Six Key Cut

Six Key CutAuthor: Max CrawfordTitle: Six Key CutPublication: AtheneumEdition: FIRST EDITIONDescription: First Edition, First Printing. Not price-clipped. Published by Atheneum, 1986. Octavo. Hardcover. Orange stained top page ends. Book is very good, spotting to vertical and bottom page ends. Dust jacket is very good. Seller ID: 317156Subject: Literature

Wealthy Vietnam vet Sid Mehring goes to Miami to learn whether his young ward Jamie, orphaned sister of one of his dead buddies, has been murdered or been part of a cocaine scam. She's in love with Byron Racicot, who is in homosexual thrall to the sadistic Lex, mastermind of the plot to steal the coke from Colombian gangsters. Byron's rich father negotiates with the Colombians to buy By's life, while Lex and a crooked vice cop scheme, separately, to get away with the coke. An unnamed derelict becomes the spirit of vengeance stalking Lex, By, Jamie, the crooked cop and just about everybody else. Most readers may be turned off by Crawford's deliberately mysterious, arty prose, and his gratuitous use of violence. Crawford wrote Lords of the Plains.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.

This book is like watching a rough-cut of an episode of Miami Vice on a black- and-white TV set. The plot shows promise, but the characters lack color, the incidents are not joined, and the story fails to flow. A clever scheme to steal drugs from Colombian racketeers makes it necessary for two young peo ple to fake their own deaths to avoid retribution. Their bungled attempt, which requires the dead bodies of two derelicts, sets off a series of events in volving wealthy New Yorkers, corrupt cops, vengeful winos, and maddened mobsters. The action moves through al leys, bars, and mansions, creating en route a string of corpses, episodes of excessive violence, and disturbing glimpses into the seamier side of Mi ami. The story is overwhelmed by gra tuitous gore and deliberate obscurity. Not recommended. Crawford's previ ous novels include Lords of the Plain . John North, L.R.C., Ryerson Polytechnical Inst., Toronto
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.