The Girl With the Lollipop Eyes is a standalone modern Noir PI novel by Lucy Leitner. Released 19th Dec 2023 by Blood Bound Books, it's 244 pages and is available in paperback and ebook formats. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links and references throughout.
This is a very high octane chaotic PI romp set in the mean streets of Pittsburgh's Southside. Self employed former bouncer turned PI Thor is trying to keep his seedy neighborhood free of drunk vandals and serial public urinators when an actual case walks through his door and wants him to find her missing boyfriend, a bartender who's gone awol.
It's full of rapid fire (often crude) dialogue and the kind of eccentric violent characters who would be right at home in a Joe Lansdale (Hap & Leonard) novel. It's -full- of cursing and violence, but not used egregiously, and with a surprising amount of solid muscle under the hood. The mystery is well crafted and the prose is spare and fully engaged. The author isn't on most mainstream bookish radars, and she *should* be. Very gifted storyteller and wordsmith, and this story is so redolent of Pittsburgh's south side that it should also feature as a main character.
Four and a half stars. Really really well written, violent, and funny. Not child friendly, strong dialogue (after the 100th "f*ck" you sort of stop noticing), violence (obviously). One for the fans of modern PI noir.
Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.
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