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Before I read a book properly, especially if it has only just arrived, I like to get its measure. I look it up and down. Are its shoes polished? Does it have a good job? Would I be happy if my daughter brought it home for dinner? In other words, does the first paragraph grab me, and does the next paragraph keep me gripped? This is important. I have too much to read, and too little time, to want to waste my life away being bored.
Thus it was that I opened La Brava.
I thought, “Another noir novel. Another murder mystery. Yawn." But I started reading and, annoyingly, was hooked immediately. Why "annoyingly"? Because I already have several books on the go, and I was hoping to put this one aside for a few weeks. But as I say, I started reading, and by the time I put my now-empty cup of tea down I had read the first chapter. Like Split Images the author launches straight in, no long description, no efflorescent prose, no persiflage.
Before I had received these books I was a straight down the middle Raymond Chandler man. Now I can see I am going to have to widen the scope to include Elmore Leonard.
Full review coming in due course, of course.