Created by Russell Atwood
That’s because author Russell Atwood has delivered an eye that acknowledges the traditions of the P.I. genre, while still having a bit of fun with it, and adding a touch of pure New Yawk. Payton’s not the world’s greatest detective, but he manages to scratch out a living in the East Village.
A former managing editor of Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, Atwood’s first story featuring Sherwood, “East of A”, appeared in that magazine in 1996. A few years later, he returned, with a novel that takes the basic ingredients of the tough little shaggy dog tale (and the title, and runs with it, playing it very much for laughs at times.
Mind you, it isn’t all some lightweight, tongue-in-cheek spoof. Atwood knows what he’s doing. He turns around and delivers the goods.
Payton’s an appealingly low-key eye, a soft touch when it comes to kids, comfortable in his East Village digs, a true New Yorker. One of the more enjoyable P.I. yarns stories set in New York in a while. And even better news was that, ten years later, Payton returned in Losers Live Longer, a snazzy paperback original put out by the boys at Hard Case Crime, with a snazzy (and sideways) cover art by pulp legend Robert McGinnis.
UNDER OATH
- “The real fun of Russell Atwood’s first (but obviously not last) mystery is watching him ring all the changes he can on the traditional noir icons without leaning on the twin crutches of camp or disrespect.”
— Dick Adler (CrimeWatch)
SHORT STORIES
- “East of A” (June 1996, EQMM; later retitled “East Village Noir”)
NOVELS
- East of A (1999) | Buy this book | Kindle it!
- Losers Live Longer (2009) | Buy this book | Kindle it!
Respectfully submitted by Kevin Burton Smith.
