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That Left Turn at Albuquerque
A hardboiled valentine to the Golden State, That Left Turn at Albuquerque marks the return of noir master Scott Phillips.
Douglas Rigby, attorney-at-law, is bankrupt. He’s just sunk his last $200,000—a clandestine “loan” from his last remaining client, former bigshot TV exec Glenn Haskill—into a cocaine deal gone wrong. The lesson? Never trust anyone else with the dirty work. Desperate to get back on top, Rigby formulates an art forgery scheme involving one of Glenn’s priceless paintings, a victimless crime. But for Rigby to pull this one off, he’ll need to negotiate a whole cast of players with their own agendas, including his wife, his girlfriend, an embittered art forger, Glenn’s resentful nurse, and the man’s money-hungry nephew. One misstep, and it all falls apart—will he be able to save his skin?
Written with hard-knock sensibility and wicked humor, Scott Phillips’s newest novel will cement him as one of the great crime writers of the 21st century.
Douglas Rigby, attorney-at-law, is bankrupt. He’s just sunk his last $200,000—a clandestine “loan” from his last remaining client, former bigshot TV exec Glenn Haskill—into a cocaine deal gone wrong. The lesson? Never trust anyone else with the dirty work. Desperate to get back on top, Rigby formulates an art forgery scheme involving one of Glenn’s priceless paintings, a victimless crime. But for Rigby to pull this one off, he’ll need to negotiate a whole cast of players with their own agendas, including his wife, his girlfriend, an embittered art forger, Glenn’s resentful nurse, and the man’s money-hungry nephew. One misstep, and it all falls apart—will he be able to save his skin?
Written with hard-knock sensibility and wicked humor, Scott Phillips’s newest novel will cement him as one of the great crime writers of the 21st century.
288 pages, Hardcover
First published March 3, 2020
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 72 reviews
August 5, 2020
”But there was something about the undeniable direness of the situation that stimulated him. His sense of self had always been that of an overmatched fighter, thriving in hopeless situations. He felt more confident and alive than he had when he’d first taken possession of the cocaine. Or whatever it had been.”
It all comes down to the baby laxative; well, Douglas Rigby was told it was cocaine when he handed over the $200,000 he had embezzled from his last remaining client, but really, if we unpack the swirling, spireling life of Douglas Rigby, his life was sliding down the toilet long before his ill conceived scheme for one last, big score.
His wife, Paula, is fucking the golf pro at the country club, but don’t feel too sorry for Douglas. He is banging boots with Beth, his dead partner’s wife. Of course, Paula’s indiscretions are pure pleasure; to some degree, Rigby’s is business. If Beth decides to sell her share of the business or pull her financing out of it...well...things would go from dire to unmanageable. Imagine a house of cards on fire. Don’t get me wrong, he loves screwing Beth. She’s lovely and accommodating about any time of the night or day. The thing is, as he gets deeper and deeper into these nefarious schemes and adulterous sins, he is running out of priests he can confess to.
”Here was another sin to confess: ’Father, I lied to a woman about my intent to divorce my wife in order to entice her to commit a mortal sin with me.’ It didn’t seem so bad compared with the rest of his list, though, and when he saw the grudging look of faith slowly spread across her lovely fair features he knew it was worth whatever the priest could dish out.
Five minutes later she was making those grunting noises he liked so much as they writhed on the duvet, and as he ejaculated he thought, If I died right now I’d go to hell, which made it even better.”
Catholicism seems tailor made for a guy who fucks up as much as Rigby does. As long as he can wash away all of his sins with a confession and a few Hail Marys, there is very little reason in his mind to walk a righteous path. I don’t think that is quite the way the process works, but then Rigby is new to the spiritual game and definitely on the religious cafeteria plan.
Schemes beget even more desperate schemes, and soon Rigby needs a painter, who is knocking on the door of a century of life, to paint a fake of his old Russian mentor. What could possibly go wrong?
The nephew of his embezzled client is in town, asking questions that Rigby doesn’t want to answer. The squeeze is on, and maybe the only way he can get out from under this series of bad decisions is to make one more really dreadful decision. As the balls he has kept suspended in the air start to drop to the ground, the only question becomes, which one of his transgressions will be the one to bring him down?
This is old school, hard-boiled writing from the author of the book Ice Harvest that was made into an engaging, funny movie in 2005, starring John Cusack. The characters are not likeable in this book, but highly believable and compelling. This is one of those novels where you aren’t rooting for anyone. You’re hoping karma will land on all their asses like a 500 pound gorilla. Their level of desperation is almost like an odor, a sweaty fear, that follows them in and out of rooms. There is this one moment of sanity in the novel when Paula asks Douglas, can’t we just not act like we are rich anymore? The pretenses and gymnastics that people are going through in modern society to not necessarily act rich but merely appear middle class are creating additional stresses as they max out their credit cards and tap out that last bit of equity left in the house that is too expensive for them to own. Rigby is desperate and immoral, but one does wonder, as costs continue to rise and money becomes even harder to come by, how many more people will be tossing and turning at night and considering a way to pull off one big score. Desperation can turn good people bad.
Maybe we all need to downsize, downshift, and appear exactly as who and what we are. Righteously poorer, but maybe by doing so we are giving ourselves a better chance at actually being happy.
