Was this a mystery? Nominally. Was this an extended bender through the days of Milo's feeble attempts to distract himself from the drunken ennui of his life? Most definitely.

"Age and sorrow, those were my only assets, my largest liabilities.
But like most men who drink too much, I had spent most of my life considering my dismal future, and it had stopped amusing me. So I had another drink and walked over to the north window to look down on the happy, employed folk of Meriwether."

Helen Duffy is the classic beautiful dame walking into the solitary PI's office, looking for help finding her missing brother. It takes us through a tour of Milo's seedy life, his estranged co-worker, Jamison; his sort-of-fence and sort-of-son, Muffin; his best bar-friend, Simon, and then through choices places of the town.

"Most of Meriwether's freaks, dopers, hippies and assorted young folk lived on the north side of town in an old blue-collar neighborhood, which the earlier residents had deserted in favor of take developments on the south side of town, but the neighborhood was still pleasant in a small-town way--inexpensive but fairly well-built houses that aged nicely, like a handsome woman, the yards shaded by old trees and overgrown with evergreen shrubbery and flowering bushes."

Milo is an alcoholic first, and a half-hearted investigator second, and the story feels like its more about his alcoholic aspirations towards a decent woman (who would be wife #3) than a gumshoe mystery.

Crumley can write, there's no doubt. But this is 1975, in a slummy northwest town with growing pains: tourists versus locals, hippies and freaks versus the old guard, heroin and coke versus alcohol and pot. There's a commune, more or less; the tiniest awareness of gay issues; free love; but mostly lots of alcohol and passed out drunks. This is very time period, very barfly and very non-sensitive. Even more disheartening, though Milo is aware of his shortcomings, he'll continue to choose the booze every time. It is a time and character portrait, but is as depressing as only a dead-end bar can be.

Given a choice between watching an dysfunctional alcoholic careen through bars and slums in a feeble effort to find a missing brother, all in the hopes of getting laid by a beautiful woman, or following a functional alcoholic as he attempts to help a beautiful hooker leave her john (Scudder, Eight Million Ways to Die), I know which one I'd choose.

Two-and-a-half brews ( )

If Charles Bukowski were a private detective trying to earn a living in a
small hippie-filled city in the Pacific Northwest, he would be Milo, the
hero of the story. This is a hardboiled detective story, containing many
of the usual elements, including the down-on-his-luck detective, the
sexy siren of a would-be client, her missing brother who was too good
to be true. But, Crumley does not stop at giving us a run-of-the-mill
private eye story, he sets in in the seventies where there are stoned-
out hippies everywhere, even working for the chamber of commerce,
and offering up free love like its going out of style. There are also bars
seemingly on every corner and barflies everywhere.
Milo solves everything by going on bender after bender and is so
unorthodox that he even asks if his client will give him her nights in
exchange for his days working. But Milo is ferocious and transvestites,
street thugs, nasty officers, and hippie pig farm communes won't stop
him from getting to the bottom of the situation.
The plotting is not what this book is necessarily about. Its the wild,
almost-legendary drinking and atmosphere that makes this story.
( )

Milton Chester “Milo” Milodragovitch was once a very successful private investigator, he made his living as the kind of sleazy keyhole peeper who kicked in doors to snap photos for use as evidence in divorce cases, then they invented the no-fault divorce and the bottom dropped out. On the plus side he has a sizable inheritance from his wealthy father’s estate coming on his 53rd birthday… on the downside that’s more than a decade away and, between his hard partying ways and questionable life choices, it’s anybody’s guess as to whether he’ll live that long. His mentor is a long disbarred attorney named Simon who has given up on society to become a first rate drunk... Milo is starting to think Simon might have the right idea!

The Wrong Case has Milo agreeing to take on a missing person case for the simple reason that he is attracted to the missing man’s sister… the money isn’t bad either, but it’s mostly for the girl. The resulting investigation turns into a disaster when bodies begin piling up, an inexplicable junkie crime spree hits town, and Milo can’t seem to get a handle on exactly what’s going on or why. But, with a stubborn streak of tenacity that might get him killed, Milo is determined to solve the case and get the girl.

Milo is a redneck in the classic style, a hard drinking, hell-raising good ol’ boy with more guts than brains. He's reckless and self indulgent with no tolerance of rules or regulations of any kind and, like most classic hard-boiled types, he drinks WAY too much. It being the Seventies he’s also known to indulge in illegal drugs like speed and marijuana from time to time. He’s a hard-case (as well as something of a head-case at times) but he’s also a bit of a soft touch. Sure, he’ll knock you on your butt, but then he’ll probably help you up, apologize, and buy you a drink.

This novel won't be everyone's cup of Irish coffee, it's brooding, the mystery itself isn't all that great, the plot is a little hard to believe at times and none of the characters possess much in the way of redeeming qualities. I loved it!

The style invites comparisons to Raymond Chandler mostly due to the genre and the fact that Crumley has a certain way of presenting a sentence that is almost lyrical or poetic at times while still never letting the reader lose the sense that what is being read contains some greater secret about the harsh truth of the meaning of life.

The book contains adult language, sex, violence and racial slurs. ( )

I did not like this book and forced myself to finish it because of other favourable ratings and reviews. The characters and situations were far too "gritty" for my liking (the protogonist and most of the other characters are drunks with much of the narrative focusing on the need for another drink, or drug); and the solution to the supposedly missing person came through accident rather than clues or development. The ending was even worse when we discover that the lady who employed Milo and with whom he fell in love was a pathological liar and "mummy's" girl. Sorry I perserved in reading this. ( )

Mixing 1970s sensibilities with noir tropes and delving into heavy drinks and alcoholics culture this promised to be one interesting ride but sadly I just couldn't get on board.

Ok I confess I am a diehard Raymond Chandler fan and to my eyes the introduction of drugs, free love and more explicit violence just didn't fit. I guess, for me, it didn't date and so my expectations were affronted. Although it felt forced too: right at the beginning there is a dramatic and yet casual fatal hit & run of a purse snatcher. It's treated with ennui and fatalism but it felt out of place and too forced i.e. "lets grab the readers attention". Probably unfair of me but it put me in the wrong mood for the rest of the book.

So it was a pleasant surprise to find in the end it didn't turn out too bad. Ok the plot was average, but then the mystery is not really the point, and the characters don't stray into stereotypes too often, although for all his idiosyncrasies, I felt the main character was a bit bland. No where it does stand out is in the depiction of the culture of alcoholism, refreshingly painting a fond & accepting eye over their proceedings whilst acknowledging the tragedy, stupidity and horror of it. It made interesting eddies into the story and created some great locations and characters.

So whilst getting a look into the mindset of a heavy drinker saved this for me but I am not sure I would recommend it. I guess crime lovers will probably know if it sounds like their thing or not. ( )