Little Elvises

November 26, 2012
Hallinan’s second Junior Bender mystery (after 2010’s Crashed) sends the L.A. burglar/PI on a journey into pop music’s supposedly innocuous 1950s past, mixing light and dark humor to enjoyable if uneven effect. Framed by LAPD Lt. Paulie DiGaudio for a residential robbery gone violently wrong, Bender finds he can restore his (relatively) good name by clearing DiGaudio’s uncle, Vinnie, a now retired, but still mobbed-up, music promoter, of a separate crime, the murder of tabloid hack Derek Bigelow. Junior discovers that Vinnie’s old lineup of faux-Elvis teen idols may be key to the crime, while he works on his testy relationships with Derek’s beguiling New Jersey widow, Ronnie; his own 13-year-old daughter, Rina; and the shadowy gangland powerbroker Irwin Dressler. The skewed, Runyonesque Southern California setting, epitomized by Junior’s home, the seedy but festively Yule-themed Marge ’n Ed’s North Pole motel, promises much for further outings, despite occasional lapses in taste and a shaky conclusion. Agent: Bob Mecoy, Bob Mecoy Literary.

December 15, 2012
In Hallinan's Los Angeles, where everyone leans on everyone else, investigator/thief Junior Bender gets leaned on good. Everyone knows that Junior didn't pull the Hammer job. Junior (Crashed, 2012) doesn't carry a gun, and the whole job wasn't his style. Still, Detective Paulie DiGaudio darkly intimates, Junior could end up in the frame if he's not willing to do a little favor for Paulie's Uncle Vincent. Like Junior, Vincent, a former Philadelphia music promoter who specialized in grooming Elvis Presley wannabes a generation ago, is suspected of a violent crime. Unlike Junior, Vincent is definitely a live suspect, since he'd threatened to kill low-rent British journalist Derek Bigelow over a little spot of blackmail shortly before Bigelow conveniently turned up dead on Hollywood Boulevard. Now, Vincent has troubles, which means that Paulie has troubles, which means that Junior has troubles. But the search for Bigelow's killer, which will bring Junior up against some people considerably more hard-bitten than the sometime-thief, isn't the extent of his troubles. Marge Enderby, his landlady of the month--for the past three years, Junior's been moving from one dead-end motel to the next to keep ahead of anyone who might be looking for him--wants him to find her daughter Doris, who shows signs of having run off with Lorne Henry Pivensey, aka Lemuel Huff, a man whose earlier experience with vanished women isn't at all encouraging. Junior, who tiptoes reluctantly into both cases prepared for the worst, is pleasantly surprised when Bigelow's widow, Ronnie, returns his interest with interest. Versatile Hallinan (The Fear Artist, 2012, etc.) provides a wealth of seamy types, past and present, and a thousand hard-boiled similes for his second-string Philip Marlowe.

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February 1, 2013

Junior Bender is a Los Angeles burglar who always seems to be doing a little sleuthing for other crooks in the city. He's got three rules: no mob guys, no murder cases, and no freebies. But when a crooked music industry mogul, a famed producer of the 1960s pop sensations deemed "Little Elvises," forces Junior to prove that he did not murder a tabloid journalist, Junior decides breaking two of his three rules would be okay, especially if he still gets paid. The case turns complicated, and Junior also has to deal with his heavy-drinking landlady's missing daughter. Then his ex-wife and teen daughter both turn up with new boyfriends. Can't a hard-working burglar-turned-detective ever catch a break? VERDICT In this second series outing (after Crashed), Hallinan's characters and dialog are top-notch, with a lively plot full of witty banter and comic scenes that will keep readers laughing. The author of the Thailand-set Poke Rafferty thrillers (The Queen of Patpong) first self-published this trilogy (next up is The Fame Thief) titles as ebooks.

Copyright 2013 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from January 1, 2013
The second Junior Bender novel is even better than the first (Crashed, 2012). Junior, a professional burglar, is roped into helping a former music-industry bigwig prove he's innocent of murder. But here's the thing: the man, who used to be famous for discovering a series of 1960s singing sensations known collectively (and rather derisively) as little Elvises, freely admits he was planning to kill the victim, a sleazy tabloid reporter. The only reason he didn't do it is because somebody else got to him first. Full of delightful charactersincluding the dead man's not-so-grieving widow and a grotesque killing machine named Frontsand dialogue that provides at least one good laugh on every page, the book is so hard to put down you'll swear it's been glued to your hands. This is hardly the first series about a burglar-herosee Lawrence Block's classic Bernie Rhodenbarr series, just for startersbut the Bender novels are fresh, exciting, and hugely, splendidly entertaining.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)