If you wish to see more of my most recent book and movie reviews, visit http://www.jeffreykeeten.com
I also have a Facebook blogger page at:https://www.facebook.com/JeffreyKeeten and an Instagram account https://www.instagram.com/jeffreykeeten/
It all comes down to the baby laxative; well, Douglas Rigby was told it was cocaine when he handed over the $200,000 he had embezzled from his last remaining client, but really, if we unpack the swirling, spireling life of Douglas Rigby, his life was sliding down the toilet long before his ill conceived scheme for one last, big score.
His wife, Paula, is fucking the golf pro at the country club, but don’t feel too sorry for Douglas. He is banging boots with Beth, his dead partner’s wife. Of course, Paula’s indiscretions are pure pleasure; to some degree, Rigby’s is business. If Beth decides to sell her share of the business or pull her financing out of it...well...things would go from dire to unmanageable. Imagine a house of cards on fire. Don’t get me wrong, he loves screwing Beth. She’s lovely and accommodating about any time of the night or day. The thing is, as he gets deeper and deeper into these nefarious schemes and adulterous sins, he is running out of priests he can confess to.
”Here was another sin to confess: ’Father, I lied to a woman about my intent to divorce my wife in order to entice her to commit a mortal sin with me.’ It didn’t seem so bad compared with the rest of his list, though, and when he saw the grudging look of faith slowly spread across her lovely fair features he knew it was worth whatever the priest could dish out.
Five minutes later she was making those grunting noises he liked so much as they writhed on the duvet, and as he ejaculated he thought, If I died right now I’d go to hell, which made it even better.”
Catholicism seems tailor made for a guy who fucks up as much as Rigby does. As long as he can wash away all of his sins with a confession and a few Hail Marys, there is very little reason in his mind to walk a righteous path. I don’t think that is quite the way the process works, but then Rigby is new to the spiritual game and definitely on the religious cafeteria plan.
Schemes beget even more desperate schemes, and soon Rigby needs a painter, who is knocking on the door of a century of life, to paint a fake of his old Russian mentor. What could possibly go wrong?
The nephew of his embezzled client is in town, asking questions that Rigby doesn’t want to answer. The squeeze is on, and maybe the only way he can get out from under this series of bad decisions is to make one more really dreadful decision. As the balls he has kept suspended in the air start to drop to the ground, the only question becomes, which one of his transgressions will be the one to bring him down?
This is old school, hard-boiled writing from the author of the book Ice Harvest that was made into an engaging, funny movie in 2005, starring John Cusack. The characters are not likeable in this book, but highly believable and compelling. This is one of those novels where you aren’t rooting for anyone. You’re hoping karma will land on all their asses like a 500 pound gorilla. Their level of desperation is almost like an odor, a sweaty fear, that follows them in and out of rooms. There is this one moment of sanity in the novel when Paula asks Douglas, can’t we just not act like we are rich anymore? The pretenses and gymnastics that people are going through in modern society to not necessarily act rich but merely appear middle class are creating additional stresses as they max out their credit cards and tap out that last bit of equity left in the house that is too expensive for them to own. Rigby is desperate and immoral, but one does wonder, as costs continue to rise and money becomes even harder to come by, how many more people will be tossing and turning at night and considering a way to pull off one big score. Desperation can turn good people bad.
Maybe we all need to downsize, downshift, and appear exactly as who and what we are. Righteously poorer, but maybe by doing so we are giving ourselves a better chance at actually being happy.
If you wish to see more of my most recent book and movie reviews, visit http://www.jeffreykeeten.com
I also have a Facebook blogger page at:https://www.facebook.com/JeffreyKeeten and an Instagram account https://www.instagram.com/jeffreykeeten/
May 5, 2020
This is a darkly funny novel with a cast of very strange and pathetic characters. Principal among them is attorney Douglas Rigby, whose partner in their two-man law firm, has just died in a climbing accident, leaving Rigby virtually bankrupt. Rigby is now having an affair with his dead partner's widow in a desperate effort to keep her from cashing out her half of the firm which would send Rigby swirling down the drain. Meanwhile, Rigby has problems at home as well, given that his wife is up to sexual shenanigans with a local golf pro.
Rigby has one client left, a very wealthy old man in his middle 90s named Glenn Haskill who was once a movie and television big shot and who still dreams at night of having sex with Jane Russell. In a desperate effort to save himself, Rigby "borrows" $200,000 from Haskill's accounts to buy cocaine. He hopes to turn around and sell it quickly enough that Haskill will never notice that the money has been missing and for a profit large enough to get him out of the desperate trouble in which he finds himself.
Of course the drug deal will go bad in about eight different ways, leaving Rigby in even deeper trouble. Adding to his misery is the fact that Rigby is a conscientious Catholic who is running out of sympathetic priests to whom he can confess his myriad of sins while hoping to get away with a relatively light penance. As things go from bad to worse, Rigby concocts yet another even wilder and more hairbrained scheme to save himself and it remains to be seen if it will produce the predictable results.
Scot Phillips, who also wrote The Ice Harvest, is an excellent writer with a great comic touch. It's hard to sympathize with any of the characters in this novel, including even the poor, hapless Rigby, but following their exploits is an excellent way to spend an evening.
Rigby has one client left, a very wealthy old man in his middle 90s named Glenn Haskill who was once a movie and television big shot and who still dreams at night of having sex with Jane Russell. In a desperate effort to save himself, Rigby "borrows" $200,000 from Haskill's accounts to buy cocaine. He hopes to turn around and sell it quickly enough that Haskill will never notice that the money has been missing and for a profit large enough to get him out of the desperate trouble in which he finds himself.
