Review: If only he'd fitted it into one volume...
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 11 6, 2013
This is the first in a series of books by Mackenzie Brown featuring the black detective, Vic Prince. Prince operates out of Liverpool, UK, in the nineteen-forties. I realised when I purchased this book that it was part of a series, but I expected each book in that series to be a self-contained story. There was nothing in the Amazon blurb to indicate otherwise. I was therefore disappointed and somewhat annoyed to find that the story in this volume did not finish; that this was not only the first in a series, but the first part of an ongoing story. As I only paid $0.99 for this, I suppose I can’t complain too much. As a reader, however, I am very tired of not being able to buy a book to read, without having to also purchase volume after volume of sequels.With that off my chest, what of this volume?The story has several threads which will (or may) come together eventually in subsequent volumes. It has elements of organized crime, black market dealing and espionage intertwined. It is difficult to comment on the story because so much depends on the final outcome: Are the questions it raises answered well? Are the loose ends tied up? Does the plot ultimately make sense? Is the question of ‘who is who’ satisfactorily resolved? I was reasonably happy with the way the story was developing. It was a little slow in places, but the pace picked up about 2/3 of the way through. Even up until the last chapter or so, the story seemed on track to be resolved. I was very surprised that it wasn’t. The story was just interesting, complex and strong enough to sustain itself for this volume. I thought that I would be willing to go along with it for perhaps another 50 or 60 pages or so. But for four more volumes? I doubt it.The character of Vic Prince is interesting enough, but without any great depth. He brings to mind characters such as Philip Marlowe and Sam Spade, though without being quite as hard-boiled and cynical. He also happens to be black and British. Oddly, though, the indebtedness to this genre and era of American literature results in a character with some discordantly American features. Words such as ‘dame’, ‘doll face’ and ‘swell’ belong more comfortably on the other side of the Atlantic. The story is saved from being over-Americanised by the immediate presence of the war, which is only a blip on the horizon in the American stories. Here, the bombs are actually falling. Nevertheless, although the story is set largely on the banks of the Mersey, my mind kept slipping across the Atlantic. The White Oyster Club, Vic’s Chinese girlfriend and her father, and even Vic’s office above an automotive workshop kept tugging me west.Most of the other characters are pretty standard fare, without a great deal of depth or development. Many of them make only brief appearances. To Brown’s credit he does give to each of these a voice and some features, so that they are not completely blank. This kind of shallow, cinematic character development is okay for a short to medium length crime novel or an 80 – 90 minute movie, but probably not for a five book series or a mini-series.The writing style is generally okay and suited to the genre. The first person narrative by Vic Prince again took me to the film noir of America in the forties and fifties. There are a couple of occasions when the narrator addresses the reader directly (‘you’d be right…’; ‘you may ask…’) which added to this feel for me.There was a point about two-thirds of the way through (around Chapter Seven) when the writing became a bit sloppy: the author seemed to mix up the names of characters, and the description of the action lacked precision and detail. This was also one of the most fast-paced, action-packed chapters.Deciding on a rating for this book is difficult, since I am not in a position to comment on the final quality of the plot. I would say, however, that in the first volume of a five volume series I would expect much deeper character development, much more of a back story, and much more of an attempt to develop a sense of place, time and mood. I can understand the need to sacrifice some of this in favour of a complex, fast-paced plot, in a single volume. But if an author feels he needs five volumes to tell his story, I expect more depth and detail than this. Dashiell Hammett’s The Maltese Falcon is an intricate, multi-layered story, with complex and ambiguous characters, plenty of plot twists and intrigue, and even a tragic romance. It runs to just 226 pages. Is the skill of writing such a complex, intricate story in a single volume lost these days? I give this three stars.