Experimental feature: Order In La-LA Land We Trust from the UK, Canada, Germany or France by clicking an appropriate flag below.

               

Some items available at Amazon.com are not available in all countries.

Binding: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9780892961702
ISBN: 0892961708
Label: Mysterious Press
Manufacturer: Mysterious Press
Number Of Items: 1
Publication Date: 1986-11
Publisher: Mysterious Press
Studio: Mysterious Press

When a head without a body turns up in a lake near New Orleans, the locals write it off as another prank. But when a body without a head falls out of a station wagon in Los Angeles, folks sit up and take notice. Child porn, snuff films, and drunken TV stars in BMW's - that's what makes the L.A. world go 'round, whether you like it or not. And when orders come down from the top L.A.P.D. echelons to let a drunk-driving actor (but not hi sexy girlfriend) off the hook, and to call the corpse a special effects dummy, the cops definitely don't like it.

Enter Whistler, a private eye given to philosophical ruminations in seedy coffee shops. Whistler hates to see beautiful blondes in trouble as much as he hates to see this sort of garbage covered up - he's afraid he might step in it one day. Once he rips the lid off, though, he may question just how much it's good to know.

Customer Rating:
Review Summary: The dark underbelly
Review: Los Angeles based Private Investigator, Whistler, is the modern day version of Mickey Spillane's hero, Mike Hammer, short, only moderately good looking but with the cocky, slick dialogue of a street smart good guy. He happens to be at the right place at the right time when a headless female corpse slides out of the back of a mortuary station wagon, after an accident involving a well known TV actor. Whistler's friend,an L.A.P.D detective, tells him that a female head was found by a lake near New Orleans and that the body is that of a Vietnamese prostitute who was forced into making pornographic movies for a known producer of "snuff" movies in N.O. The story then moves back and forth between the two cities with gruesome details of the seamy and frankly evil business of child pornography and movies where women are killed as a finale. It's a terrifying look at a side of life of which, thankfully, most people are not aware. For all its horrors, this book is written in a wry fashion, glossing over the seaminess with clever dialogue...I'll be looking forward to meeting Whistler again in another book.

---

Customer Rating:
Review Summary: not recommended for the squeamish
Review: Robert Campbell's Whistler series is a sort of combination of Raymond Chandler and James Ellroy--PI tales that are darker than noir.

When a bodiless head is found in New Orleans and a headless body turns up in LA, Whistler gets drawn into a case involving kiddie porn, snuff films and the seamy underbelly of both LA and the Big Easy. Campbell, like Elmore Leonard, is especially strong on dialogue and he introduces many memorable characters. A very good entry in the Post-Modern private eye genre.

GRADE: B

N.B.--These books are not recommended for the squeamish.

---

---