Of course the drug deal will go bad in about eight different ways, leaving Rigby in even deeper trouble. Adding to his misery is the fact that Rigby is a conscientious Catholic who is running out of sympathetic priests to whom he can confess his myriad of sins while hoping to get away with a relatively light penance. As things go from bad to worse, Rigby concocts yet another even wilder and more hairbrained scheme to save himself and it remains to be seen if it will produce the predictable results.
Scot Phillips, who also wrote The Ice Harvest, is an excellent writer with a great comic touch. It's hard to sympathize with any of the characters in this novel, including even the poor, hapless Rigby, but following their exploits is an excellent way to spend an evening.
August 18, 2023
4 Stars for That Left Turn at Albuquerque (audiobook) by Scott Phillips read by L. J. Ganser.
A broke attorney fumbles a drug deal and now he really needs a payday. So he wiggles his way into an art forgery scheme.
A broke attorney fumbles a drug deal and now he really needs a payday. So he wiggles his way into an art forgery scheme.
August 4, 2020
Another Scott Phillips tale of a conniving, philandering, con-man-wanna-be and devout Catholic.
His name is Rigby and he's a piss poor attorney but lawd if he hasn't got a head full of schemes. His wife's name is Paula and she's in real estate -barely. She hasn't had a really good sale in months.
Together they are on the verge of financial ruin.
The brains of Rigby's law firm, Britt Ward, recently died in a freak accident skiing on a mountainside when he hit a patch of ice and pitched head first into a deep crevasse. Rigby is depending on Britt's widow, Beth, to help him keep the law firm afloat. He's also banging her on the side.
She's a very hard woman to please even for an old poon-hound like Rigby
Rigby's last remaining client is Glenn Haskill, a successful television producer of popular TV programs of the mid-1960s. Haskill is on his last legs, confined to his bed, relishing memories of a variety of sexual conquests of young startlets, prey for his Weinsteinian "casting couch" back in his Hollywood salad days.
Haskill has one piece of property that Rigby has learned Haskill wants to donate to his alma mater back in the Midwest - a "Kushnik" original. A painting by an elusive Russian expatriate artist that is believed to be worth millions. Rigby has a scheme to separate that painting from Haskill and replace it with a Kushnik copy done by a successful artist and former Kushnik student. All Rigby needs is for Haskill to get a move on and like, die already!
Rigby will be set up for life.
His name is Rigby and he's a piss poor attorney but lawd if he hasn't got a head full of schemes. His wife's name is Paula and she's in real estate -barely. She hasn't had a really good sale in months.
Together they are on the verge of financial ruin.
The brains of Rigby's law firm, Britt Ward, recently died in a freak accident skiing on a mountainside when he hit a patch of ice and pitched head first into a deep crevasse. Rigby is depending on Britt's widow, Beth, to help him keep the law firm afloat. He's also banging her on the side.
She's a very hard woman to please even for an old poon-hound like Rigby
Paula was always telling him he was a glib son of a bitch, and he took no small amount of pride in his ability to bullshit on the fly, but by God here he lacked a satisfactory response, and he just took a deep breath, let it settle in his lungs, then slowly blew it out to give himself a few seconds to think of something.
Nothing. There was no response that wasn't going to get him in deeper.
"You spineless creep. All I am to you is a piece of ass."
Now there was a straight line worthy of Bud Abbott, real low hanging fruit, and instead of voicing any of the callous ripostes that sprang immediately to his tongue, he let out a big, loud laugh, at which she took an umbrella off of the floor and brought it down on his head, a left handed blow that landed with surprising force. He lost temporary control of the vehicle and drifted into the left-hand lane, provoking angry honking from a tiny, ancient, once-white Datsun. When he managed to swerve back into position, he waved apologetically and insincerely at the white haired lady behind the wheel, who flipped him off anyway, then turned to Beth.
"You really are one crazy bitch, you know that? You just about killed us both".
"The amount of disrespect --"
"You know what? Shut the fuck up."
"How fucking dare you?"
"You heard me. I don't want to hear another goddamned word until we get back to Ventura."
Rigby's last remaining client is Glenn Haskill, a successful television producer of popular TV programs of the mid-1960s. Haskill is on his last legs, confined to his bed, relishing memories of a variety of sexual conquests of young startlets, prey for his Weinsteinian "casting couch" back in his Hollywood salad days.
He jerked his head in the bartender's direction. "Bartender looks like Jack Elam without the wall eye, don't he."
Rigby studied the man. He had a remarkably round head, hair heavy and curly on the sides and quite sparse up top, and big, wide-set eyes with black, caterpillar brows. "Who's Jack Elam?"
"Ah, you kids, you don't know shit anymore."
Haskill has one piece of property that Rigby has learned Haskill wants to donate to his alma mater back in the Midwest - a "Kushnik" original. A painting by an elusive Russian expatriate artist that is believed to be worth millions. Rigby has a scheme to separate that painting from Haskill and replace it with a Kushnik copy done by a successful artist and former Kushnik student. All Rigby needs is for Haskill to get a move on and like, die already!
Rigby will be set up for life.
April 30, 2020
That Left Turn At Albuquerque by Scott Phillips is a novel full of shifty characters, all with aspects of moral decline, trying to get one up on about everyone else in the story.
