Crime Scene - a crime and mystery ezine

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(e)Book Review:

"Out of Town A Few Days: 15 Frank Johnson Stories"

By Ed Lynskey

www.booksforabuck.com, 2004

Reviewed by Russel D McLean for crimescenescotland.com

Ed Lynskey’s PI, Frank Johnson is ex-military police, fond of the bourbon and almost anachronistic in his own way; a throwback to the hardboiled PI of yesteryear. His life is explained only when essential to the plot, his worldview is cynical and his penchant for violence reluctant and yet brutal. Regular readers of Crime Scene will know we have a soft spot for Johnson already, two of the stories in Ed Lynskey’s collection OUT OF TOWN A FEW DAYS having already appeared here. And rightly so; this is character driven hardboiled noir that actually works, understanding the nature of the genre rather than, like so many hardboiled wannabes, simply throwing in sex and violence and bad language to an otherwise dull mystery.

The fifteen stories in this e-book - each of which take us on the road with Frank – have appeared in various locations. What is disappointing is that on the title page, Lynskey doesn’t give us dates of when each story appeared. I don’t know, but I feel like a chronological understanding of when each piece was written would give a wider picture and breadth to the work. And, in fact, it is in presentation that the book falls. While Booksforabuck.com are indeed cheap and fast publishers, I think a bit more time could have been spent maybe with some cover art and a better title page. It would also help to have page numbers for each story and maybe a better indexing system. Scrolling down to get a certain story involves a lot of guesswork even in Adobe v.6. Also the formatting of paragraphs are occasionally inconsistent with certain stories starting at random points down the page (however, this may be due to the fact I use A4 size paper rather than American letter size!)

That said, such problems are pretty much inconsequential and what is important in this book is the writing. Lynskey’s been writing for a long time and he’s been published in a lot of places (And Frank Johnson also has own entry on the thrilling detective website which must be a mark of honour!) so he knows his stuff. The dry, laconic voice of Frank is evident in every story and even if, every so often, he drops out a little at the expense of plot, such lapses are rare and barely noticeable. Lynskey is aware of the problems of info dump and details on such things; relationships and Frank’s everyday life are doled out in a matter-of-fact manner and only when absolutely necessary. This is a refreshing change, and while Frank isn’t quite so much without a personal life as, say, Pronzini’s Nameless Detective, the parallels are obvious: both men take the PI mythos and pare them to the bone. Through Franks’ eyes we get not a glimpse in Frank’s life but into other people’s lives. We see people at their worst through his eyes. This is what the PI genre is about and Frank’s swift, violent glimpses achieve this better than most. Occasionally, resolutions come too swift and the reader has to go back a few lines to work out what was going on (“Think Pink” and “Didymus”) but the pared down writing is generally immensely effective and besides, this collection understands that the destination in a PI story is often less important than the journey and the people we meet on that journey. Although in a good percentage of these stories, the destination is still every bit as good as the journey.

There is a great deal of playing around with pulp lines and attitudes. When Frank says to a scumbag, “And that’s going to give you gas, as in the death chamber” (“Swag”) it’s the kind of line that could have come straight from the pulps. In fact, it’s that kind of attitude that marks his work out as different. These are pulps with a modern sensibility. Swift, brutal and occasionally nihilistic they’re new century pulps without the preening and posing of other writers who claim to be writing in the genre.

What Lynskey also does well is that he understands the nature of real life: not every crime is solved and not every story ends happily. Certain stories (like “Against the Season”) leave plot threads hanging by their resolution and yet the reader is not dissatisfied with such things. In fact, the promise of further resolution is often implied and perhaps more satisfying than all things being wrapped up in a neat little package.

Ultimately, this is a great little collection but for my money I would rather it was released through a paper publisher or at least in a more attractive format. A little more thought into page numbering and layout wouldn’t have gone amiss. But in terms of writing, Lynskey’s new-age pulp attitude and his intriguing hero are what make this collection worth buying. And at a buck, hell, there’s absolutely no reason not to check this out!

Writing Frank Johnson

By Ed Lynskey

Developing a private investigator persona and establishing that PI as a recurring character in a series is difficult. Part of the challenge is to keep the PI fresh and interesting to modern readers while not endowing him or her with over-the-top, often silly attributes trying to leave a lasting impression on readers. The PI template is pretty much a cliché so the author is compelled to strive for originality but doesn’t want to bend the subgenre’s conventions beyond recognition.

Some PIs have a staying power like Bill Pronzini’s Nameless Detective and Michael Collins’ Dan Fortune while others such as Wade Miller’s Max Thursday stick around for a few books, then fade from the scene. These, and a slew of others, are the classics to emulate but hopefully in a different, engaging way.

And so we now have Frank Johnson, PI. Originally I had him pegged as a regular guy who had a clever knack for getting into trouble while getting results. He had his cronies and pals as well as his little corner of the world to operate in but I didn’t want him rootbound and provincial. A good old boy, if you will. So, I created the rich, flamboyant lawyer Robert Gatlin as the employer who sent Frank out of Pelham, Virginia on various cases. The motive for Frank was easy enough: getting paid.

Frank needed to have law enforcement experience but not as a cop or sheriff. The military police made a logical fit. That way he’d also have a broader worldview since MPs are typically dispatched far and wide. Shaping Frank’s personality profile proved to be a balancing act. Serious yet understated. Modest yet tenacious. Compassionate but not cynical. Tough but not arrogant. Sure, sure but can Frank Johnson, PI, pull all that off? Like I mentioned, it’s a challenge.

Article (c) Ed Lynskey, 2004