Dreamland by
Newton Thornburg
pbk out November 03
(Serpent's Tail)
at £8.99
Crow, an itinerant musician and confirmed drifter is travelling home to Los Angeles
to visit his estranged father; an ex-cop turned private eye. En route Crow rescues teen
runaway Foxy Reno; smart-talking, vulnerable and hell-bent on making a living in
Hollywood, albeit an illicit one. The pair find Crow's father, Orville, struggling with
illness and they help him with a job he's just taken on. When Orville's car veers off a
mountainside road and crashes, leaving him dead and reeking of whiskey, the police
decide it's either an accident or a case of suicide but Crow doesn't believe it. He
suspects there is a link to the case his father was working on and further killings to
those connected, two horrific sex murders, quickly convince him he's right. Someone
is systematically slaying everybody who has any knowledge of the affair and now that
includes Crow and Reno.
Newton Thornburg is renowned for LA set stories including Cutter and Bone and To
Die in California, stories which expose the sleaze and corruption behind the glamour.
Dreamland was originally published in 1983 but this is the first UK publication, and
the book more than stands the test of time. Not only is it a satisfying thriller but
Thornburg's excellent characterisation means that the book lingers in the mind. The
dialogue is masterly too especially the bickering between the honourable, under-
achiever Crow and the infuriating and troubled Reno, and this element gives a
lightness of tone that balances the gruesome murders and the painful rites of passage
which the couple each have to undergo.
Manchester Evening News 27.12.03
(
Cath Staincliffe
author of the popular Sal Kilkenny mysteries set on the mean streets of Manchester)
Dreamland by
Newton Thornburg
