Synopses & Reviews
James Crumley is one of the most influential crime writers of the post-Chandler era and his raw, subversive novels, have earned him living legend status. He first introduced readers to C.W. Sughrue ( 'Shoog' as in sugar. And 'rue' as in rue the goddamned day) in his now classic The Last Good Kiss. An ex-army officer turned Montana private eye, Sughrue is as tough and cynical as he is good-hearted and weak kneed when it comes to women and booze. He's back to take readers on a bender through small towns, dark bars, and dank hotel rooms in a novel charged with Crumley's genius for the poetry of violence. In The Right Madness, Sughrue's close friend, psychiatrist Will MacKinderick, begs him to track down stolen confidential psychonalysis files--he suspects one of his patients is the culprit. Going against every last instinct, Sughrue agrees to taken on the case--a $20,000 retainer is always hard to resist. And when the suspects start dying of violently unnatural causes, Sughrue--fueled by alcohol, drugs, and lurid sexual entanglements--finds himself struggling to stay ahead of the madness unfolding around him. Before Pelecanos, Connelly, and Lehane, there was Crumley and, with The Right Madness, he shows us once again how he put the hard in hard-boiled.
Review
Do yourself a favor and read it tonight. Nothing you could do with your clothes on will be as pleasurable. (Otto Penzler,
The New York Sun)
Synopsis
James Crumley is one of the most revered practitioners of post-Chandler crime fiction, praised by the likes of Dennis Lehane and Michael Connelly as a major influence. C. W. Sughrue is Crumley's most indelible creation. Now Sughrue is back, in a searing thrill ride of a novel that has the seen-it-all Montana private eye trying to find out which of a small-town shrink's bizarre patients has made off with some highly confidential files. Fast-paced, brutal, melancholy, and ruefully funny,
The Right Madness is Crumley at his uncompromising best.
About the Author
James Crumley is the author of eleven novels, including the highly acclaimed The Last Good Kiss. His The Mexican Tree Duck won the Dashiell Hammett Award for Best Literary Crime Novel from the International Association of Crime Writers.