The story centers around Douglas Rigby, a musclebound Catholic attorney, who is trying to maintain a problem-filled decadent lifestyle he has created himself. These problems involve everything from extramarital affairs to boozing and to that of keeping a stash of cocaine in his office safe. Because he and his wife are living beyond their means, without permission, he has "borrowed" $200,000 from a wealthy client in hopes of using the money to finance an opportunity for them to return to solvency. Of course, the deal goes south, causing Rigby to seek other ways to succeed and to stay out of prison.
Along the way, Rigby encounters numerous people with schemes all their own, each of them trying to maintain one step ahead of the others while fighting to come out on top.
Left Turn is an amusing crime novel good for entertainment and killing some time.
The story centers around Douglas Rigby, a musclebound Catholic attorney, who is trying to maintain a problem-filled decadent lifestyle he has created himself. These problems involve everything from extramarital affairs to boozing and to that of keeping a stash of cocaine in his office safe. Because he and his wife are living beyond their means, without permission, he has "borrowed" $200,000 from a wealthy client in hopes of using the money to finance an opportunity for them to return to solvency. Of course, the deal goes south, causing Rigby to seek other ways to succeed and to stay out of prison.
Along the way, Rigby encounters numerous people with schemes all their own, each of them trying to maintain one step ahead of the others while fighting to come out on top.
Left Turn is an amusing crime novel good for entertainment and killing some time.
March 28, 2020
Absolutely terrible. This was a painful read.
March 24, 2025
Ten-peckered Owl
Sure took me a long time to notice it, but, with few exceptions, all crime fiction is about guys who get into hot water because they're too greedy and too horny.
Maybe every guy is horny like this, but most of them keep it to themselves. You can't sit in a bar with one of these roosters, unless you don't mind hearing "Look at the rack on that one," "What I could do with that," and "I wouldn't kick her outta bed for eating crackers," non-stop. Makes you wish you were alone, so you could watch Laverne & Shirley in peace -- better to hear "Sit on it," "No soup for you," and "That's what she said."
It's finally dawned on me that Phillips is the master of the Jerk. The Jerk in this one is Rigby; he's as horny as a ten-peckered owl, but he has all the other character flaws too. He's kind of a body-building Zelensky in short -- if I may so put it. He is so utterly thoughtless, mean, greedy, hot-headed, and horny that it nearly breaks my "believability" rule for fiction. His casual horniness may break all records though. He makes Wayne Ogden look half-way decent.
Nonetheless, this is a good story and it is believable. I'd say it's Phillips's best story. And it has the checklist of his strengths: no Nature Boy, lots of characters, lots of action, and no Diversity Lessons.
I've been in plenty of hot water in my day and one of the satisfying things about reading this stuff is that I get to say to myself, "Thank God I'll never get myself into this kind of hot water."
But I'm starting to wonder about this Phillips guy: he's supposed to be from Wichita, but I don't believe it. People have lied about their Early Life before, if you know what I mean.
Sure took me a long time to notice it, but, with few exceptions, all crime fiction is about guys who get into hot water because they're too greedy and too horny.
Maybe every guy is horny like this, but most of them keep it to themselves. You can't sit in a bar with one of these roosters, unless you don't mind hearing "Look at the rack on that one," "What I could do with that," and "I wouldn't kick her outta bed for eating crackers," non-stop. Makes you wish you were alone, so you could watch Laverne & Shirley in peace -- better to hear "Sit on it," "No soup for you," and "That's what she said."
It's finally dawned on me that Phillips is the master of the Jerk. The Jerk in this one is Rigby; he's as horny as a ten-peckered owl, but he has all the other character flaws too. He's kind of a body-building Zelensky in short -- if I may so put it. He is so utterly thoughtless, mean, greedy, hot-headed, and horny that it nearly breaks my "believability" rule for fiction. His casual horniness may break all records though. He makes Wayne Ogden look half-way decent.
Nonetheless, this is a good story and it is believable. I'd say it's Phillips's best story. And it has the checklist of his strengths: no Nature Boy, lots of characters, lots of action, and no Diversity Lessons.
I've been in plenty of hot water in my day and one of the satisfying things about reading this stuff is that I get to say to myself, "Thank God I'll never get myself into this kind of hot water."
But I'm starting to wonder about this Phillips guy: he's supposed to be from Wichita, but I don't believe it. People have lied about their Early Life before, if you know what I mean.
March 11, 2020
I liken this style of writing to quick jabs in a boxing ring. While there is an underlying story, this novel is written as sometimes, somewhat clever vignettes. There are a lot of players in this piece, and as they're introduced and reappear, it isn't always clear who has come back to the story - I almost needed to take notes, but then decided I just didn't care enough to engage at that level. Mostly because there aren't any likable characters. Nor are there any strong villains. The book is a quick read at 272 pages, but I still found myself calculating how much was left to read . . . frequently hoping I was almost done. So what does that say? It is moderately entertaining, but not engaging. I guess the lack of a strong protagonist or antagonist makes the style "different," but that doesn't necessarily means different is better.
August 13, 2020
Typical Scott Phillips here, which means scheming, alcoholic, morally bankrupt bottom-feeders with no redeeming values whatsoever, working to try and fuck each other over at every turn. And I love every word of it. Scott’s best since the Ice Harvest.
October 16, 2020
This review is less about THAT LEFT TURN AT ALBUQUERQUE's objective merits than my subjective impressions; I'll fully concede that your mileage may vary, depending on who or what you find emotionally engaging.
