{"id":15306,"date":"2021-04-27T19:01:58","date_gmt":"2021-04-27T23:01:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/?p=15306"},"modified":"2021-05-07T19:21:43","modified_gmt":"2021-05-07T23:21:43","slug":"missing-amanda-by-duane-lindsay","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/?p=15306","title":{"rendered":"‘Missing Amanda,’ by Duane Lindsay"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"Cover<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Lou Fleener, a private eye <\/strong>in 1950s Chicago, is the hero of Duane Lindsay\u2019s comic novel, Missing Amanda<\/a><\/em>. Lou is not prepossessing in appearance \u2013 short, dumpy, and balding. But he\u2019s actually the next thing to a superhero. He\u2019s almost impossible to beat in a fight. It\u2019s something he was born with \u2013 lightning reflexes, an uncanny ability to anticipate his opponents\u2019 moves, and a skill for turning any odd object at hand into a deadly weapon. He\u2019s Jackie Chan before there was a Jackie Chan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He also has ethics. So when he gets a visit from thugs representing Duke Braddock, one of the city\u2019s gang bosses, who wants to hire him, he turns them down flat \u2013 then hurts them when they try to get tough.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Braddock responds by doing an end run on him. He goes to Lou\u2019s best friend, Monk. Monk is tall and handsome, but socially inept. He\u2019s also depressed, missing the daughter his ex-wife took away in their divorce. So he\u2019s a sucker for Braddock\u2019s sob story about how his little girl Amanda was kidnapped \u2013 certainly by one of his gangster rivals. He needs Monk to persuade Lou to find out who\u2019s got her and rescue her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And, by the way, he\u2019ll kill Monk if Lou refuses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, against his best instincts, Lou starts poking around. Soon he\u2019s got various mobsters mad at him, and he\u2019s figured out that Braddock never had a daughter. It was all a scheme to start a gang war and get his rivals to kill one another off. Rubbing Lou and Monk out along the way will be just a detail.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lou is angry. He knows how to fight, and Monk knows how to strategize. Together (along with a blonde they pick up along the way) they begin a big operation to bring everybody down.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They may not survive, but they\u2019re gonna have a whole lot of fun.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My nutshell reaction to Missing Amanda was, \u201cIt would have been better as a movie.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I can\u2019t really complain about the story. It kept me reading, and it had many amusing moments. Also some heartwarming ones. But the plot maintained a level of implausibility that struck me as more suitable to the screen than the printed page. I was never able to quite suspend my disbelief.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Also, there were a couple hints of politics \u2013 not many, but enough to be annoying. And some anachronisms, especially in language and slang.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Still, I was reminded of Donald E. Westlake. A lot of people like Westlake more than I do. If you\u2019re a Westlake fan, you might enjoy Missing Amanda <\/em>very much.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Lou Fleener, a private eye in 1950s Chicago, is the hero of Duane Lindsay\u2019s comic novel, Missing Amanda. Lou is not prepossessing in appearance \u2013 short, dumpy, and balding. But he\u2019s actually the next thing to a superhero. He\u2019s almost impossible to beat in a fight. It\u2019s something he was born with \u2013 lightning reflexes, … Continue reading ‘Missing Amanda,’ by Duane Lindsay<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[7,15],"tags":[3692,3693,3694],"class_list":["post-15306","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fiction","category-reviews","tag-duane-lindsay","tag-lou-fleener","tag-missing-amanda"],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15306","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15306"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15306\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15349,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15306\/revisions\/15349"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15306"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15306"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15306"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}