King Maybe by Timothy Hallinan

Published by Soho Crime on April 12, 2016

Junior Bender has a rogue’s gallery of friends. As usual, some of them want to kill him. Jake Whelan, in particular, is upset that the Klee he purchased from Junior turned out to be forged. Junior stole the Klee in good faith, but he has to put Whelan on hold while he steals a rare stamp from a persuasive debt collector named Slugger. Junior is stealing the stamp for friend Stinky (actually, they’re only friends when Stinky isn’t trying to have Junior killed), but the theft adds Slugger to the list of people who would like to have Junior terminated.

The latest entry in Timothy Hallinan’s series of Junior Bender novels has a Hollywood theme. Part of the plot involves a movie that Whelan wants to produce. Jeremy Granger, a/k/a King Maybe, holds an exclusive option on the movie and is treating it in a way that displeases Whelan. To get back in Whelan’s good graces, Junior must perform a task that brings him into contact with Granger. That creates a mess from which Junior can only extricate himself by doing a task for Granger. The tangled web Junior weaves puts him into some tight spots, but nobody said that being a professional burglar would be easy.

In addition to Stinky, other familiar characters appear, including Junior’s daughter, who figures into a subplot involving a nasty girl from high school and two fourteen-year-old female cybercriminals Junior met in an earlier novel. Junior’s new girlfriend, Ronnie Bigelow, has a mysterious background and she’s good at banter, which makes her a perfect addition to the series. Ting Ting and his assassin girlfriend also make an appearance. Did I mention that Junior knows a lot of criminals?

The plot threads resolve in clever ways. While the novel is light, there is a darkness in Junior that drives the novel’s ending. In that respect, King Maybe isn’t quite as light as some other novels in the series. Junior proves himself (again) to have a moral center and a sense of justice. Those characteristics drive him to commit acts that might not be considered just or moral in a perfect world, but Junior’s world is far from perfect.

Junior’s flirtation with darkness notwithstanding, Hallinan’s Junior Bender novels are lighter than his excellent Poke Rafferty novels. But even in his light novels, Hallinan finds a way to pinch my heart. The pinch in King Maybe came when a makeshift funeral took place near the novel’s end. When so many writers concoct overwrought scenes to contrive a reader’s emotional response, I appreciate Hallinan’s ability to write understated scenes that provoke honest emotions by depicting ordinary people who, while in many ways odd, experience the same mixture of sorrow, grief, anger, anxiety, and joy that are familiar to ordinary people everywhere.

Hallinan’s writing style is always sharp, leaving the impression that his prose is effortless when I imagine he labors over every sentence to make sure that each will engage the reader. Creative prose, an entertaining plot, and a satisfying blend of humor and drama make King Maybe another winner for Hallinan fans -- and for all fands of strong crime fiction.

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