Review: A Perfect Story
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 05 30, 2011
I recently discovered Smith's writing through his now available Kindle titles (loving my device). Seems his entire backlist is available for 99 cents each. Good man.I picked upChoke on Your Liesand enjoyed it quite a bit, but that's a review for another page. Point is, I liked it well enough to buy the entire backlist (at 99 cents each, why not?)I read a little ofYellow Medicine, but got distracted by life's bumps and wrecked cars, etc. So, I started on The Drummer.I'm blown absolutely away. Crime fiction is crime fiction, and noir is noir. But, this is legit. This blurs the line between awesome and art. Drummer is a perfect story, perfectly told. There's not one slacked off moment in the writing. It's razor sharp like it's been through a number of top notch editors (but, knowing A. Neil is a fine editor, himself, I lay most of this praise at his own door, too). Drummer slices through the readers mind with laser precision and gives me a situation and a scenario so cool and just believable enough that I can sit back, take my hands off the wheel and cruise, because we're on masterful autopilot here.Smith is definitely on his way to arriving full-blown on the scene of the crime/noir genre. Hell, I'd say he's one Raylan Givens level character away from being the next Elmore Leonard (and, maybe he's halfway there with his new Billy LaFitte books--don't know, haven't finished 'em).If read only one book by Smith (and why would you read only one?), it has to be The Drummer.Perfect.