John Tisley's Nevada Blue is a
Vegas crime thriller, played out on the bad end of Fremont.
First published in 1997, and set in the early 1970's (bow-chicka-wow-wow) the story contains a lot of well worn elements; hit men, dirty cops, mobsters with stupid names (Jimmy Jinx, oh really, come on), cheap booze and cheaper women. The whole thing feels dated rather than retro. It's like pulling on your old bell bottom jeans, only to find that now they're two sizes too small.
First published in 1997, and set in the early 1970's (bow-chicka-wow-wow) the story contains a lot of well worn elements; hit men, dirty cops, mobsters with stupid names (Jimmy Jinx, oh really, come on), cheap booze and cheaper women. The whole thing feels dated rather than retro. It's like pulling on your old bell bottom jeans, only to find that now they're two sizes too small.
The clipped 'hard boiled crime' style of writing just didn't work for me and I found myself cringing at some of the tired cliché’s liberally scattered through the narrative. Tisley is an English writer and the one thing that really jarred with me was his use of common British phrases, which you just don't hear in the US. When did a LVPD sergeant ever use the word 'scarpered' or suggest that he might have 'dropped a bollock' ?
On the plus side, I know the streets on which Tisley's characters walk pretty well and I did get a faint whiff of uncomfortable nostalgia from reading Nevada Blue; either that or the sink is blocked again.
Nevada Blue is not the worst book in the world and if you can get past the hackneyed prose there is a reasonable story to be had here. I'm just not sure if it's worth the effort.
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