What do you think?
Rate this book
El Cajon
Coming off a failed suicide attempt, Baker finds himself living alone in the sweltering East County of San Diego, renting a tiny room in a hoarder’s house, trying to stay off the booze while popping pills and praying for a new case. It comes with a wallop, dragging him into the dark underbelly of El Cajon where he must face the most powerful, dangerous psychopath in the city.
EL CAJON is a dark, sultry, action-packed crime thriller featuring the capricious, gin-soaked, drug-addled Haim Baker - a tough, troubled, Private Eye in the tradition of Marlowe, Spade and Hammer. Haim's looking for revenge and redemption in this noir boiler that brings to mind an explosive cocktail of classics such as CHINATOWN and THE BIG SLEEP, with a twist of TAKEN. Crack the page and enter the dark world of El Cajon.
EL CAJON is a dark, sultry, action-packed crime thriller featuring the capricious, gin-soaked, drug-addled Haim Baker - a tough, troubled, Private Eye in the tradition of Marlowe, Spade and Hammer. Haim's looking for revenge and redemption in this noir boiler that brings to mind an explosive cocktail of classics such as CHINATOWN and THE BIG SLEEP, with a twist of TAKEN. Crack the page and enter the dark world of El Cajon.
215 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2018
About the author
Joel Shapiro
29 booksJoel Elias Shapiro was an American sculptor renowned for his dynamic work composed of simple rectangular shapes. The artist is classified as a Minimalist as demonstrated in his works, which were mostly defined through the materials used, without allusions to subjects outside of the works.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 of 1 review
February 12, 2018
A double-barrelled blast of hardboiled noir, El Cajon takes all the clichés of 1930s American pulp and delivers them in savage 21st century style. The femme fatale, the corrupt cops, the wounded psyche of the underdog, the acerbic social commentary and genuine moral outrage – all brought bang up to date with an opioid-addicted, self-destructive private eye who’s gone straight through ‘cynical’ and into nihilistic abandon.
Haim Baker is imbued with an intense desire to set bad situations straight… but the smell of strong spirits or a wanton woman rapidly sends him spiralling into another chaotic, pill-popping, binge-drinking bender. When he (sort of) sobers up, Haim might’ve wrecked a car or been beaten to a bloody pulp. If he’s lucky, he’ll find scarlet lipstick on his most intimate anatomy. If he’s not so fortunate, his best friend might be dead.
The title is a little bit confusing, especially for a European reader – it kinda suggests drug cartels on the Mexican border. In fact, El Cajon reads as if Hunter S Thompson, John D MacDonald and Daniel Woodrell spawned a dissolute, lapsed-Jewish detective, then wrote him with the stream-of-altered consciousness style of William Burroughs. It’s topped off with as much X-rated content as you could possibly cram in to an extended episode of bone-crunching, fender-bending, artery-slashing pandemonium. If you’re easily offended, especially by sexual themes, stop reading right here.
In the middle of the blood, guts and squelching, author Joel Shapiro masterfully crafts many moment of shrieking hilarity. He may be digging through the nasty underbelly of middle-class America, but he can’t resist an opportunity for a snarky aside. Then he’ll switch from an instant of wildly ribald witticism to the bleak ennui of a shattered psyche with a smooth sucker-punch you’ll never see coming.
There’s plenty in here to get petrolheads swooning too, in the shape of muscle-cars and beat up old junkers that shouldn’t survive the shoot outs, freeway chases and full-impact collisions which are an everyday occurrence for hapless Haim. Ditto the superb attention to detail with weaponry, down to the loading order of ammunition in the seriously hardcore handguns.
El Cajon aspires to greatness and comes close – but inevitably it missteps on occasion. There are a few editing errors where a typo or wrong word sneaks through, and I couldn’t quite buy the elaborate plot McGuffin which got Haim involved in the first place. But El Cajon stands head and shoulders above the average indie novel from a new writer – and it marks Joel Shapiro as an author to keep an eye on in future.
If you loved LA Confidential then give this a whirl.
9/10
There;s more on this book and many other crime thrillers at http://www.murdermayhemandmore.net
Haim Baker is imbued with an intense desire to set bad situations straight… but the smell of strong spirits or a wanton woman rapidly sends him spiralling into another chaotic, pill-popping, binge-drinking bender. When he (sort of) sobers up, Haim might’ve wrecked a car or been beaten to a bloody pulp. If he’s lucky, he’ll find scarlet lipstick on his most intimate anatomy. If he’s not so fortunate, his best friend might be dead.
The title is a little bit confusing, especially for a European reader – it kinda suggests drug cartels on the Mexican border. In fact, El Cajon reads as if Hunter S Thompson, John D MacDonald and Daniel Woodrell spawned a dissolute, lapsed-Jewish detective, then wrote him with the stream-of-altered consciousness style of William Burroughs. It’s topped off with as much X-rated content as you could possibly cram in to an extended episode of bone-crunching, fender-bending, artery-slashing pandemonium. If you’re easily offended, especially by sexual themes, stop reading right here.
In the middle of the blood, guts and squelching, author Joel Shapiro masterfully crafts many moment of shrieking hilarity. He may be digging through the nasty underbelly of middle-class America, but he can’t resist an opportunity for a snarky aside. Then he’ll switch from an instant of wildly ribald witticism to the bleak ennui of a shattered psyche with a smooth sucker-punch you’ll never see coming.
There’s plenty in here to get petrolheads swooning too, in the shape of muscle-cars and beat up old junkers that shouldn’t survive the shoot outs, freeway chases and full-impact collisions which are an everyday occurrence for hapless Haim. Ditto the superb attention to detail with weaponry, down to the loading order of ammunition in the seriously hardcore handguns.
El Cajon aspires to greatness and comes close – but inevitably it missteps on occasion. There are a few editing errors where a typo or wrong word sneaks through, and I couldn’t quite buy the elaborate plot McGuffin which got Haim involved in the first place. But El Cajon stands head and shoulders above the average indie novel from a new writer – and it marks Joel Shapiro as an author to keep an eye on in future.
If you loved LA Confidential then give this a whirl.
9/10
There;s more on this book and many other crime thrillers at http://www.murdermayhemandmore.net
Displaying 1 of 1 review