THAT LEFT TURN AT ALBUQUERQUE is, to me, like an Elmore Leonard novel without a rooting interest. I don't require characters to be likable in my my novels, and I don't have any particular need for moral order to be reestablished from pieces broken and re-broken over the course of a story. If Leonard has a weakness, it was in being a bit too heavy-handed in telling the reader which characters in a given story were worth rooting for, and which weren't. THAT LEFT TURN not only has no character I could like, it had no character I could sympathize or empathize with; every single member of its cast is completely cauterized against the emotional impact of things like infidelity, theft, deceit and murder, blasé to the point of sociopathy and emotive only in the service of manipulative performance art, and I just couldn't engage with them and therefore the things they wanted. I don't mind dark — antiheroes are usually my heroes — but I do mind darkness without any shades of gray. THAT LEFT TURN is like a Leonard novel in the point-of-view of Ordell Robbie and his ilk.Or if Phillips' THE ICE HARVEST was told from the POVs of Renata and Vic Cavanaugh, rather than Charlie Arglist — a loser who somehow manages to be the last man standing and wins our grudging affection along the way. But there's no Arglist-like character in THAT LEFT TURN — and it's hard to engage with characters who seem only to be the sum of what they want others to see.
But, I'll concede, that's my reaction, and a subjective one. You may feel differently about Rigby, the lawyer trying to get away with cheating on his wife, stealing from his lone client, and killing the people who messed up his best chance to cover up his thefts. Or Paula, his wife, who's also cheating. Or Beth, his mistress. Or Nina, the shrewd personal assistant of the lone client. Or Jerry, the lifetime loser who's the elderly lone client's lone relative. Or any of a number of others who shrug a lot as they scheme and stand by as others scheme.
Objectively, I can't find much to object to.THAT LEFT TURN IN ALBUQUERQUE. Scott Phillips is a consummate pro, and the pages fairly fly by on a sea of light-footed twists and lightly dark laugh lines like "He wanted to tell her how pretty she was, mad like this, but it so happened that Paula had, only two weeks before, explained to him that this particular male de-escalation strategy was a good way to get kneed in the ball sack" and “Father Dunbar was a priest of the old school who understood the kinds of trouble men got up to in the course of being men, so his penances for adultery weren’t too stiff, as long as you gave him the details." Everything in the story is enjoyable and believable and skillfully done.
But did I care about all that enjoyability and believability or skill? I guess I felt the way Paula did, toward the end of the novel, about her man on the side: "She was exchanging noncommittal texts with Keith and honestly didn't much care how things went with him. Either way was fine. The future was hers to call ... she could take him or leave him." That's about where I came out.
THAT LEFT TURN AT ALBUQUERQUE is, to me, like an Elmore Leonard novel without a rooting interest. I don't require characters to be likable in my my novels, and I don't have any particular need for moral order to be reestablished from pieces broken and re-broken over the course of a story. If Leonard has a weakness, it was in being a bit too heavy-handed in telling the reader which characters in a given story were worth rooting for, and which weren't. THAT LEFT TURN not only has no character I could like, it had no character I could sympathize or empathize with; every single member of its cast is completely cauterized against the emotional impact of things like infidelity, theft, deceit and murder, blasé to the point of sociopathy and emotive only in the service of manipulative performance art, and I just couldn't engage with them and therefore the things they wanted. I don't mind dark — antiheroes are usually my heroes — but I do mind darkness without any shades of gray. THAT LEFT TURN is like a Leonard novel in the point-of-view of Ordell Robbie and his ilk.Or if Phillips' THE ICE HARVEST was told from the POVs of Renata and Vic Cavanaugh, rather than Charlie Arglist — a loser who somehow manages to be the last man standing and wins our grudging affection along the way. But there's no Arglist-like character in THAT LEFT TURN — and it's hard to engage with characters who seem only to be the sum of what they want others to see.
But, I'll concede, that's my reaction, and a subjective one. You may feel differently about Rigby, the lawyer trying to get away with cheating on his wife, stealing from his lone client, and killing the people who messed up his best chance to cover up his thefts. Or Paula, his wife, who's also cheating. Or Beth, his mistress. Or Nina, the shrewd personal assistant of the lone client. Or Jerry, the lifetime loser who's the elderly lone client's lone relative. Or any of a number of others who shrug a lot as they scheme and stand by as others scheme.
Objectively, I can't find much to object to.THAT LEFT TURN IN ALBUQUERQUE. Scott Phillips is a consummate pro, and the pages fairly fly by on a sea of light-footed twists and lightly dark laugh lines like "He wanted to tell her how pretty she was, mad like this, but it so happened that Paula had, only two weeks before, explained to him that this particular male de-escalation strategy was a good way to get kneed in the ball sack" and “Father Dunbar was a priest of the old school who understood the kinds of trouble men got up to in the course of being men, so his penances for adultery weren’t too stiff, as long as you gave him the details." Everything in the story is enjoyable and believable and skillfully done.
But did I care about all that enjoyability and believability or skill? I guess I felt the way Paula did, toward the end of the novel, about her man on the side: "She was exchanging noncommittal texts with Keith and honestly didn't much care how things went with him. Either way was fine. The future was hers to call ... she could take him or leave him." That's about where I came out.
September 1, 2025
Quirky and raunchy but lots of adventure! Fun that it's set in Socal. Lots of characters too.
It's kind of like a Carl Hiaasen book but the language is a bit off-color.
