Format: Kindle Edition
File Size: 205 KB
Print Length: 101 pages
Simultaneous Device Usage: Unlimited
Sold by: Amazon Media EU S.à r.l.
Language: English
ASIN: B006426U5M
There’s a
wonderful story told about the filming of the classic 1946 Humphrey
Bogart/Lauren Bacall murder mystery “The Big Sleep.” The plot of the book was
so convoluted that in translating it from print to screen, director Howard
Hawks and his screenwriters William Faulkner, Leigh Brackett and Jules Furthman
discovered that not only weren’t they entirely sure who the killer of Sean
Reagan was, they also had a dead chauffeur on their hands and they couldn’t
figure out who killed him. In
desperation they contacted the writer of the book, Raymond Chandler to ask him
who killed Sean Regan and the chauffeur and Chandler had to admit that he
himself didn’t know.
Indeed,
there’s a wonderful bit right in the middle of “The Big Sleep” where Bogart’s
Philip Marlowe is called into the Los Angeles D.A.’s office to explain the case
to him and by extension to the us, the audience. Because by the time we’ve reached
that point of the movie the filmmakers felt that there needed to be some kind
of summary of what happened so that audiences back then could take a breath and
feel they were up on what had happened up until then.
I feel
kinda the same way about Raymond Embrack’s impressively deranged BARRACUDA: A PETER SURF NOVELLA. Halfway
through it needs somebody to hold up both hands, yell “Hold everything, please!”
and summarize the plot. And trust me, I mean that in a good way. Because in the
same way that “The Big Sleep” is now regarded as a classic of the private eye
genre, I think that BARRACUDA in its own way is going to become a classic. And
Raymond Embrack is a writer to watch.
Peter Surf
is a private eye living and working in Blonde City, a California city that
seems to be entirely made up of linked beaches each with their own distinctive
personality. Blonde City itself is one of the best characters in the story,
inhabited by gangs such as The Schoolgirl Mafia who commit thrill killings
while hopped up on Hentai-14 and The Beach Mafia whose members worship The
Beach Boys to the extent that all of them have the last name of “Smile” in
honor of Brian Wilson’s epic project. It’s a city that seems made up out of
equal parts of 1950’s, ‘60’s and ‘70’s pop culture with a healthy heaping dose
of whatever the hell Raymond Embrack felt like throwing in and believe me, he
makes it works. And for me watching him make it work was one of the fun things
about reading this story.
Peter Surf
himself is…well, the best way to describe him is if you imagined Mike Hammer
created by Quentin Tarantino instead of Mickey Spillane. He lives and works out
of a converted, arsenal filled service station and he doesn’t so much as do
straight up detective work as wreak havoc among his enemies until somebody
yells “uncle” and tells him what he wants to know.
And the
havoc is profane, sexy and violent and I wouldn’t have it any other way. The
story begins with Surf investigating a terrorist group called T-Unit. They’re
terrorizing the private eyes of Blonde City. They’re running some out of town
and outright killing others. They make the mistake of terrorizing Surf instead
of killing him. From then on, Peter Surf becomes a one man wrecking crew on the
warpath of T-Unit.
How this is
all tied with the DEA, a particularly dangerous man named Gronsky and Blue
Mermaid, a type of maryjane so mythical it’s supposed to be able to heal people
I would not dream of telling you. Just be advised that by the time you reach
the halfway point of BARRACUDA you may be tempted to say, “Hold everything,
please!” go back to the beginning and start reading all over again just to make
sure you know exactly what is going on.
That’s
because Mr. Embrack writes like this was the only book he was ever going to
write in his life. There’s an astounding amount of vibrantly alive characters,
situations and concepts that other writers would have spread out over a
trilogy. BARRACUDA is never boring and never lags due to the constant and
unending stream of sheer delightfully WTF plot twists Mr. Embrack throws at us
with glee.
The dialog
is pure classic P.I. genre porn where everybody talks like a dame or a smartass
or a tough guy. And Mr. Embrack allows himself to have fun with his concepts,
his prose and the dialog. I like to think that I can tell when a writer had fun
writing a story because that fun can’t help but translate into the prose. And
if Raymond Embrack has half as much fun writing BARRACUDA: A PETER SURF NOVELLA
as I did reading it then he had a big ol’ barrel of fun indeed. Highly
recommended reading.
I do gotta
point out that this is not for those of you who are PC minded or who object to
graphic language, violence and/or sex. But if you want to read a really good
crime/P.I. story that reminded me a lot of “Sin City” on crack you can’t do
better than BARRACUDA: A PETER SURF NOVELLA.
