The Distance: A Crime Novel Introducing Billy Nichols
Penzler Pick,January  2002:This debut mystery is by an author who already has a claim on the  hearts of his audience: he produced two splendid works of nonfiction that are  must-haves for every mystery lover's library,Dark City DamesandDark City: The Lost World of Film  Noir. Both take readers down new paths into a familiar, haunting  landscape--that of the 1940s and '50s films that brought such a paradoxical  blend of artifice and authenticity to the small, claustrophobic world of  crime.As the son of a West Coast boxing writer, Muller is writing from strength when  he makes his protagonist, Billy Nichols, a newspaper boxing columnist who easily  keeps pace with the mugs and thugs he covers. The setting is post-World War II  San Francisco and Nichols is a journalist who pounds out his stories, stopping  only afterward to ask the right questions.His relationship to the heavyweight Hack Escalante takes a startling turn early  in the story as Billy finds himself an accessory to a crime that it seems Hack  has just committed. Gig Liardi, Hack's manager, is lying dead on the floor of  his apartment, less than a half-hour after summoning Billy over for a scoop, and  Hack's knuckles are bloody, though his eyes are wet. "This boy should never have  been a fighter," Billy thinks, watching him. "Now he was a killer. A couple of  his tears dropped on Gig's face."Even if prizefighters do cry, this scene is still only one high point in a  tough, vivid re-creation of a lost era of urban sports history that swaggers on  for almost 40 more chapters. More mystery novels featuring "Mr. Boxing," as  Billy Nichols is known, will certainly be welcome by mystery fans, but come  early to the series now and get a ringside seat!--Otto Penzler