The last time I reviewed a Marshall Karp novel (not that long ago: The Rabbit Factory in January) I tried desperately hard not to write that Karp could do for California what Carl Hiaasen has done for Florida.
I'm going to resist doing that again, but what I will say is this: if you like Hiaasen, try Marshall Karp. Comic novelists who can actually make you laugh are not exactly a dime a dozen, particularly in the crime sphere. After all, murder and human misery are not inherently amusing and making them so is incredibly difficult.
Marshall Karp has it down to a tee. The Rabbit Factory was very funny. Laugh out loud funny. Bloodthirsty is a slightly different novel, somewhat darker in tone because a nasty Hollywood secret that costs a young, innocent life is the black heart of the plot, but it is still funny. Just about every page has a quip to make you smile, sometimes giggle.
It's in the gallows humour of the morgue, the relentless ribbing of the squad room and most of all in the beautifully crafted detective partnership between Terry Biggs, LAPD's king of the one liners, and his straightman Mike Lomax.
Two books in and Lomax and Biggs have all the makings of being one of crime fiction's great partnerships. They are loyal, smart and hugely likable. Karp eschews the great fictional cop clichés by making them grounded, stable men. They are hard-working conscientious detectives, and while Biggs is a committed family man, Lomax is a recovering widower slowly rebuilding his personal life with the help of a supportive, if decidedly eccentric family.
The foundation of Karp's success is his sparkling dialogue. Every journey in a Crown Victoria, every interview, even every autopsy runs to the soundtrack of entertaining conversation. The books fly by because there's always a good reason to turn the next page.
In this one, Karp opens with a strange murder, a male and female team discussing their crime and its execution as they might the progress of a pot roast. Then we are in a limo with Biggs, Lomax and their families on the way to a movie premiere where they are scheduled to meet Barry Gerber, the Hollywood big shot who is going to stump up the cash to make the movie of their last celebrated case - a serial killer operating in a Disneyesque theme park - which they have sold the option of for $50,000.
But Gerber never shows, and when he is found murdered in bizarre circumstances the following morning, Lomax and Biggs are back in the spotlight and on the trail of another serial killer.
This is a wonderful novel by a terrific storyteller. More please, Mr Karp.
