not.
The other mentioned storyline is just as meandering. Stanley Sinkiewicz the retired auto factory worker gets tossed in jail after a bogus charge, where he meets Troy Louden. There is some intrigue as we began to understand Troy is not playing with a full deck, or the cards he has are potentially really violent–that forced metaphor makes as much sense as the rest of the book. Later we meet a non-objective painter from the Bahamas, and a stripper with a horrific facial injury. Are you still with me?
The weirdest thing happened, though—with the slowest of burns, the tension grows, so much so I had to put the book down and take a break. I knew something bad was going to happen and it was going to be explosive. But holy crap, Willeford trusted his readers to stay with him a long time before things broke loose… or else he didn’t care. For the first several hundred pages, there really is no crime in this book. But for the last twenty-five, not only could I not put it down, the realization that all that came before mattered. And wow, does it explode.
This book cast a strange spell on me, and made me see crime fiction in a whole new light. The two-star book became a five, or if possible a six-star read. It's a novel that broke the rules and changed the game. Sadly, I doubt Sideswipe would get published in today’s market. It asks a lot of the reader... mainly patience. But if you stick with it, the resonance of this novel, and Hoke Moseley, will stay with you a very long time.
I am off to read everything Willeford has written.
December 20, 2022
I like a story that goes 65 mph in a 55, and this one is pushing 40 in a 55. It’s the minutiae that killed me though. A lot a lot of detail, even in the dialogue, and there was a point to it and a payoff, but I wasn’t in the mood to settle in and pass that kind of time with these characters, not right now.
January 14, 2019
Alan Sepinwall, my favorite TV critic, has a running gag in his columns where he talks about how he’d like to see a character from whatever show he’s reviewing have a spin-off where they do banal tasks relational to the character’s motives. My personal favorite was the suggestion that goofy Justified gangster Wynn Duffy get a series called Wynnipeg in which he gets continually frustrated at teaching Canadians how to be criminals.
At any rate, three books into the Hoke Moseley series and I feel like this one, as well as its immediate prequel, are basically a Sepinwall spinoff series come to life.
Miami Blues, the first one in the series, was one of my favorite novels I read in 2018. A raucous, hilarious crime thriller, pitting cop and criminal in the worst game of cat-and-mouse ever. As I had already read, and loved other Willeford works (Cockfighter was my favorite crime read of 2017), I fast tracked the Hoke Moseley on my ever expanding TBR list.
Sadly, the second one New Hope for the Dead did not meet expectations. There were funny gags and Willeford is great at writing characters and creating a lived in Miami, even if its cynically presented. Most of the novel was about Hoke dealing with family issues and solving a rash of uninteresting crimes on the side.
When this one began with Hoke being sidelined from his family, I liked where it was going but sadly, it soon circles back into family stuff, with a parallel story of the criminals getting ready to commit The Big Crime. When the two finally intersect near the end, it’s great. The last forty pages are wonderful. But for the most part, Sideswipe is a remix of New Hope with a better ending.
Instead of getting “Hoke Moseley, curmudgeonly Miami detective”, I’m getting the spinoff series where said detective helps people do mundane stuff in their daily lives. Willeford’s such a great writer that I find myself enjoying this nonetheless. But it doesn’t make for a great story, definitely not a great crime read at least. And that’s fine. It’s just a little disappointing.
At any rate, three books into the Hoke Moseley series and I feel like this one, as well as its immediate prequel, are basically a Sepinwall spinoff series come to life.
Miami Blues, the first one in the series, was one of my favorite novels I read in 2018. A raucous, hilarious crime thriller, pitting cop and criminal in the worst game of cat-and-mouse ever. As I had already read, and loved other Willeford works (Cockfighter was my favorite crime read of 2017), I fast tracked the Hoke Moseley on my ever expanding TBR list.
Sadly, the second one New Hope for the Dead did not meet expectations. There were funny gags and Willeford is great at writing characters and creating a lived in Miami, even if its cynically presented. Most of the novel was about Hoke dealing with family issues and solving a rash of uninteresting crimes on the side.
When this one began with Hoke being sidelined from his family, I liked where it was going but sadly, it soon circles back into family stuff, with a parallel story of the criminals getting ready to commit The Big Crime. When the two finally intersect near the end, it’s great. The last forty pages are wonderful. But for the most part, Sideswipe is a remix of New Hope with a better ending.
Instead of getting “Hoke Moseley, curmudgeonly Miami detective”, I’m getting the spinoff series where said detective helps people do mundane stuff in their daily lives. Willeford’s such a great writer that I find myself enjoying this nonetheless. But it doesn’t make for a great story, definitely not a great crime read at least. And that’s fine. It’s just a little disappointing.
September 14, 2023
Not even an outlaw like Charles Willeford is immune to falling into the series trap. It's very clear that he's trying to recapture the magic of MIAMI BLUES with the cross-cutting perspective chapters. But Stanley, who is something of a fish-out-of-water type, is nowhere nearly as interesting as Freddy Freneger. The novel does have some punch and life in it with Mosley trying to reconcile living with his two daughters and his pregnant partner. But on the whole, this entry lacks the bite and acuity of previous offerings, the very reasons we read Willeford.
September 17, 2022
A crime novel without much crime, and in which the main protagonist, detective Hoke Moseley, only connects with the crime/criminals after the action is over.
In the meantime, Hoke had a breakdown, attempts to manage his father’s apartment complex, while juggling teenage daughters, police colleagues, his father and step-mother. It’s all very mundane and unremarkable.
The secondary (more interesting) plot line revolves around an elderly man who blindly becomes involved with a small-time criminal planning a robbery.
A pleasant, but ultimately unsatisfying read.
In the meantime, Hoke had a breakdown, attempts to manage his father’s apartment complex, while juggling teenage daughters, police colleagues, his father and step-mother. It’s all very mundane and unremarkable.
The secondary (more interesting) plot line revolves around an elderly man who blindly becomes involved with a small-time criminal planning a robbery.
A pleasant, but ultimately unsatisfying read.
October 27, 2020
hard to say whether these books are great because the criminals are so odd/tenderly sketched, or because hoke the nominal hero is such a dirtbag, or because you recognize yourself in both. doesn't actually matter. this particular moment in american history feels like a bad wedgie so it's been a joy to disappear into these for a few hours a day
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