Synopsis/blurb ...
THE END OF THE ROAD?
Kind-hearted Mitchell they called me, the private eye with the soft centre. Only this time I wasn't living up to my name. It had become a case of the survival of the fittest and I was determined that if I had to go down, I'd go down fighting.
As it turned out I had very little choice. Pollard had hired me to see if his wife was cheating on him and it didn't need Sherlock Holmes to find that she was. The guy's name was Murdock, that much I knew. But when I tried to find out more I came up against a brick wall at every turn. A brick wall and a face full of fist. It was the fist that made me realise that, if I wasn't careful, I could end up in a very unpleasant situation. Or to put it another way, dead ...
NEON MADMAN is the fourth of Scott Mitchell's violent-action private eye adventures. Don't miss
AMPHETAMINES AND PEARLS
THE GERANIUM KISS
JUNKYARD ANGEL - all available in Sphere Books
Another book that has probably sat on my shelves ignored for about 10 years or more. Well worth the wait in fact, as unlike other previously encountered British PI mysteries, this one seemed authentic and not an imitation of the type of book more readily set in the US.
Interesting story, interesting main character, London setting, plenty of tough guy action with our main character mainly on the receiving end of threats and intimidation, after accepting a case.
A few months on from reading it, a lot of the finer details have vanished from the memory banks, but what I can recall is being absorbed by the story, the outcome, the characters and the fast pace of the book. At under 150 pages it probably only took me a day or two to blow through it. Mitchell is definitely a character I would like to read more about.
John Harvey is an author who I have read very little from. I've collected most of his Resnick and Frank Elder series books without dipping into them. I did try and hoover up the Scott Mitchell series, of which this is the last, without success. Very scarce and very expensive - when I looked back in the day. When having another look, post-consumption of this I see to my delight that they have been republished in the past few years by Mysterious Press. Maybe I'll get to catch up with the other three in the series.
Previous encounters with this author were in the days before the blog - Trouble in Mind (a novella, May 2010) and Bluer Than This (poems, June, 2011)
Overall 4.5 stars from 5
Read - September, 2022
Published - 1977
Page count - 144
Source - owned copy
Format - Paperback
Sounds like a good one, Col. There are books that today are hard to find. I ran into the same thing when looking for Marvin Albert’s Tony Rome novels – MIAMI MAYHEM and LADY IN CEMENT. No library has them, even though many have the Frank Sinatra films made from them. And a Google search turned up a couple of very expensive copies.
ReplyDeleteIt's funny how that works, Elgin. Years ago, I tried finding these other Mitchell books and the prices were ridiculous. Other books of a similar age and content seem to be 10 a penny, there's no rhyme or reason to it. Or at least that I can see. I've just looked up Tony Rome and the books aren't cheap. I would keep an eye out for them but I don't think I'll evercross paths with them.
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