The Right Madness

It's like a motto: you don't read Crumley for plot, you read him for... everything else. It's true. the rhythm of a Crumley novel is utterly unlike that of any other crime novel. The story stops and starts, drifts, twists, turns, wanders, pulls over by the side of the road to light up a doobie and enjoy the stars, then crashes through a bar and wrecks everything and kills everyone. Along the way there are great characters, strange incidents, powerful insights, substance abuse, astonishing violence, poetry and writing as beautiful as anything. Most other crime books are what I read while waiting for the next James Crumley to come along.

Crumley strikes again. One of his last books before his untimely death (his body simply worn out by a lifetime of hard living) but he's still got the ol' fastball.

C.W. Sughrue breaks one of his golden rules and takes on a case for an old friend, with tragic results all around. Crumley's shamuses don't tie up all the loose ends and they're sadder and wiser when they complete a case. Some mystery fans may find the sex and drugs and violence too tough for their liking but if you're not reading Crumley, you're missing out on one of the few writers in the field who could out-Chandler Chandler (and that's saying something).

James Crumley has long been a favorite of mine. Imagine my joy when I stumbled across a book of his that I hadn't read at a local used book store. The Right Madness is the last book written by Crumley and features his protagonist C.W. Sughrue.

Primarily set in Montana, the mystery that starts with patient records stolen from a psycologist friend who begs for his help, takes Sughrue across the great West and down to Texas in pursuit of answers and the stolen records. Along the way, the detective weaves through a violent world populated by some of the most colorful characters this side of an Elmore Leonard book.

Crumley started writing in the late Sixties, a product of the Vietnam era, and is considered a heir apparent to Raymond show more Chandler. In his writing you can find the roots of James L Burke and other modern mystery writers.

The Right Madness isn't Crumley's best work, but even his lesser efforts eclipse the works of most writers. Crumley speaks to a lost time in America. A time when perhaps we weren't as sensitive as we are today, but we were arguably a whole lot more decent. Check it out. show less

Found this one in a little free library, and decided that as a sign that it was time for a reread. The last Sughrue novel, this one is very violent with some really gruesome death scenes. CW's best friend, a local shrink, pays him a lot of money to find out who apparently stole the medical records of a number of long-time patients. Of course there's a lot more going on. Crumley's prose and especially his descriptions of the west, in locations from Montana down to Texas and across to Seattle are wonderful.

The Right Madness. James Crumley. 2005. I think Crumley died a year or so ago. I’ve seen his novel, The Last Good Kiss, on a lot of “best crime novels” lists so when I found this at the book store in Topeka last summer I had to get it. His character C.W. Sughrue is, well, quite a character! The Vietnam vet is as hardboiled as they come and has a ton of emotional and physical wounds; he claimed he retired, but when his best friend a psychiatrist begs Sughrue to find out who stole his confidential patient records, Sughrue feels he must help, and aided by cigarettes and drugs he quickly becomes involves in murders, drugs and sex. Anyone who likes hardboiled mysteries will enjoy this plot-twisting fast-passed novel.

This very enjoyable crime/P.I. novel follows a very complicated case in which a psychoanalyst's files go missing -- and then his patients start dying. Our hero, CW Sughrue, is the man trying to solve the case. Lots of action, lots of characters, and a web of intrigue that will keep you going until the very end. Violence and mayhem here also, so be forewarned.

Picked this up from the bargain bin. Good gumshoe writing, but with a very gritty edge to it. Not for the faint-of-heart. A little more difficult to follow after the first half, and when I finished the book, I wasn't entirely sure that the "mystery" had been solved. Probably will read it again just to find what I probably missed the first read.