Miami Blues (copyright 1984, Black Lizard, 191 pp.) is yet another book that I bought from the Mobile Public Library’s book sale at the end of April. The copy that I bought is in near-mint condition. It doesn’t not appear to have been checked out many times.
Years ago, I saw the Miami Blues movie with Fred Ward, Alec Baldwin, and Jennifer Jason Leigh. I remember that the movie was a bit bizarre, but that I enjoyed it. How soon we forget.
The novel is the first of four Hoke Mosley books that Charles Willeford (1919-1988) published. Hoke is the stereotypical hardened cop – he’s divorced, cynical, nearly broke, and lives in a shabby Miami Beach hotel (in exchange for providing security at the hotel). Despite his circumstances, Mosley still tries to do a good job.
Willeford intercuts Mosley’s story with that of Junior (F.J. Frenger, Jr.), a sociopath recently released from San Quentin. Once out of prison, Junior mugs several people and uses his victims’ money and credit cards to pay for a trip to Miami. Once in Miami, Junior immediately murders a Hare Krishna and then hooks up with a ditzy prostitute named Susie.
Mosley and Junior are on a collision course from the start of the novel. I haven’t finished, but the reader knows that Miami “ain’t big enough for the two of them.” The ride is a lot of fun – the pages turn with ease and – despite its seediness – Miami Blues makes the reader want to visit south Florida.
The Black Lizard edition of Miami Blues contains a 1996 introduction by Elmore Leonard. In it, Leonard notes that both Willeford and he liked to make the bad guy the protagonist in their books. Or both writers would make it difficult to distinguish between the good and bad guys.
The weakness that I find in Willeford’s writing is that his characters don’t behave in the manner of real people. The violence (as with Leonard’s novels) is a bit cartoonish and some of the characters are a bit too dumb to be real. Still, I wanted a page turner and I’m really enjoying Miami Blues. So far, I’ll give 9 out of 10.
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