Recently released psychopath Freddy Frenger’s arrived in Miami and kicked off his latest crime spree with the murder of a Hare Krishna. It’s up to Detective Sergeant Hoke Mosely to take Freddy off the streets!
Miami Blues is an excellent crime novel and the first book featuring Charles Willeford’s recurring character Hoke Mosely. Willeford’s prose is so smooth, the pages fly by - he immediately takes you into the scene and effortlessly shows you the characters so clearly. I’ve never been to Florida, let alone Miami, and yet I feel like I got to know it a bit thanks to Willeford’s descriptions of the city and its surrounding counties. It’s a crime novel but this is superb writing regardless of genre.
I loved the villain Freddy, whose actions were always interesting and unpredictable, and Hoke is a great character too - a smart, capable cop but also vulnerable, thoughtful and very human. There are some novelistic contrivances in play - the Hare Krishna connecting to Freddy’s girl, Susan Waggoner - but they only make the story more entertaining so it didn’t bother me.
There are also moments where Willeford plays it unexpectedly realistically. Like when Hoke catches up to Freddy near the end and Freddy runs off - I’ve seen too many crime/thriller stories now to expect a chase scene, but Willeford doesn’t do that. Instead Hoke realises his car’s blocking traffic so he moves it to the side, then gets a coffee and a sandwich, thinking about how to play it, then makes the smart policing move, going by the book, which ends up working out. I love that Willeford could make the normal a surprising element in a fictional story.
Generally it’s a snappy read but I felt it slowed down in the middle with Hoke convalescing for a bit and Freddy carrying on with his petty crimes, though even then the writing was masterful. Miami Blues (I prefer the original title - Kiss Your Ass Good-Bye - because it’s funnier and trashier, and the one he settled on is somewhat forgettable/unimpressive) is a great example of the importance of storytelling over story. On paper, it’s a generic cops’n’robbers story but in Willeford’s hands it’s uniquely compelling.
Miami Blues is a fantastic novel and I’m delighted to make Charles Willeford’s acquaintance - I'm definitely going to read more from this brilliant author.
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