Created by Reed Stephens
Pseudonym of Stephen R. Donaldson)
(1947- -)
Guilt? Jealousy? Anger? Alcoholism? Lust? Pity? Self-pity?
You’re soaking in it.
In this trilogy from the eighties, drunk and washed-up ex-cop MICK “BREW” AXBREWDER is content to drink himself to death in some dive bar in Puerto del Sol, a city somewhere in the southwest (probably New Mexico?), when he’s given a second chance when he’s hired by smart, tough-as-nails private eye GINNY FISTOULARI. Narrated almost as a string of confessions by Mick (all you amateur shrinks can check out the titles), it was pretty clear that Mick needed all the chances he could get.
But it’s the hardened, no-nonsense Ginny who was the real star of the show. Anyone who thinks women eyes can’t be convincingly hard-boiled should check out the conclusion of the first book (click here for spoiler). Some Santa Monica beach-jogging, latte-slurping P.I. she wasn’t.
The three books, all trade paperback originals (at least in Canada), were published by Reed Stephens back in the eighties, and that was that — they would have been an interesting footnote in the history of P.I. fiction, but despite a few good reviews, they didn’t exactly set the world on fire commercially.
Me, I liked the spiffy original covers and those titles, and I was intrigued initially by how Ginny dealt with the game-changing events of that first novel.
My problem with the next two books in the series, The Man Who Risked His Partner (1984) and The Man Who Tried To Get Away (1990), was that they were so goddamn long-winded, and Mick was still spinning his wheels, in perpetual freefall. I enjoy a good brood as the next doofus, but Mick and Ginny were so psychologically screwed up and prone to long-winded over-analyzing of EVERYTHING the other one said and did that I started to wish someone who just slap them around.
The third book in particular wandered way past the intriguing line, crossing into annoying territory, all the emotional scab-picking dragging the book down into a morass of dubious psychobabble and self-pity. Too bad — the book was an ambitious attempt to meld the hard-boiled detective story with the sitting room fair-play mysteries of Agatha Christie, with the two allegedly rough-and-tough eyes are hired to babysit a mystery party.
It didn’t quite work, and all the his-and-her moaning and groaning didn’t help.
And that was that.
Until, years later, as the new millennium dawned, it was revealed that Reed Stephen’s real name was Stephen R. Donaldson, who in the years since had become a big shot, bestselling author with his Chronicles of Thomas Covenant sci-fi series, and the money and acclaim began rolling in.
So, naturally, the original three books were re-released under Donaldson’s real name, all in “minimally revised” form, and a fourth novel, The Man Who Fought Alone (2001), was published.
The “sprawling” novel (512 pages) finds Brew still trying to make it up to Ginny for sins both real and imagined, Meanwhile, she’s relocated the agency to the Sunbelt city of Carner, much to Brew’s dismay.
NOVELS
- The Man Who Killed His Brother (1980) | Buy this book | Kindle it!
- The Man Who Risked His Partner (1984) | Buy this book | Kindle it!
- The Man Who Tried To Get Away (1990) | Buy this book
- The Man Who Fought Alone (2001) | Buy this book | Kindle it!
FURTHER INVESTIGATION
- That Left Hand Turn at Albuquerque
And Other New Mexico Eyes
Report respectfully submitted by Kevin Burton Smith. Thanks to Al for putting me straight on this one.
