The Last Good Kiss (Vintage Contemporaries) Book

James Crumley's The Last Good Kiss is a slice of heaven sent hard-boiled detective fiction set in the roadside West of 1970s America. Our private eye is C W Sughrue, similar in some ways to Hammett's and Chandler's character creations but only in so much as C W is a heavy drinker, a womanizer and a hard working, competent private investigator. This is where the similarities end. Whereas Hammett's Sam Spade and Chandler's Philip Marlowe are sophisticated gentlemanly types with sharp suits and sharper tongues, C W is a scruffy, dirty, unshaven drunk with 'itchy feet' and an ingrained desire/need to keep on travelling. Spade and Marlowe handled their drink with consummate ease, seemingly unaffected by the intoxicating spirits they knock back all day and all night long. C W on the other hand gets as drunk as a skunk and often behaves as inappropriately as you would expect for a man downing whole bottles of whiskey in one sitting.

We meet up with C W searching for an author called Abraham Trahearne at the behest of the man's concerned wife. Trahearne is an eccentric drunkard who ups sticks every now and then and embarks on epic bar crawls across America, drinking himself silly and generally having what he deems a good time (and the rest of us would call drunken debauchery). C W finally catches up with Trahearne 'drinking beer with an alcoholic bulldog named Fireball Roberts in a ramshackle joint outside of Sonoma, California, drinking the heart right out of a fine spring afternoon.' (p.1) Yes, you read that correctly...an alcoholic bulldog. After a certain incident which sees Trahearne holed up in the hospital with a bullet in his buttock, C W befriends the female bar owner and learns of her only daughter Betty Sue's unexplained and sudden disappearance some ten years earlier. With similarities aplenty C W and Trahearne find it easy to strike up a friendship and both men hit the road with Fireball in tow, in search of Betty Sue - C W because he's a good guy and it's his job; Trahearne because he's not quite ready to go home; Fireball because he goes where the beer goes. What unfolds during the subsequent investigation/search is a crawl through the seedy underbelly of organized crime, fistfights and shootouts, the blossoming and hilarious yet sweet relationship between two men and their adopted dog, all interspersed with enough drinking to put you off your Sunday afternoon pint for life, and enough mystery to leave you twisting in the wind to the last page.

Fireball Roberts, the alcoholic bulldog is one of my favourite literary characters of all time. Although completely unacceptable by today's modern standards, it would seem 'bar dogs' were quite a popular cultural phenomenon in the U.S. several decades ago. If you can accept the character as a product of his time then you will learn to love the brave little dog, fiercely loyal and bonding with C W and Trahearne in a way that will make your eyes moisten! The trio get themselves into various capers and cap every hard day off with an ice cold beer and a nap. What a team!

The Last Good Kiss symbolises another time and era: one of freedom, opportunity, the open road and to use a modern phrase - political incorrectness! It is my favourite hard-boiled detective novel to date, with its gritty, realistic take on crime. C W is a character laid bare with all his flaws plain to see. He is not sharp of mind and quick of wit, but he is good and honest, a Robin Hood in a world of Sheriffs of Nottingham. If you like crime and mystery then pick this book up, read it over a rainy weekend and join C W, Trahearne and Fireball Roberts for a crazy bar crawl around America...just don't forget to choose your designated driver.