Death Is a Lonely Business (Crumley Mysteries, #1)

ray Bradbury, The Undisputed Dean Of American Storytelling, Dips His Accomplished Pen Into The Cryptic Inkwell Of noir And Creates A Stylish And Slightly Fantastical Tale Of Mayhem And Murder Set Among The Shadows And The Murky Canals Of Venice, California, In The Early 1950s. toiling Away Amid The Looming Palm Trees And Decaying Bungalows, A Struggling Young Writer (who Bears A Resemblance To The Author) Spins Fantastic Stories From His Fertile Imagination Upon His Clacking Typewriter. Trying Not To Miss His Girlfriend (away Studying In Mexico), The Nameless Writer Steadily Crafts His Literary Effort—until Strange Things Begin Happening Around Him. starting With A Series Of Peculiar Phone Calls, The Writer Then Finds Clumps Of Seaweed On His Doorstep. But As The Incidents Escalate, His Friends Fall Victim To A Series Of Mysterious Accidents—some Of Them Fatal. Aided By Elmo Crumley, A Savvy, Street-smart Detective, And A Reclusive Actress Of Yesteryear With An Intense Hunger For Life, The Wordsmith Sets Out To Find The Connection Between The Bizarre Events, And In Doing So, Uncovers The Truth About His Own Creative Abilities. library Journal dedicated To Raymond Chandler, Dashiell Hammett, James M. Cain, And Ross Macdonald, Bradbury's 1985 Novel Is A Paean To The Hard-boiled Mystery. The Plot Follows A Writer Who Joins Ranks With A Detective And An Actress To Get To The Bottom Of Some Strange Doings. Bradbury Is Always Worth Reading. Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information. I first came upon this novel purely by accident, I was doing an evening class course at a local technical college, and I went into the college library to check out useful books. I was surprised to see ordinary library books and chuffed to see a Ray Bradbury volume. Since discovering Bradbury I'd become an addict scouring every available source for my fix, this was an particular delight as I'd never heard of or seen it anywhere else. I was living in digs and decided to start it one evening with the consideration of simply reading some before going to bed as I had to work the next day. However I couldn't put it down such that I stopped checking the time, and just had to keep reading until I had finished it completely. When I did recheck the hour it was gone 2 o'clock in the morning, as I had been so consumed with it that I lost all track of time, I just had to read it all. In searching for a copy of the novel I located an audiobook version, though not from even a United Kingdom source but from Tandor Media from the USA. I was honestly disappointed at the first hearing, in the way it was presented, as more of a conventional detective yarn, similar to what has become the rather hackneyed form of cops n' robbers. Reading a story gave me a sense of it that didn't come across in the audio version. Yes it is a detective murder mystery but oh so much more than that. Nothing is ever straightforward in a Ray Bradbury novel be entranced by its story and swept along by its momentum you won't know where its heading but you can't wait to find out. Ray Bradbury, the undisputed Dean of American storytelling, dips his accomplished pen into the cryptic inkwell of noir and creates a stylish and slightly fantastical tale of mayhem and murder set among the shadows and the murky canals of Venice, California, in the early 1950s. Toiling away amid the looming palm trees and decaying bungalows, a struggling young writer (who bears a resemblance to the author) spins fantastic stories from his fertile imagination upon his clacking typewriter. Trying not to miss his girlfriend (away studying in Mexico), the nameless writer steadily crafts his literary effort--until strange things begin happening around him. Starting with a series of peculiar phone calls, the writer then finds clumps of seaweed on his doorstep. But as the incidents escalate, his friends fall victim to a series of mysterious "accidents"--some of them fatal. Aided by Elmo Crumley, a savvy, street-smart detective, and a reclusive actress of yesteryear with an intense hunger for life, the wordsmith sets out to find the connection between the bizarre events, and in doing so, uncovers the truth about his own creative abilities. A struggling young writer has strange things happening around him in Venice, California, including friends' fatal accidents. He sets out to find the connection between the bizarre events In California in 1949, a young writer and a detective believe a number of deaths associated with an amusement park were murders. Suddenly the killer begins stalking them Venice, California, in the old days had much to recommend it to people who liked to be sad.