Angels in Heaven - Hardcover

PIERCE, DAVID M.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0356200469 ISBN 13: 9780356200460

Publisher: CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS, 1991

Synopsis

When a childhood buddy asks for Vic Daniel's help in escaping from a vicious high-security Mexican prison, the six-foot-seven-inch private eye heads for the "Hammock Capital of Mexico" with his motley cohorts

About this title

About the Author

David M Pierce has pursued the typical career path of the aspiring private-eye writer - aluminum company slave, furniture salesman, reporter, truck driver, magazine salesman, stage manager, actor, bartender and hatcheck girl. He has also written lyrics for Alice Cooper, Chad 'n Jeremy and John Entwhistle and co-wrote and acted in the musical comedy 'Captain Crash vs. the Zorg Woman, Parts 5 & 6'. He is the author of three previous Vic Daniel mysteries: 'Down in the Valley', 'Hear the Wind Blow , Dear...' and 'Roses Love Sunshine', as well as and 'Write Me a Letter' and 'As She Rides By' which follow on from 'Angels in Heaven' in the series. Born in Montreal, David M Pierce spent years in London and Los Angeles before settling in Paris.

Reviews

An amusing hardcover introduction to six-foot-seven San Fernando Valley p.i. Vic Daniel, who, together with his sidekicks- -Benny the boyish-looking scam artist and Sara the punk poet--heads for the Yucatan to spring his boyhood chum Billy from jail. With bribes, a strategically positioned photograph of J. Edgar Hoover, and a loud cracking of gum, they wrest control of Billy from the federales and head for the coast and a boat to Belize--but Billy scampers off to retrieve his ill-gotten fortune; their boat-ride never materializes; and the convoluted plans to return home suddenly depend on the touring Harlem Globetrotters, blackface, and more bribes. Wispy plotting, but the offbeat humor, nutty characters, and (mostly hapless) V. Daniel may find you hunting up the trio of previous Vic paperbacks. -- Copyright ©1992, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

This fourth Vic Daniel mystery by Canadian expatriate Pierce is the U.S. hardcover debut of this laconic and grumbling, brutally funny, 6 7 Southern California detective. A master of off-center characterization and the oddball narrative view, Pierce conjures up low-rent coastal locales filled with Vietnamese restaurants, with strains of poor-gumshoe blues in the background. Early cases involve hiking across town to establish an alibi for a client and helping an aspiring basketball star hide a point-shaving past. The action picks up when a boyhood chum in a Mexican jail pleads for help. Vic, his multi-purpose gofer, punkette/poet Sara Silvetti, and the ace conman Benny the Boy pack their bags, their Montezuma's Revenge medicine and their fake passports and head south. Madcap storytelling and nutso types whose smart mouths run in overdrive make up for dated aspects of the five-year-old plot: riffs on Apple II computers and Valley talk don't play as well as they used to, nor is Kareem Abdul-Jabbar hitting the basket anymore, as he does here. Readers for whom Ross Thomas can't write enough will grin slyly with Pierce, even so.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Towering series investigator Vic Daniel ( Down in the Valley , Penguin, 1990) bemoans the fact that he must start wearing glasses but feels no compunctions about rescuing an old friend from a Mexican jail. Combining the efforts of borderline criminal Benny, made-over punker Sara, and various local contacts, he concocts a fanciful escape plan that almost succeeds. Most of the entertainment here arises from Vic's self-deprecatory and wryly amusing narrative, full of clever tricks and surreptitious preparations. Just the right book for an upbeat mood.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS
• Publication date: 1991
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0356200469
• ISBN 13: 9780356200460
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 240