New Hope for the Dead

Enjoyable, standard rather plodding crime story. Kind of like watching Law and Order.. not great, but riveting enough. In this one, Hoke has his daughters come to stay with him and then his pregnant partner Alita also comes in to her house as a platonic partner. Eventually Hoke is able to blackmail a killer to leave town to take over her house for 4 years (at the price of him keeping quiet). For plot twists like that and the sometime lowlife characters, I enjoy Willeford, though this book did have an element of ... a chapter in a saga ... w/o drama w/o climax .. just another few months of Hoke.

A well-done sequel of sorts to Miami Blues, this one like its predecessor in its dark humor and deadpan style but unlike it in terms of the plot: there’s no equivalent to Junior here and the book is more leisurely paced. There are some crimes and Hoke solves them, but these are secondary to the portrait of a middle-aged detective trying to reclaim some of the dignity he lost so long ago that he can’t remember where he put it. There are also a few truly shocking moments where I covered my mouth with my hand. By any yardstick, Willeford’s a good writer.

I like Willeford. I like his characters, especially Hoke's sardonic and realistic view of the world, but there was something about this book that kept nagging at me. Scenes appeared familiar ,and I kept wondering if I had read the book before. Possible, I suppose, although I couldn't find any notes or other indications of that likilihood.

It's the grind of normal life that makes this book interesting as the investigation plot lines are rather thin. Hoke's ex-wife has dumped the two daughters on him so she can run off with a baseball player; he can't find a place to live within the newly-required city limits; his new partner is pregnant, and to top things off, he has to give his girls "the" sex lecture (which, surprisingly, probably show more ought to be copied and handed out to most teenagers.) One other reviewer noted that when reading Willeford's novels you don't have to suspend disbelief. Exactly right. show less

This will likely be the last time I select a book based soley on its title. In this case, the title was actually the best part of the experience. The writing was not anything special, in fact it was a little lame even by the lowered standards of the genre. Throw in racism, sexism, pointless diversions and you have a mess. Unless you already like the author, don't waste your time. In other words, this ain't Raymond Chandler.

If I'd read this before Miami Blues, I'd probably have given it 5 stars and Miami Blues would have gotten the 4. It's just that what was so original when you first encounter it becomes more recognizable when you see it again. E.g. we had a Hare Krishna guy show up here as well. This is still a fun book to read.

A lot of fun to read, but more rambling and less intense than its classic predecessor, Miami Blues. New Hope for the Dead lacks any equivalent to that book's memorable villain, so while the Hoke Moseley character is still interesting, there isn't any great suspense or sense of danger.

I know I've read this book before, but I had forgotten most of the details. Charles Willeford had a writing style that shouldn't have worked, but somehow it did giving his characters depth and his story realism. A great read and HIGHLY RECOMMENDED TO ALL.