One of my favorite opening sentences: “When I finally caught up with Abraham Trahearne, he was drinking beer with an alcoholic bulldog named Fireball Roberts in a ramshackle joint just outside of Sonoma, California, drinking the heart right out of a fine spring afternoon.” ( )

C. W. Sughrue ex oficial del Ejército, alcohólico y mujeriego, representa el arquetipo del investigador privado de la América posterior a la Guerra de Vietnam. De gatillo fácil y escasos escrúpulos, mientras trabaja en un bar de topless de Montana recibe el encargo de encontrar a un escritor en paradero desconocido. Sin que Sughrue lo pretenda, su búsqueda le llevará a interesarse por la desaparición de una joven diez años atrás en San Francisco. Esta nueva tarea, sin embargo, se convertirá en un intrépido viaje a las entrañas de una nación que sufre las consecuencias psicológicas de una guerra, con sus pesadillas y sus sombras aflorando a cada paso. Con su prosa elegante y un retrato sin concesiones de una sociedad en decadencia, El último buen beso es una experiencia llena de trepidante acción, cruel ironía y crítica brutal al género humano. El sexo, el dinero, la corrupción, la violencia y las drogas se hacen un hueco en una fascinante historia donde lo más importante es dejar atrás el propio pasado.

Omläsning. Vilken underbar bok! Språket, berättelsen, karaktärerna. Klockren femma för mig. Detta kommer förmodligen vara den bok som jag först kommer att läsa om för en tredje gång! ( )

What a disappointment. It started out like someone had just finished a Raymond Chandler book and decided to copy his style, but then it droned on and on with not much happening. I finally got to approx. the half way mark and gave up on the book. I did look up the plot and I'm even more happy for quitting on this book knowing that the big twist at the end was so lame. ( )

If you're in the mood for a concentrated dose of the 1970s, let me hand you this copy of this book. The story centers on a private detective who is sent to haul a famous author home from a bender and who, along the way, gets involved in finding a woman who disappeared years ago. This is a novel filled with drinking, having sex, drinking some more, smoking some weed, driving while drinking, drinking while driving and the occasional fist fight. There was no way for me to picture the detective without a substantial mustache and he even drives an El Camino. The women are all ready to have sex with the private dick, although he does turn a few down. And while the women are usually up for some fun, they are also, for the most part, fully realized characters who are braver than the men, out of necessity.

As for the plot itself, it's not bad. It appears to spin its wheels for a while in the middle, but once you've had your third or fourth to-go cup of gin and tonic and the rest of that six-pack, the story comes together. This was a fun read, although I spent much of it wondering how on earth they got anything done between the benders and the hang-overs. ( )