Tag Archives: private eye

“The Disguise”

The private eye disguise

In glasses and bushy brows,

With nose and funny mustache

Able to deceive the soused.

I am impersonating the author,

The teller of these tall tales

Of tarnish valor and unfair maidens

And life’s sordid travails.

It is hard to fake the writing

To sit here and make stuff up.

The computer stares at me blankly

Like an audience saying, “Never enough.”

I can’t take one more day,

Maybe not ever one more hour.

I’m looking for the clues,

But everything turns up sour.

The writer has disappeared,

The creator now uncreated.

And everything I try or do

Comes out jaded or simply dated.

I am the created cliche,

Left behind to hold this space.

O’ author come back to me

So my future won’t be erased.


091222

Photo courtesy of author Robert Crais

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Filed under 2022, Monday morning writing joke, photo, poem, poetry, Poetry by David E. Booker

Monday morning writing joke: “Writer from Tennessee”

There once was a writer from Tennessee

Who wrote several good mysteries.

Her writing wasn’t horsing around

Except when horses were around

Then her private eye was riding high for his fee.

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Filed under 2020, Monday morning writing joke, photo by David E. Booker

Book review: “Lullaby Town” by Robert Crais

Lullaby Town by Robert Crais

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


It’s often fun to drop in near the beginning of a new series, and such is the case with private detective novel Lullaby Town by Robert Crais. The early 1990s seems in some ways a distant time now. No smart phones. Not even any cell phones. At least none mentioned in this novel. No ubiquitous laptop computers and the best ones were dummy terminals tied to mainframes.

Anyway, Hollywood’s erratic but supposedly brilliant action / adventure director Peter Alan Nelson hires private detective Elvis Cole to find his ex-wife and young son who disappeared almost a decade ago. As Elvis searches the country to find these two, he finds other trouble as well. Peter’s wife has established herself in a small town in Connecticut. Unfortunately, despite working her way up at a local bank to a respectable position, she also has some unwanted, and quite nasty, mob connections. Extricating the ex and keeping the erratic (and emotionally immature) director from interfering make for more than simple search and find assignment for Elvis and his taciturn partner, Joe Pike. An entertaining and fun read — including Elvis’s snarky remarks about other fictional private eyes. Definitely a 4 star and maybe a 4.5 star book.



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Filed under 2020, book review

Book Review: “Farewell, My Lovely”

Farewell, My Lovely (Philip Marlowe, #2)

Farewell, My Lovely by Raymond Chandler

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Trying to fill in my mystery history education, I finally read this novel. My tardiness is not a reflection on the novel, which I enjoyed. If you like private detective novels and the noir slice of life that it can portray, read this book. You may wind up feeling like the pink bug found on the 18th floor of LA police headquarters that Marlowe captures and sets free, or maybe you won’t, but you have to admire the use of telling details throughout the novel to help convey the story. There are a few things that were a bit overdone for me, and really it should 4.5 stars, but half stars aren’t allowed. For me, the use of metaphors was a bit heavy in the first half of the book. Their use settled down — at least so it seemed to me — in the second half. But, overall, the novel is good example of an author striving to bring his best skill and talent to a genre that at the time it was published (1940) that was considered by many to be less than a noble or worthy pursuit. I hope you read and enjoy the novel, too.



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Filed under 2020, book review

cARtOONSdAY: “cASE lOGIC 24: tHE Nd”

At least the commas and periods were in their right places.

At least the commas and periods were in their right places.

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Filed under 2017, cartoon by author, CarToonsday

cARtOONSdAY: “cASE lOGIC 23: fINISHING tOUCHES”

Sadly, he found they wouldn't even refill his doughnut bag.

Sadly, he found they wouldn’t even refill his doughnut bag.

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Filed under 2017, cartoon by author, CarToonsday

cARtOONSdAY: “cASE lOGIC 18: tUNNELING”

They intended to travel back in time and eliminate the period.

They intended to travel back in time and eliminate the period.

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Filed under 2016, cartoon by author, CarToonsday

cARtOONSdAY: “cASE lOGIC 13: oVERdo”

And when they ran out of ink, they used crayons to pencil in the commas.

And when they ran out of ink, they used crayons to pencil in the commas.

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Filed under 2016, cartoon by author, CarToonsday

cARtOONSdAY: “cASE lOGIC 12: “rUNNY eGGS”

Nobody had thrown any eggs yet, but Gumshoe was certain that was about happen. Was this what it had come to: runny eggs and run on sentences?

Nobody had thrown any eggs yet, but Gumshoe was certain that was about happen. Was this what it had come to: runny eggs and run on sentences?

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Filed under 2016, cartoon by author, CarToonsday