Friday 28 August 2015

JONATHAN VALIN - THE LIME PIT (1980)


Synopsis/blurb……

The first Harry Stoner mystery

Harry Stoner is a private eye in the classic tradition. A loner with a history of failed relationships with women and all-too-successful relationships with bottles of scotch, he's unable to look away from the world's corruption and unable to avoid trying--futiley--to do something about it. His latest hopeless cause is Cindy Ann, a teenage hooker. Neither pretty nor engaging, she doesn't have much to offer at all, and somehow that makes her disappearance all the more disturbing for Stoner, who knows what can happen to girls nobody wants. And he's got a sick hunch that it happened to Cindy Ann, right across the Cincinnati border.

As tough as Spenser in his heyday, Stoner is as hard-boiled as they come, but he's a lot more than a standard-issue pulp P.I. The story may be ugly, but in Valin's hands it has the brutal grace of a world-class boxing match.

A 1980 book for Past Offences Crimes of the Century August meme.

Jonathan Valin wrote eleven Harry Stoner PI series books between 1980 and 1995, before disappearing from the crime fiction landscape and into the world of music magazines and editing.

The Lime Pit is the first entry into this series and is an ugly, sordid tale of a missing 16 year old street-wise girl and the bereft old man who had been caring for her, whilst she in turn gave him back something other than the ridicule and contempt her friends across the street, Laurie and Lance disdained him with.  Stoner has just wrapped up an easy case and to balance the scales takes Hugo Cratz’s offer of $8 and change in return for half an hour’s time and Harry to get across the road and ask the Jellicoe’s where his Cindy Ann went.

Cratz is playing Stoner and the Jellicoe’s he senses are being less than truthful. Some pornographic photos of Cindy Ann, Cratz keeps in a shoebox, are revealed once Stoner proves himself trustworthy to old Hugo. Harry is immediately wise to the probable fate that has embroiled our not so innocent 16 year old.

Stoner based in Cincinatti heads over the river to Newport, Kentucky…….and into the lion’s den.

Every city has a reason for being where it is. And Newport’s reason is to service Cincinatti, to provide the gambling, the prostitution, and the sin that the good elders of our town have turned out of the city limits. Newport is an open secret, a dirty little joke that nobody laughs at because there’s too much muscle and money in Newport to make it a fun or funny place. It’s a tough, leering border town, with a wide-open police department….

Corruption, pornography, a child-sex ring, politicians, complicity, a dim good ol’ town football hero as a patsy, a bereft homosexual partner, a sad and confused old man, some short-lived romance with an old flame, an attempt on his life and a death inflicted, before some more bloody violence and answers but no happy endings.

Great writing….Abel Jones came trundling down the stairs…..around forty, and he had the sharp mean features of the Appalachian tough – narrow lips, a nose that could open an envelope, black eyes and gaunt, grooved cheeks.

Great characters, especially Harry – though there’s not a whole-hearted endorsement of his methods. Can enabling a paedophile to indulge his passions one more time, be considered acceptable, if it takes you one step further along the road to bringing down the ring and the people responsible? I’m unsure myself. Difficult question, difficult themes, no easy answers.

5 from 5

A bought copy from I can’t remember where many years ago.

You can catch some of Valin's music-related articles here

For an overview of his PI Harry Stoner, you'll need this link to the piece on the Thrilling Detective website 



  

13 comments:

  1. Now, that's an interesting question, Col. Do the ends justify the means here? It sounds like one of those stories that stays with you once you've read it. Glad that it ticked all the boxes for you.

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    1. I'm still conflicted over that one Margot. Not sure. The best fiction sometimes poses tricky questions.

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  2. I actually read this one when it first came out, I remember it clearly. It was too hard-core for me, but it says something that I still remember it all these years later.

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    1. Harsh and brutal themes. I'll definitely be reading more from Valin in the future.

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  3. So, does he not spend much time in Cincinnati? That was one of the reasons I was interested in this series. Glen is from Ohio, and his grandparents lived in Cincinnati.

    Anyway, I did consider this one for the 1980 meme but went for Estleman and Detroit instead. I have had Motor City Blue longer I think.

    I think the subject matter for this one may be too much for me, but I am going to read it anyway, so we will find out. I am glad that you liked it so much.

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    1. There's a fair bit taking place in Cincinatti, possibly more than elsewhere?
      I was always going for this one for the meme, Howard Engel was a momentary contender.

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  4. I remember reading this many years ago, and in that very edition.

    Talking of hardboiled, have you noticed that Munseys seems to have disappeared? I don't know if this is temporary or if the site has closed down. A major blow if so!

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    1. The other day, I followed a link to Munseys with the same result. What happened?

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    2. Hopefully I will get to read more from, Valin next year.

      I didn't realise Munsey's site had dropped until I read your note(s). It's still disappeared at the minute. Permanent or temporary? I don't know and I can't find any chat anywhere online about its situation.

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  5. Nice review, Col. It is time for me to read some more Valin. I started on him in the 90s, but did not read all the Stoner novels.

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    1. Thanks Elgin. I have all of the books in my collection, so only 10 to go! I'm still curious as to why he stopped writing fiction.

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  6. Col, great writing and great characters might not be enough to convince me to read this crime novel but I'll keep the author and the series in mind. Good ranking.

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    1. Prashant - I'll have to see if a second book read and reviewed by Valin tips the scales for you? Next year hopefully!

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