Smoke over Malibu
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Summary
The Hon. Lucius Kluge – honourable, lucky, clever – might be the only guy in Los Angeles who's still living in the past.
Lucky pines for the old days of the New Hollywood, before Star Wars and superheroes blew up the movies for good. He spends his days working for an antiques business, his nights boozing and brooding on his former life as an almost-successful screenwriter.
But when his ex-best friend goes AWOL and his elderly boss is assaulted during the theft of a vintage cookie jar, Lucky and his partner Raul are spurred reluctantly into something like action.
A satire of sundered friendships and frayed male egos at the Hollywood intersection of art and commerce, Smoke Over Malibu is a soft-boiled mystery, a fish-out-of-water farce, a buddy comedy, an inaction thriller, a hipster indie. It's Raymond Chandler meets Nick Hornby; it's The Big Lebowski meets Lovejoy. It is absolutely, positively not a superhero blockbuster.
Lucky pines for the old days of the New Hollywood, before Star Wars and superheroes blew up the movies for good. He spends his days working for an antiques business, his nights boozing and brooding on his former life as an almost-successful screenwriter.
But when his ex-best friend goes AWOL and his elderly boss is assaulted during the theft of a vintage cookie jar, Lucky and his partner Raul are spurred reluctantly into something like action.
A satire of sundered friendships and frayed male egos at the Hollywood intersection of art and commerce, Smoke Over Malibu is a soft-boiled mystery, a fish-out-of-water farce, a buddy comedy, an inaction thriller, a hipster indie. It's Raymond Chandler meets Nick Hornby; it's The Big Lebowski meets Lovejoy. It is absolutely, positively not a superhero blockbuster.
Reviews
Though there are some excellent one-liners (“He was no oil painting –unless the painting was a Picasso”), the novel is more than just a spoof: Tim Walker brings to his plot the care of a proper crime novelist… Every character is nailed with a deft line…Smoke Over Malibu reminded me a little of This Book Will Save Your Life by AM Homes in its portrayal of LA misfits finding companionship. It’s a hardboiled story with a soft centre. Characters grow, wounds are healed and old friends become lovers. I can’t help thinking that it would make a great film, if only they still made films like it.
Guardian
