Shotgun Alley (Weiss and Bishop Novels) Review

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(More customer reviews)Scott Weiss and Jim Bishop burst into the private investigation spotlight for the first time in the thrilling Dynamite Road . Together they form an unlikely but very effective combination, so effective that they have remained in business long enough to feature in Shotgun Alley, a sequel that picks up where Dynamite Road left off.
Andrew Klavan has put an interesting spin on his hardboiled private detective series that just tweaks it a little to give it a refreshing nuance. It's not the investigative work that is carried out although they are very adept at their jobs and the action flows in waves; it isn't Weiss and Bishop's character traits or personalities, although they are very distinctive and well-developed; it's not even the way they operate, although undercover work has featured in both Dynamite Road and Shotgun Alley and is rich in suspense and intrigue. All of these qualities would have drawn me to the series anyway, but the quality that gives the series that little distinctive twist is that it is narrated by Andrew Klavan who is working as a young office clerk in Weiss's firm.
Shotgun Alley is the name of a bar frequented almost exclusively by bikers and, in particular, by a group known as The Outriders. Not an official gang, they display no colours on their jackets, they are considered too violent and unstable to be part of the more formalised biker gangs. Scary thought, huh? They've already proven what they're capable of when Jim Bishop moves into their midst in a not-so-subtle way. The raw, tough, sneering persona of the biker outlaw comes easily to Bishop making him the ideal operative for the undercover job he has been assigned. His job in this case is to infiltrate this criminal crew and lure away the leader's girlfriend, Honey. Honey happens to be a rich man's daughter and he doesn't want her shenanigans jeopardising his future political plans. Yep, he's a sentimental, loving rich man.
Bishop's operation isn't the only job keeping Weiss in business. The agency is also approached by Professor M.R. Brinks who has been receiving a long series of sexually explicit and harassing emails. She wants Weiss to find out who is sending them, claiming to be outraged and promising all sorts of repercussions. Weiss is not so sure about her real reasons for finding her cyber-stalker but takes the job.
It's this job that Weiss gives the young Klavan his big chance to do some real detective work. Klavan confesses that as a fan of Chandler and Hammett he has always dreamt of becoming a private detective like Marlowe or Sam Spade. He idolises Weiss, pointing out that he's everything a hardboiled private detective should be, even down to the bottle of Macallan Whisky in the bottom drawer, and he's eager to impress him.
So what is this Scott Weiss like anyway? According to Klavan he's a big ugly man with a paunch, basset hound features, mournful, world weary eyes and a habit of feeling sorry for everyone else. He has an uncanny knack for tracking people down and almost a second sight when it comes to problem solving (much to Jim Bishop's good fortune).
Jim Bishop, on the other hand, is a dangerous dude who plays by his own rules. He's at his best when the adrenaline is pumping and all hell is about to break loose, which seems to be a regular state of affairs where he's concerned.
Klavan's two protagonists are richly developed characters who are as vastly different to one another as it is possible to get, yet they manage to work together successfully, possibly because they rarely meet each other during the course of the story.
The tone of the story maintains a dark and dangerous edge throughout as we live with the volatile bikers. You can sense the barely contained rage in every confrontation that Bishop has with Cobra, the gang's leader. Switching the focus across to Weiss doesn't lighten things any, either. He seems to wander around with a black cloud above his head and a hangdog expression on his face, sighing at every opportunity, to the point where it starts to become an amusing attribute of the man. He is constantly haunted by the spectre of Ben Fry, known as the Shadowman and acting as an ever-present threat to Weiss. This looming presence carries over from Dynamite Road and remains just beyond Weiss's peripheral vision, lurking as a constant reminder that he lives in a dangerous world. (Weiss would sigh heavily at this point...)
Shotgun Alley is a hardboiled detective story that delivers a brooding story of gang violence highlighted by sudden scenes of frenetic action balanced with periods of introspection and self-absorption. Apart from a short section where Weiss's reflections become particularly tedious, the book maintains a solid pace that will be sure to keep all private detective fans glued to the pages.


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