It's kind of like a Carl Hiaasen book but the language is a bit off-color.
February 13, 2025
Scott Phillips is the godfather of neo-noir. His characters are for the most part not nice people (or at least they do not do nice things) but then who wants to read about nice people? You read Scott Phillips for his interesting if amoral characters, his ingeniously twisted plots, and his exquisite and hilarious prose. Recommended for hardboiled fiction fans.
December 24, 2019
Bad or at least morally dubious people misbehave in a modern noir set in Ventura, CA.
March 5, 2020
Not my kind of book. Ending left too many threads unwoven...
December 3, 2025
One of the most fun books I’ve read in a long time!
April 3, 2021
That Left Turn at Albuquerque- Scott Phillips.
If you like Elmore Leonard books, you will enjoy That Left Turn at Albuquerque!
This book was very funny, with a cast of characters who are all bad to their core, who will back stab everyone involved in a scheme to get rich off of a dying old man- who is also a horrible person, by selling a painting he has that he thinks is worth 1/1000 what it is actually worth.The characters are over the top with zero morals,
The dying former Hollywood producer
His violent sleazebag attorney
The attorneys wife
The nephew of the dying man
The lawyers girlfriend
The lawyers wife’s boyfriend
The art history major who happens to be an assistant to the dying producer
I loved this book!
If you like Elmore Leonard books, you will enjoy That Left Turn at Albuquerque!
This book was very funny, with a cast of characters who are all bad to their core, who will back stab everyone involved in a scheme to get rich off of a dying old man- who is also a horrible person, by selling a painting he has that he thinks is worth 1/1000 what it is actually worth.The characters are over the top with zero morals,
The dying former Hollywood producer
His violent sleazebag attorney
The attorneys wife
The nephew of the dying man
The lawyers girlfriend
The lawyers wife’s boyfriend
The art history major who happens to be an assistant to the dying producer
I loved this book!
September 3, 2022
✨𝙱𝚘𝚘𝚔 𝚁𝚎𝚟𝚒𝚎𝚠✨
🖋𝚀𝚞𝚘𝚝𝚎𝚜:
“Suit yourself. Just seems to me if you didn’t want to talk, you could have had a beer at home.”
“It’s because he’s old that he feels free to say any goddamn thing that pops into his head, not because he’s plastered.”
💫𝚃𝚑𝚒𝚗𝚐𝚜 𝙸 𝙻𝚒𝚔𝚎𝚍:
- The cover- obviously
- Third person POV
- Glenn- the old man on his deathbed is the only character I rooted for lol
💫𝚃𝚑𝚒𝚗𝚐𝚜 𝙸 𝙳𝚒𝚍𝚗'𝚝:
- Rarely do I ever root for no one in a book.
- So many damn characters you might need a family tree.
- This quote: “Lovely long throat” 🤢
💫𝚁𝚎𝚊𝚍 𝚃𝚑𝚒𝚜 𝙸𝚏 𝚈𝚘𝚞'𝚛𝚎 𝙸𝚗𝚝𝚘:
- Breaking Bad style desperation without the meth
- Deeply unlikeable people
- LA setting
- Criminal scheming
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/(5)
🖋𝚀𝚞𝚘𝚝𝚎𝚜:
“Suit yourself. Just seems to me if you didn’t want to talk, you could have had a beer at home.”
“It’s because he’s old that he feels free to say any goddamn thing that pops into his head, not because he’s plastered.”
💫𝚃𝚑𝚒𝚗𝚐𝚜 𝙸 𝙻𝚒𝚔𝚎𝚍:
- The cover- obviously
- Third person POV
- Glenn- the old man on his deathbed is the only character I rooted for lol
💫𝚃𝚑𝚒𝚗𝚐𝚜 𝙸 𝙳𝚒𝚍𝚗'𝚝:
- Rarely do I ever root for no one in a book.
- So many damn characters you might need a family tree.
- This quote: “Lovely long throat” 🤢
💫𝚁𝚎𝚊𝚍 𝚃𝚑𝚒𝚜 𝙸𝚏 𝚈𝚘𝚞'𝚛𝚎 𝙸𝚗𝚝𝚘:
- Breaking Bad style desperation without the meth
- Deeply unlikeable people
- LA setting
- Criminal scheming
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/(5)
July 16, 2024
Too many characters, all shitbags, combined with a silly, convoluted storyline, made this a big thumbs down from me. By the end I just didn't care who "won" because I just wanted it over with.
September 19, 2024
Don’t write it off as a cheesy read! Looks and sounds like it, but it is actually a very smart and captivating read. Well written and witty!
July 21, 2020
Great
Scott Phillips is one of my favorite authors working in the Charles Wileford laconic noir psychopath vein. Just great violent sexy depressing hopeless dark funny stuff. Read it!
Scott Phillips is one of my favorite authors working in the Charles Wileford laconic noir psychopath vein. Just great violent sexy depressing hopeless dark funny stuff. Read it!
January 30, 2020
A fast-paced narrative flawed by standard “hard boiled fiction” characters and a too obvious outcome. This was a diverting read for my morning commute but not especially original…kind of like a grocery store box of macaroni and cheese, serviceable but not to be mistaken for haute cuisine.
October 23, 2025
Just so bad, ugh. I really liked this title for a reading challenge prompt of a title that sounds like it could be a country song, and I ran across this right before a trip to Albuquerque, but ugh. Pretty much all the characters are terrible and I would much rather read about people I like.
