Cuts Like A Knife

Here's a review of another Dollar General find for $1.25 that kept me in suspense the whole time I was reading it.  It's Madison Smartt Bell's Straight Cut, and my review of it is featured below.

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Reading about film editing, even for a film buff like me, is usually a recipe for a nice, long nap.  But if you add a dash of hardboiled noir, drug smuggling, and one very troubled femme fatale into the mix, you have the combination to a very nice story that will hold my interest.  Such was the case with Madison Smartt Bell's Straight Cut, one of Hard Case Crime's novel reprints from 1986.

In this book (which features a beautiful cover by Chuck Pyle), Bell weaves the tale of Tracy Bateman, a freelance film editor who's been living off the radar ever since his best friend and film producer, Kevin Carter, involved him in a production that used drug smuggling as its major source of fundraising.  After one of their production staff is killed at the border trying to smuggle their "funds" back into the states, Tracy dropped out of the editing game and swore he would have no contact with Kevin ever again.  However, certain circumstances place Tracy in a vulnerable position, and soon Kevin has him flying to Rome to edit a documentary about junkies recovering from their drug addictions.

What does all this have to do with the drug smuggling and hardboiled noir?  I asked myself the same question several times throughout Straight Cut, and every time I did, some twist would occur that made my jaw drop.  Such is the way Bell has written this novel--it's very hardboiled and very noir, but not in the stereotypical notions of the genre.  Bell writes like he speaks, or that was my impression, which gives the prose a personal and close-to-the-vest sound.  Then there's his imagery and nuance for detail in all the locations in the novel--Rome, Belgium, and New York City all seem vividly realized by someone who's obviously been there, heard both sides of every story, and has the scars to prove it.

But the further I dove into Straight Cut, the more I began to identify with Bell's hero, Tracy Bateman.  His emotions over his predicament with Kevin and Lauren (his ex-wife and the femme fatale) became my emotions; his pain became my pain; and his anger became my anger. I've never been so drawn into a book and a set of characters as I was with this novel, and I doubt the experience will be replicated.

Bell has crafted a great piece of work here that will leave you stunned and feeling a little uneasy when you're finished.  It's not exactly a happy story, but one that's complete, fully-fleshed out (a rarity these days), and firmly based in the realm of possibility.  It will also make you feel like you got more than your money's worth, so if you can find a copy of Straight Cut, make sure you grab it--you won't be disappointed.