The Big Bout: A Jimmy "Soldier" Riley Noir Novel (Soldier Mysteries) - Softcover

Lister, Michael

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1888146524 ISBN 13: 9781888146523

Publisher: Pulpwood Press, 2021

Synopsis

Picking up right at the thrilling conclusion of "The Big Hello," "The Big Bout" finds Soldier working two new cases and taking care of his friends in wartime Panama City. He and Clip are protecting a boxer whose life is being threatened before his big bout, and he's trying to solve a baffling murder -- all while taking care of the woman he loves. 

The Thrilling 4th novel in the noir series that began with THE BIG GOODBYE . . . History. Mystery. Romance. Action. Thrills. Suspense. Noir.

Walk the mean streets of wartime Panama City with Jimmy “Soldier” Riley, a wounded, woman-haunted knight errant in Michael Lister’s resonant new noir series Publisher’s Weekly calls “a promising private detective series set in 1940s Florida,” and Library Journal says “peppered with snappy dialog, this hard-boiled mystery by award winner Lister is a swell read.”

“Lister’s hard-edged prose ranks with the best of contemporary noir fiction.” Publisher’s Weekly Starred Review

“Michael Lister writes some of the best hard-boiled prose going. Nothing short of amazing!” Booklist Starred Review

“Michael Lister has the world of Florida Panhandle noir all to himself. Tough, violent, and hard-boiled, This novel of obsession and suspense will remind you of Raymond Chandler, Graham Greene, and why you started reading crime novels in the first place.” John Dufresne

About this title

Review

Booklist Starred Review 

"Lister writes some of the best hard-boiled prose going. Lines with all the bite of Hammett come rat-tat-tatting at you, one after the other, like this zinger with which a wealthy creep dismisses PI hero Jimmy "Soldier" Riley: "Run along, little peeper. Go pester those without means." This is the fourth novel in Lister's Riley series, set in the Florida Panhandle during WWII, and readers of the previous three will dive right in with gusto. For newbies, though, there is a definite backstory problem. How did Jimmy lose his arm? Who is the woman in the nursing home? Who's Folsom and why is he forever apologizing to Jimmy? Lister doesn't explain, and he may lose a few readers who can't get past the confusing opening. That's a shame because what follows is nothing short of amazing. Plot isn't the main appeal here, though there's plenty of that: a vanished war correspondent, a creepy institute where offbeat people are "corrected," and the titular big bout in which Fighting Freddy Freeman has a shot at becoming a contender. But, as in the best Chandler, we're not here for story but for mood, setting, and language, all of which are spot-on." Booklist Starred Review

Edition details

• Publisher: Pulpwood Press
• Publication date: 2021
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1888146524
• ISBN 13: 9781888146523
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 202