Order CITY OF ROSE here
(also reviewed)
Order NEW YORKED here - Read the Review
Control your anger before it controls you. Inhale, exhale.
The mortal sin of genre authors is to write a derivative novel that leaves reviewers with nothing interesting to say about it. Negative reviews hurt the ego, but at least their are intriguing. They make you want to make your own opinion. It's the hollow praises nobody reads that hurt the wallet. Fortunately, I've never had this problem when reviewing hardboiled author Rob Hart because his fiction always left me with plenty to talk about. The sequel of Ash McKenna's adventures City of Rose is out today and while it is an improvement over New Yorked in every possible way, it will feed the flame of many debates.
Ash McKenna has left his hometown after the New Yorked fiasco and traveled across the country to Portland, looking for a fresh start. He found himself a job working as a bouncer in a vegan strip club, where he gets cracked in the face a lot trying to control his temper. One day, he finds a stripper named Crystal waiting for him after a shift. Her daughter Rose has been kidnapped by her ex and she wants Ash to help her get the kid back. Of course, he doesn't turn such a golden opportunity to redeem himself down and goes down the rabbit hole of Portland's strange, colourful and oddly violent underworld.
Rob Hart can write. He has mastered the lean and direct hardboiled style, kind of half way between John D. MacDonald and Richard Stark. The action scenes in City of Rose are absolutely splendid and the first fifty pages of the novel or so are filled with memorable ones. Hart is at his best when bullets are flying and bad guys are multiplying like zombies in a George Romero movie. There's a slower, more thoughtful aspect to City of Rose which I didn't enjoy as much (for reasons I'm about to go through), but very few people write action like Rob Hart. It's an aspect of hardboiled literature that is rarely done well, but Hart does it better than most writers currently working.
"Do you ever feel bad about the fact that you live in a fake city?"
"Do you ever feel bad about the fact that you're whiny fuck. Eat."
My issue with Ash McKenna in New Yorked is that he was a self-centered asshole. He was policed by his own support cast, which hints at the fact it was a deliberate decision, but it undermined the experience for me. He's much more interesting in City of Rose because he is adrift, confused about who he is and who he wants to be. What I find fascinating this time is that Ash McKenna doesn't seem to come to term with the fact he wants to be a hero. He (not so) subconsciously need to do something he will be proud of and earn the admiration and the respect from the people who chose him to solve his problems. Ash's reluctant heroism kept me rooting for him in City of Rose. That also made the soul-searching chapters a little lengthy at times, but it fits the bigger picture.
City of Rose is a fun hardboiled thriller that features an involving mystery and memorable action scenes. It sags in the middle a bit, but it never falls apart and wraps up with the same energy than it began. The Ash McKenna novels are quite unique in their own way as they focus on personal growth through violence and lawless ethics. It is very much a product of its time. Whether you've read New Yorked or not, City of Rose is an endearing and thought provoking novel in its form. It is my favorite part of the series so far, but it can hold its own as a standalone novel if you're not into recurring character. Consider me on board for a third one as long as it keeps evolving like this!
