cover image Quake City

Quake City

John B. Spencer. Do-Not Press, $12.95 (158pp) ISBN 978-1-899344-02-4

The mean streets of L.A. are still present in this spicy amalgam of hardboiled mystery and science fiction by a British novelist. Here, L.A. is an island following the ""Big One in Ninety-Seven,"" the long-anticipated earthquake. Japan is in cinders and Europe is once again war-torn. With his cop girlfriend, and an offbeat collection of sidekicks, PI Charley Case gets swept from a seemingly innocent apartment-sitting job into a messy search for a scam artist. It soon becomes clear to Charley that his life will be the reward for success and death the penalty for failure. With a big brother-ish government pinching off his credit and an assortment of agents, cops and bad guys gunning for him, Charley, in his third adventure, the first available here, has a hard time staying alive long enough to figure things out. Spencer packs so much into this short tale that nothing quite gets the attention it deserves. The plot leaps from one point to another; the time line is slippery and confusing; and there are huge gaps in the internal logic of the story (e.g., burglary has been almost entirely eliminated; but car theft remains as easy then as it is now). Still, Spencer has the tough talk down well, and his futuristic L.A. has enough cleverly bizarre and intriguing touches to make this an entertaining adventure. (Apr.)