August 7, 2018

Cocktail Talk: Hot Summer, Cold Murder

Image result for hot summer, cold murderSometimes a book’s title says enough – enough to make me pick it up, at least, as is the case here. I mean, Hot Summer, Cold Murder is an amazing title. Amazing! Add to the fact that this book was written by Gaylord Dold, who I’ve never read before but who is a pal of a pal of my mom (or something like that), and that my very mom gave me this book, and, well, I was excited to read it. And it was a good, solid read, with a down-on-his-luck, muscatel-swilling P.I., a mystery and (as the title tells us) a murder, a lot of double-dealing and shady-at-best characters and cops, alluring and dangerous ladies, and more, all happening in Wichita! Amazing, as I’ve said. It’s a little in the hard-boiled tradition, but has a 70s-mystery vibe too, while taking place in the 60s I believe, and published in the 80s. Worth tracking down if you’re intrigued (and if the above doesn’t intrigue you, then you should check your pulse) – and I haven’t even mentioned the Cocktail Talk-ing, like the below:

In the same twenty minutes one beat-up Plymouth cruised past on Lincoln Street and no-one went into the barbershop next door. When it was that hot and dead I always drank sweet muscatel, and when it got bad enough I thought about my ex-wife Linda. After five years, the memories never got any better.

— Gaylord Dodd, Hot Summer, Cold Murder

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