The Long-Legged Fly cover art

The Long-Legged Fly

A Lew Griffin Mystery

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The Long-Legged Fly

By: James Sallis
Narrated by: G. Valmont Thomas
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About this listen

 In steamy New Orleans, black private detective Lew Griffin has taken on a seemingly hopeless missing-person case. The trail takes him through the underbelly of the French Quarter with its bar girls, pimps, and tourist attractions. As his search leads to one violent dead end and then another, Griffin is confronted by the realization that his own life has come to resemble those of the people he is attempting to find.

Waking in a hospital after an alcoholic binge, Griffin finds another chance in a nurse who comes to love him, but again he reverts to his old life in the mean streets among the predators and their prey. When his son vanishes, Griffin searches back through the tangles and tatters of his life, knowing that he must solve his personal mysteries before he can venture after the whereabouts of others.

©1992 James Sallis (P)2008 Blackstone Audio, Inc. Mystery Suspense

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Critic reviews

"Not so much a detective story as a story about a detective...but one that exploits the conventions of the genre with quietly distinctive power." ( Kirkus Reviews)
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This is a poetic and intelligent masterpiece of Southern blues with lots of great moments. Don’t expect a linear story, it’s a collage of moments and periods. Worth listening several times to get the rhythm.

A masterpiece with soul

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Although ostensibly a detective novel, the Lew Griffin series, of which this is the first, ranges freely across genre boundaries. The books are quirky; sometimes plot driven narrative, sometimes existential meditation, and the result is strangely satisfying. The narrator seems perfectly attuned to his character, which contributes to an unusual, and an unusually enjoyable, listen.

The Whole is Greater than the Sum of Its Parts

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I found the book disjointed. and not well suited to audio. It’s a series of vignettes rather than a narrative. Multiple trips to hospital and rehab probably haven’t helped the narrator’s story-telling abilities.. Lew Griffin, the protagonist, is a standard private eye - alcoholic, violent and unable to establish relationships. However, fans of the detective genre won’t find any intriguing problems or characters - just a sequence of sad, dead and empty cases. In the final section the author plays with point of view and adds a literary touch - but not enough and it felt contrived. Occasional bursts of (Cajun?) French don’t add to the atmosphere either.

Not for me

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