Especially since I was "eye reading" this book, which apparently is a thing people say now.
I kept trying to give up on this book, but every time I decided to quit, I would look at it and think - this isn't a long book, I should just keep going. I had just over or under 100 pages left in this book for months.
When I finally sat down and decided to focus on it for real - it only took me 40 minutes to finish.
I have to say, I did find the ending surprising and sort of satisfying so I am glad I pushed through instead of giving up.
But I would never recommend this book ever to anyone. Ridiculous that it took 8 months to get through a book less than 300 pages long, but here we are.
Especially since I was "eye reading" this book, which apparently is a thing people say now.
I kept trying to give up on this book, but every time I decided to quit, I would look at it and think - this isn't a long book, I should just keep going. I had just over or under 100 pages left in this book for months.
When I finally sat down and decided to focus on it for real - it only took me 40 minutes to finish.
I have to say, I did find the ending surprising and sort of satisfying so I am glad I pushed through instead of giving up.
But I would never recommend this book ever to anyone. Ridiculous that it took 8 months to get through a book less than 300 pages long, but here we are.
April 5, 2022
Funny but not unbelievable. Imagine what might drive an attorney with a has it all lifestyle to poor choices. Douglas Rigby was a partner in a small law firm with a not unusual split of responsibilities- one partner concentrated on the legal work and the other was the public relations, get the business guy. When Douglas Rigby's partner died, the practice suffered. Rigby's wife's real estate sales tanked at the same time. From a country club lifestyle to the edge of bankruptcy with criminal activity next. Both husband and wife used extra-marital sex as an escape, but they still needed to resolve their financial problems. The book reminded me of A Simple Plan by Scott Smith and Big Trouble by Dave Barry. This book was not as zany as the others, but it follows their lead in showing once that first misstep happens, things can only get worse.
March 19, 2022
This book delivered all the elements I’ve come to expect and love in a Scott Phillips book: gratuitous sex, violence and someone being killed, and sparkling prose. It was also a little light on plot, another Phillips trademark (sorry Scott). And of course, a smorgasbord of unsavory characters. Everyone is a scoundrel and it’s so delicious. I listened to the audio book, and L.J. Ganser did an amazing job of capturing the voices of all the different characters.
August 1, 2020
Carl Hiassenesque
October 20, 2020
Pleasingly noirish crime thriller full of sleazebags and bastards all out for themselves in SoCal, in a plot which involves drugs, adultery, murder and art fraud.
June 21, 2023
Jun 2022 Place holder for Lisa's postal book club book. Really enjoyed it, I'm not lying!
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June 2023 Place holder for Lisa's postal book club book, round #12. What a story!
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June 2023 Place holder for Lisa's postal book club book, round #12. What a story!
March 5, 2025
I really liked this book! It was gritty without being too explicit or bloody. I liked the characters and the pace of the story. There was action and plot twists. Ending is good!
March 15, 2020
It helps to be jaded when reading THAT LEFT TURN AT ALBUQUERQUE. Scott Phillips definitely makes his own rules when writing his novels, which are full of characters who might cause you to lose what little faith you still have in humanity. In his latest book, Phillips is merely pointing out that it is not outside the realm of possibility that groups of people might haphazardly assemble for selfish and nefarious purposes, and none of them are worth the gunpowder to shoot them. Remember what your parents told you about the evil of bad companions? They are all right here in this morality tale, seen through a lens darkly.
Douglas Rigby, a Southern California attorney, has misappropriated a six-figure sum from his dying client, former television executive Glenn Haskill, in the hopes of using it to prime the well for a major cocaine deal. The plan is to buy the coke, sell it at an obscene profit, slip the “loan” back into Glenn’s account, and pay off Rigby’s own mortgage, which is seriously in arrears. It all goes wrong, of course, so much so that you’re screaming at the page “DON’T DO IT!” before you have even finished the first chapter. Rigby’s wife, Paula, isn’t happy, and it really doesn’t look good when a real estate agent like her defaults on her own mortgage.
But Rigby isn’t deterred --- desperation does that to a person --- so he embarks on a scheme that involves Glenn (again) and art forgery. There are all sorts of obstacles, some of which are of Rigby’s own creation (his girlfriend, who is the widow of his deceased law partner), and others who are outside his sphere of control. The latter group would include Jerry, Glenn’s nephew and sole heir, who is part of a de facto death watch so that he can acquire Glenn’s whole kit-and-kaboodle, which he ever so desperately needs. The problem for both Rigby and Jerry is that Glenn isn’t cooperating with their respective timetables. Rigby doesn’t want him dying too soon, and Jerry doesn’t feel that he can die soon enough.
Glenn has a mind of his own when it comes to his demise. Just when it seems that he is about to sing a solo in the choir invisible, he shows signs of renewed life. Jerry, meanwhile, is an irritating scold, nattering away at Rigby, who is merely crooked and guilty of malpractice and misfeasance. It can’t end well, and it doesn’t, but it could have been worse. And the book, from beginning to end, is entertaining as all get-out.
Characters notwithstanding, Phillips tells a heck of a story and throws in a bushel of dazzling writing in the process. I highlighted all sorts of passages and phrases throughout the novel, some of which are hilarious and a couple of which are poignant. What you won’t know unless you read the book is that it is full of turns of phrase that you will want to remember long after you reach the last page. And you will.
