A Man Named Doll

Happy Doll actually. Originally kind of a joke between his mother and father, but since Hank's (the name he goes by) mother died in childbirth, his father put that name on the birth certificate in honor of her. Of course his father never called him that--usually calling him Hapless or other derogatory names.  This book is the first of 3 in Jonathan Ames' "Happy Doll" series and I plan to read them all. There is nothing slick about this character. He's former LAPD and former Navy MP, and has a bit of a hero complex--always jumping in to help the underdog. He works as a private eye, but since business has slowed he also works security at a massage parlor. And that is where he kills his first person. Things rapidly go downhill from there. 

Publishers Weekly calls this "an exceptional series launch" and goes on to praise "assured plotting, superb local color, and excellent prose. Readers will happily root for Doll, a good detective and a decent human, in this often funny and grisly outing." Booklist--which got a couple of key details wrong in their review-- offers this positive conclusion: "Ames delivers an old-school L.A. crime novel that evokes Chandler with maybe an aftertaste of Bukowski. Readers expecting action won't be let down, and the sparkling yet unpretentious language gives the whole an extra kick. Recommend to noir fans, action fans, anyone who likes a good read." The New York Times calls this book "the first in a dark new private detective series that’s a tightly coiled double helix of offbeat humor and unflinching violence." And they continue, "There will be excised body parts, kidnappings, coerced surgeries, stolen cash, people tossed off balconies, fists rammed into Adam’s apples. Wherever Hank Doll goes, no matter how strange the trip, I’ll definitely follow."

The Star-Revue offers "A Man Named Doll is an affectionate, playful tribute to the hardboiled detective genre. Set in the present day...its story is narrated by Happy in short, staccato sentences ... and contains all of the noir genre’s classic elements: the fiercely independent investigator; a beautiful, mysterious woman; bad guys; an urban location; a complex plot; and existential underpinnings—whatever case Happy happens to be investigating, what concerns him most deeply is the meaning of life."