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Library | Call Number | Status |
|---|---|---|
Searching... Monmouth Public Library | Fic Waiwaiole, L. 2003 | Searching... Unknown |
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Summary
Summary
From another impressive newcomer to crime fiction, WILEY'S LAMENT is the story of a man who's drifting through the remains of his torn-up life like a ghost, playing poker to make ends meet but always on the edge of an abyss, not quite sure whether his minimal efforts at life are worth the trouble. When the estranged daughter he hasn't spoken to in a year turns up gutted with a sharp knife in a cheap motel room, Wiley's solitary life spins out of control and a violent showdown with both the killer and with his own bloody conscience becomes inevitable. He stalks the nasty underside of Portland's sex industry, jumping at every shadow and taking two steps back for every forward stride. But Wiley is determined to do this one thing right, perhaps to make amends with his lost daughter, or maybe to make peace with his own battered soul.
Author Notes
Lono Waiwaiole is a high school teacher and basketball coach in Portland, Oregon. Wiley's Lament is his first novel.
Reviews (3)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Noir aficionados will embrace Waiwaiole's impressive if slightly unwieldy debut, a somber, violent tale of loss and redemption. Wiley, a haunted, solitary man living on the fringes of society in Portland, Ore., copes with a failed marriage and a stalled career, eking out a meager living by playing poker and robbing the occasional drug dealer. Then Wiley's estranged daughter, Lizzie, turns up naked with her throat slit in an airport motel. Wiley suspects his ex-best friend and kingpin of Portland's sex industry, Leon, who'd been romantically involved with Lizzie. When Wiley finally tracks him down, Leon maintains his innocence and vows to help find the real killer. The point-of-view shifts between Wiley and that of the killer (and this is no spoiler, as we learn his identity early on), a sadistic DEA agent, who systematically murders other escorts who can connect him to Lizzie's death. His antics have his crooked boss, who enlisted him to help bring down a drug dealer, scrambling to cover up the killings. The body count rises dramatically as Wiley and Leon close in on the rogue agent and the action comes to a bloody conclusion. Some repetition and superfluous scenes slow the pace, while one wishes for more about what led up to Wiley's fall and the breakup of his marriage. The jacket art of a stark motel exterior seen through a rosy, rain-splattered windshield nicely captures the novel's lurid mood. (Mar. 10) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Kirkus Review
Melancholic, existentially adrift, and as solitary as Crusoe before the advent of Friday, Wiley's in a bad way-a given, of course, in a novel so quintessentially noir. He earns a hardscrabble living playing poker, staking himself as the need arises by ambushing drug dealers and stripping them of their ill-gotten gains. And that's when life is just normally rotten. It deteriorates when Wiley's daughter Lizzie, adored though estranged for over a year, is found dead in a sleazy motel room, her throat slit by a remorseless sociopath named Fernando, who kills faster than most people blink, mostly because he's very, very good at it. At first Wiley places the blame squarely on an old pal of his and sets out to find him. Leon, a figure of some repute in the underworld of Portland, Oregon, was once Lizzie's lover, and Wiley believes he done Lizzie wrong, leaving her easy prey for the ruthless Fernando. When Leon convinces him that he's wrong, they join forces to get revenge. Complicating the hunt for Fernando, however, is the fact that he has friends of a sort in high places. As the central figure in a carefully planned major drug bust, Fernando has been promised protection and a bunch of money by the DEA. So the game's afoot: a struggle for Fernando between the federal government, who speaks on behalf of the greater good, and Wiley, for whom it's strictly personal. Plotholes here and there, but a creditable debut by a writer who speaks fluent noir.
Library Journal Review
Wiley is devasted when his estranged daughter-apparently on a sexual mission-turns up murdered in a sleazy motel room. Feeling guilty, he determines to find out what happened, but first he goes gunning for Leon, the ex-boyfriend/escort service-owning guy he holds responsible. Because they are best friends, though, they wind up searching together for the truth, along with some help from cop/pal Sam. On the other side stands a cold-blooded killer only loosely leashed by federal agents. Hard-hitting, down-and-dirty prose characterizes this first novel, set largely in the dirtier side of Portland, OR. A safe bet. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.