You Can’t Make Old Friends is redolent of the classic noir detective novels. It’s well written, pacy and at times insightful. While much the dialogue, characters and scenes reek of Chandler and his ilk, it comes across as homage to the greats rather than clichés. Trott has his own voice.
The author creates a great sense of place, describing Brighton evocatively.
It’s witty, too. The stupid name Joe Grabarz for the main character sets a low bar for the comic level. (Moreover, it’s not even remotely descriptive of the character. I couldn’t help thinking that the author thought of the name before anything else and just stubbornly stuck with it. I bet he regretted it later.) Fortunately, it gets better, with entertaining one-liners maintaining the noir atmosphere.
As soon as I finished reading, I went online to buy book two (despite a virtual mound of books awaiting reading on my kindle), Choose your Parents Wisely. A sidestep to the author’s website astonished me .. his youthful face belies the mature and confident authorial voice.
Find it on Amazon and at other bookstores.
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