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Nine O’Clock Gun
Blast from the past
Reading Jim Christy's fourth and final installment of his Gene Castle Private Investigator Series, Nine O'Clock Gun (Ekstasis $22.95), is like watching a good late night b-movie starring Edward G. Robinson or Humphrey Bogart.
Set on a perpetual foggy night, this is a compulsively readable journey into Vancouver's past, in keeping with Christy's previous Vancouver Noir novels Shanghai Alley, Princess and Gore, and Terminal Avenue-all named for Vancouver streets or landmarks.
The new novel's dramatic conclusion occurs at the Nine O'Clock Gun in Stanley Park, a cultural landmark that was first installed at Brockton Point in 1894. For many years the cannon was fired to mark the beginning and closing of fishing hours in Burrard Inlet. With so many unemployed men trying to make a living by fishing, the canneries needed to restrict fishing to prevent over-supply. Over the years, the citizens of Vancouver began to depend on the Nine O' Clock to set their watches. It was moved to its present location at Hallelujah Point in 1954.
This time Detective Gene Castle returns to Vancouver from questionable activities in what once was known as 'Indo-China'. As Castle steps off the deck of the Santa Lucia, at the foot of the Shanghai Alley near the end of World War II, "There was fog and sunshine at the same time and all but the very tops of the tallest buildings appeared to glow from within like illuminated cotton candy.";
The big 'W' atop the Woodwards building stands for 'Woe,' the hero informs us. "Hell, what the old burg really looks like is a hophead's Kubla Khan. So goddamed beautiful that, like any self-respecting hophead him or her, I don't want to come down. They're waiting on me, calling: Come down, Castle. Come down to these, your tawdry streets.";
What's an old gumshoe to do? Haunted by thoughts of his advancing age and the perfume scent of an old flame, Castle watches the body count climb and all the events strike close to his rain and gin-soaked world. Events circle around buried treasures, beautiful women, stolen art and a parade of femme fatales, sad sack losers, grifters, sexual deviants and bohemians. In other words, fun.
Raised on the mean streets of South Philadelphia, tough guy Jim Christy is a well traveled, school-of-hard-knocks type dude who understands his characters well. Christy's work reminds us that losers are cool, that the middle-of-the-road might be smoother but the ditches are more interesting, and that every rounder has a good story to tell.
Nine O'clock Gun is a class detective novel and one can easily imagine this series serving as the basis for a film or television series.
978-1-897430-20-0
Review by Grant Shilling
[BCBW 2008]
Reading Jim Christy's fourth and final installment of his Gene Castle Private Investigator Series, Nine O'Clock Gun (Ekstasis $22.95), is like watching a good late night b-movie starring Edward G. Robinson or Humphrey Bogart.
Set on a perpetual foggy night, this is a compulsively readable journey into Vancouver's past, in keeping with Christy's previous Vancouver Noir novels Shanghai Alley, Princess and Gore, and Terminal Avenue-all named for Vancouver streets or landmarks.
The new novel's dramatic conclusion occurs at the Nine O'Clock Gun in Stanley Park, a cultural landmark that was first installed at Brockton Point in 1894. For many years the cannon was fired to mark the beginning and closing of fishing hours in Burrard Inlet. With so many unemployed men trying to make a living by fishing, the canneries needed to restrict fishing to prevent over-supply. Over the years, the citizens of Vancouver began to depend on the Nine O' Clock to set their watches. It was moved to its present location at Hallelujah Point in 1954.
This time Detective Gene Castle returns to Vancouver from questionable activities in what once was known as 'Indo-China'. As Castle steps off the deck of the Santa Lucia, at the foot of the Shanghai Alley near the end of World War II, "There was fog and sunshine at the same time and all but the very tops of the tallest buildings appeared to glow from within like illuminated cotton candy.";
The big 'W' atop the Woodwards building stands for 'Woe,' the hero informs us. "Hell, what the old burg really looks like is a hophead's Kubla Khan. So goddamed beautiful that, like any self-respecting hophead him or her, I don't want to come down. They're waiting on me, calling: Come down, Castle. Come down to these, your tawdry streets.";
What's an old gumshoe to do? Haunted by thoughts of his advancing age and the perfume scent of an old flame, Castle watches the body count climb and all the events strike close to his rain and gin-soaked world. Events circle around buried treasures, beautiful women, stolen art and a parade of femme fatales, sad sack losers, grifters, sexual deviants and bohemians. In other words, fun.
Raised on the mean streets of South Philadelphia, tough guy Jim Christy is a well traveled, school-of-hard-knocks type dude who understands his characters well. Christy's work reminds us that losers are cool, that the middle-of-the-road might be smoother but the ditches are more interesting, and that every rounder has a good story to tell.
Nine O'clock Gun is a class detective novel and one can easily imagine this series serving as the basis for a film or television series.
978-1-897430-20-0
Review by Grant Shilling
[BCBW 2008]
Submitted on October 6, 2008 in By David.
