Review: A brilliant crime novel with a shocking finale
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 03 11, 2012
PI Simeon Grist gets sucked into a case involving Max, an older man who rescues rootless young men from a life in the gutter. The last thing Simeon needs is a basket case for a client, but a frail young man named Christy persuades him to visit Max and try to convince him that it's dangerous to keep collecting street kids. Mainly to get Christy out of his hair, Simeon calls on Max, who laughs off the warning that someone might kill him.While this is a more somber Simeon Grist novel than I expected, it's not all gloom and doom. A wedding of two of Simeon's cop friends had me falling off my chair laughing. The Simeon Grist I love shows up at the wedding: "..... I was issued the standard crack-and-peel badge, the kind that leaves stickum on your lapel. Since I could wash my face more easily than I could wash my lapel, I stuck the badge on my forehead. I thought it made me look festive."Simeon is called out of the wedding reception by Christy who says that Max has been beaten to death.Since Simeon was the last person to see Max alive he's thrust into the investigation whether he likes it or not. Such is Timothy Hallinan's skill in characterization that I can't help liking the least likeable character in THE BONE POLISHER. That would be the brutal cop, Sgt. Spurrier. His cruelty boggles the mind but somewhere along the line I got a whiff of humanity to add to an already fully-fleshed character.Simeon begins to unravel the mystery surrounding a killer Max apparently met through the mail. He learns that Max was once a famous TV star who gave up his career in the 1950s because of discrimination against gays. Hank Ferris, a theatrical agent who is still bitter because Max steadfastly refused to resume his career, delivers a tirade that lays out a theme for this book:(Quote)"Democracy is a terrible thing. The ordinary always wins. I was on the losing side. Max's bunch won, and look where it's gotten them. The Love That Dare Not Speak Its Name has become The Love That Cannot Shut Its Trap. Gays have become the one thing they never were: boring. Look at them, a bunch of bank tellers and dental assistants, holding hands on the sidewalks and mooning at each other. Joining neighborhood watch organizations."(End Quote)Hoping to smoke out the killer, Simeon persuades Ferris to throw a wake for Max. It's a lollapalooza of a Halloween costume party. Simeon describes it this way:(Quote) From my vantage point near the curb I had the impression that someone had skimmed the multicultural stew of Los Angeles and come up with everything that floated, the airiest and most buoyant bits, the postcard images that glitter like bits of mirror embedded in the dreary grouting of everyday life. In addition to folks in national costumes representing every major civilization since Abyssinia, we had three Carol Channings, two Judy Garlands, two Diana Rosses, two Carmen Mirandas, one postaccident Jayne Mansfield carrying her head under her arm, one Hispanic possessed by the soul of Maria Montez, an indeterminate number of Terminator clones, and a variety of super heroes in skintight spandex in every color. (End Quote)Adding to the mix are TV and radio crews, some sheriff's deputies, Sgt. Spurrier wearing a Big Bad Wolf mask, and a dozen skinheads armed with tire irons and baseball bats. The finale is a shock, with a twist I didn't see coming.