It’s not always easy. Phillips tosses characters into the narrative with abandon and throws them out just as quickly, but keep reading. It all makes sense and is worth the effort. And hey, do you remember every person you come in contact with every day? Heck no. You’ll sort it out. You won’t forgive yourself, though, if you miss THAT LEFT TURN AT ALBUQUERQUE.
Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub
Douglas Rigby, a Southern California attorney, has misappropriated a six-figure sum from his dying client, former television executive Glenn Haskill, in the hopes of using it to prime the well for a major cocaine deal. The plan is to buy the coke, sell it at an obscene profit, slip the “loan” back into Glenn’s account, and pay off Rigby’s own mortgage, which is seriously in arrears. It all goes wrong, of course, so much so that you’re screaming at the page “DON’T DO IT!” before you have even finished the first chapter. Rigby’s wife, Paula, isn’t happy, and it really doesn’t look good when a real estate agent like her defaults on her own mortgage.
But Rigby isn’t deterred --- desperation does that to a person --- so he embarks on a scheme that involves Glenn (again) and art forgery. There are all sorts of obstacles, some of which are of Rigby’s own creation (his girlfriend, who is the widow of his deceased law partner), and others who are outside his sphere of control. The latter group would include Jerry, Glenn’s nephew and sole heir, who is part of a de facto death watch so that he can acquire Glenn’s whole kit-and-kaboodle, which he ever so desperately needs. The problem for both Rigby and Jerry is that Glenn isn’t cooperating with their respective timetables. Rigby doesn’t want him dying too soon, and Jerry doesn’t feel that he can die soon enough.
Glenn has a mind of his own when it comes to his demise. Just when it seems that he is about to sing a solo in the choir invisible, he shows signs of renewed life. Jerry, meanwhile, is an irritating scold, nattering away at Rigby, who is merely crooked and guilty of malpractice and misfeasance. It can’t end well, and it doesn’t, but it could have been worse. And the book, from beginning to end, is entertaining as all get-out.
Characters notwithstanding, Phillips tells a heck of a story and throws in a bushel of dazzling writing in the process. I highlighted all sorts of passages and phrases throughout the novel, some of which are hilarious and a couple of which are poignant. What you won’t know unless you read the book is that it is full of turns of phrase that you will want to remember long after you reach the last page. And you will.
It’s not always easy. Phillips tosses characters into the narrative with abandon and throws them out just as quickly, but keep reading. It all makes sense and is worth the effort. And hey, do you remember every person you come in contact with every day? Heck no. You’ll sort it out. You won’t forgive yourself, though, if you miss THAT LEFT TURN AT ALBUQUERQUE.
Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub
April 8, 2020
Attorney Douglas Rigby has a problem. Actually, Rigby has several problems, but the most pressing problem is the large amount money he stole from his only client in order to finance a drug deal he was going to use to save his house and his lifestyle, has been stolen. And so have the drugs.
Rigby’s wife Paula knows that he’s cheating on her with Beth, his dead law partner’s wife, and so Paula is cheating on him with her golf instructor. His only client, the once successful Hollywood producer Glenn Haskill, is dying and Haskill’s nephew Jerry, who stands to inherit a considerable amount of money from the estate is coming to town. Rigby has got to replace the money before Haskill’s accountant and nephew get suspicious.
Rigby cooks up a plan to replace the missing money he took from Glenn Haskill, by ripping off Haskill one more time, but to do it, he’s going to need help. With help from Haskill’s caretaker Nina, an art history major, Keith Seghers, his wife’s golf instructor, and Keith’s uncle Will, a rebound artist, And his own wife, Rigby may just pull off a scam that will solve his problems. That is, unless Rigby’s greed and anger derail the whole deal.
Overall, That Left Turn at Albuquerque, a modern noir with a fair share of violence, characters tripping over their own feet, and sometimes bordering on a caper, is a novel filled with flawed, unlikeable people who tend to get in their own way while getting into each other’s as well. While a good, gritty, fun read, the ending wraps things up too quickly and cleanly, with a letdown in how easily and neatly the story ends. Regardless, author Scott Phillips has written a story that will hold your interest from beginning to end and make you question the motives of the everyday people all around you.
Rigby’s wife Paula knows that he’s cheating on her with Beth, his dead law partner’s wife, and so Paula is cheating on him with her golf instructor. His only client, the once successful Hollywood producer Glenn Haskill, is dying and Haskill’s nephew Jerry, who stands to inherit a considerable amount of money from the estate is coming to town. Rigby has got to replace the money before Haskill’s accountant and nephew get suspicious.
Rigby cooks up a plan to replace the missing money he took from Glenn Haskill, by ripping off Haskill one more time, but to do it, he’s going to need help. With help from Haskill’s caretaker Nina, an art history major, Keith Seghers, his wife’s golf instructor, and Keith’s uncle Will, a rebound artist, And his own wife, Rigby may just pull off a scam that will solve his problems. That is, unless Rigby’s greed and anger derail the whole deal.
Overall, That Left Turn at Albuquerque, a modern noir with a fair share of violence, characters tripping over their own feet, and sometimes bordering on a caper, is a novel filled with flawed, unlikeable people who tend to get in their own way while getting into each other’s as well. While a good, gritty, fun read, the ending wraps things up too quickly and cleanly, with a letdown in how easily and neatly the story ends. Regardless, author Scott Phillips has written a story that will hold your interest from beginning to end and make you question the motives of the everyday people all around you.
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