My $.02: Book Review - Kiss Me, Judas

There is a genre of books I've never read - the hardboiled detective novel. Sure I've seen the movies, and understand that from the minds of Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler spilled the gritty, dark and disturbing crime tales that would long be associated with the genre, and eventually the film style that partially stemmed from it, film noir. The films I'm familiar with though - the common threads of human violence and degradation woven around a core of mystery, typically being solved by a less that sympathetic protagonist.

Enter Kiss Me, Judas by Will Christopher Baer, a book that wraps up the entire genre in a neat little package and leaves it on your doorstep, oozing. The book is about Phineas Poe, an ex cop who, upon being released from a mental institution, meets Jude, a lovely young lady, in a bar. After accepting money to join him up in his hotel room (for exactly the reasons one would think), Jude leaves him in a bathtub full of ice and missing a kidney.

Then things get weird.

This was another title from the LibraryThing Book Suggester, presumably because like House of Leaves or Wittgenstein's Mistress, there is an open question of how much of the action is occurring and how much is in the mind of the protagonist. Here, the narrator is pretty up front about his delusions, and he makes a real effort to distinguish when he's imagining something. Baer does a tremendous job of making you sympathize with Poe despite every decision of his being completely self destructive. He is so desperate to replace his painful past with something that feels like comfort that he repeatedly puts his life in the hands of the woman who starts the story by betraying him in a rather unpleasant way.

I have to say that I really enjoyed this book. I wouldn't recommend it for any of my more sensitive readers - the subject matter is dark, and the matter-of-fact way the narrator deals with murder, drug use, rape, etc. all just makes it a little more disturbing. Nonetheless, the story was brilliant, and I love the way that the ends that are allowed to hang loose seem to be that way for a reason. Just enough is explained to make it feel real. The fact is, when it ended, it felt right. It left me a little confused, a little disgusted, and a little ashamed for having enjoyed it as much as I did. Considering the genre, I'm not sure of a better recommendation.