Review of Bloodthirsty

Bloodthirsty, (Macadam Cage, 2007) the second Lomax and Biggs novel from Marshall Karp, shows the author has learned from his mistakes.
Last year’s The Rabbit Factory was an enjoyable, but overly long thriller, where the author tried to throw in everything but the kitchen sink. The new outing featuring LAPD homicide detectives Mike Lomax and Terry Biggs is streamlined, with all the emphasis on keeping the plot rolling.
Lomax and Biggs are still basking in the notoriety they gained from solving their last case, and they sell the rights to the story to director Halsey Bates, who wants to get producer George Gerber to finance the film. When Gerber’s bloodless corpse turns up stuffed in a garbage can in the Hollywood Hills, Lomax and Biggs catch the case, and set out to find out who murdered one of the most hated men in Hollywood. When their prime suspect, an arrogant movie star, gets kidnapped and then turns up murdered in the same macabre fashion, the two detectives must scramble to prevent more murders.
While Bloodthirsty has none of the pacing problems of its predecessor, the plot is a little thin. Karp’s previous novel kept readers guessing until the end, the motives of the criminals in this book are transparent and what you see is what you get, which is disappointing, because part of the fun of a mystery is being in the dark, not just as to whodunit, but why it was done.
Still, with nothing to distract from the narrative’s motion, there’s no reason to put it down, and Karp’s clean prose makes for easy reading. Bloodthirsty will definitely satisfy fans of Karp’s detective duo and probably win them some new ones.

Internet Promotions

MacAdam Cage author Marshall Karp is holding a "Pimp this Rabbit," contest at his Web site. No, it does not actually involve selling someone a rabbit for sex, so you animal rights types can stop reaching for your placards. It's a Youtube contest for the best internet promotion for his first novel, The Rabbit Factory. The winner will get $500 bucks and his or her name in the third Lomax and Biggs mystery.
Over at Bleak House Books, they want your questions. If you're lucky they'll get answered on a daily podcast. You can listen to Benjamin LeRoy, Bleak House publisher, talk about his job here.

Review of The Rabbit Factory

The Rabbit Factory (MacAdam Cage: 2006) by Marshall Karp, is a mystery that starts out with a bang, but ends up being dragged down by its own weight.
The 600-plus page novel introduces LAPD homicide cops Mike Lomax and Terry Biggs. Lomax, the narrator, is grieving over is dead wife and trying to move on with his life, while Biggs, who wants to be a stand-up comic, serves to lighten the mood. They're both likable, but not too original characters, who go on a roller coaster ride after a man in a rabbit costume gets garroted at Familyland, a gigantic amusement park where people from all over the world come to be surrounded by the cartoon creations of Dean Lamaar.
Karp does an admirable job with the main plot, which has Lomax and Biggs trying to find out who wants to destroy the Lamaar Corporation. Bodies pile up, corporate types try to protect the company while making life difficult for Lomax and Biggs, and the duo stumbles down plenty of blind alleys in their search for the villain.
The two subplots are a different story. The first, which is romantic, has Lomax reading letters his dead wife wrote to him before she died, while dealing with his feelings for another woman. The second one involves Lomax's brother Frankie, who has a gambling problem. The romantic interludes help round out Lomax, and prevent the character from becoming a caricature, but they tend to be too long., especially the three full letters from Lomax's dead wife that made it into the final draft. The Frankie subplot is uneventful. No doubt Karp introduced Frankie because he will be a recurring character in other Lomax and Biggs novels, but the plot complications he caused in this book get solved with minimal fuss and minimal suspense. The book would have moved along faster without it, and there is no hard and fast rule that the first novel in a series has to introduce every character.
In the end, it is Karp's light prose and dark sense of humor that make the overall experience worthwhile. As previously mentioned, the book opens with a man in a large rabbit costume getting garroted. It's a funny image, if you like that sort of humor, and while the book is long, the prose isn't turgid. It isn't Les Miserables. Now there was a detective story that really needed an editor.