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| The Wrong Case | 
 enlarge | Author: James Crumley
Publisher: Vintage
Category: Book
List Price: $12.95
Buy Used: $4.38
You Save: $8.57 (66%)
New (9) Used (24) Collectible (4) from $4.38
Avg. Customer Rating:  15 reviews
Sales Rank: 58067
Media: Paperback
Edition: 1st Vintage Books ed
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 288
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.5
Dimensions (in): 8 x 5.2 x 0.6
ISBN: 0394735587
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9780394735580
ASIN: 0394735587
Publication Date: December 12, 1985
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: Expedited shipping is not available for this item. Items are mailed via USPS media mail within 2 business days and should arrive 4-14 business days later.
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Product Description
Milo once had a thriving divorce-case business in the small town of in the Pacific Northwest, but because of liberal new divorce laws has taken to drinking and staring out the window. He's up to his third drink of the morning when an attractive young woman walks into his office and asks him to find her brother. He takes on what seems a routine missing-person case in hopes of getting to know her better, but finds himself involved in what is most definitely The Wrong Case. Everyone is a victim, one way or another, of a crime that took place long before the novel begins.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 10 more reviews...
 soaked in blood, booze and atmosphere October 24, 2008
If you are prepared to be dragged through the mud and the blood and the beer, this is a ***great*** story!!!
 Hardboiled crime fiction July 4, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This book won't be for everyone. It centres on a hard-drinking private eye trying to solve the mystery of the death of a young man.
Crumley writes well but seems incredibly focussed on alcohol and drugs throughout the book (and his other crime books). This is all well and good, but gets a bit tiresome after a while.
This is a solid read but not one in which you are left with the feeling of wanting more soon.
 Milo's first case January 31, 2008
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
When I had found out about James Crumleys writing style,I figured I'd start with his first Milo adventure...or, is that misadventure? All I know it was a depressing ride!!! But what a ride it was. I just can't get enough of this 'ol style/noir/hardboiled( whatever you want to call it).
Mr Crumley has moved right toward the top of my favorite authors!!!
Hardboiled mystery. April 14, 2006
4 out of 5 found this review helpful
Milo Milodragovitch isn't just any private eye. He's cloned from the literary DNA of Phillip Marlowe himself. Except it's the 1970's and instead of LA, Milo's shabby one man office is in downtown Meriwether, a city of 50,000 in the Pacific Northwest.
When early in The Wrong Case, the comely Helen Duffy of Storm Lake, Iowa nervously enters Milo's place of business to hire him to find her missing brother, the reader is likely to feel as though he or she has picked up Raymond Chandler's The Little Sister by mistake. That's how similar the two novels are in their opening passages.
We soon learn that Milo is a deeply flawed individual with alcoholism as only one of his many problems. He agrees to take the case, not out of professional interest and not for the wad of traveler's checks Helen eventually offers him. No, he takes the case because he lusts after Helen's body. At this point, one has to hand it to James Crumley. Few other author's would have dared to offer up a protagonist who is that much of a creep.
A lot happens as the narrative unfolds. On more than one occasion Milo is beaten to within an inch of his life. He kills a man using a derringer at close range. He even has sex with an uninhibited hippie chick he meets along the way.
Eventually, almost reluctantly, Milo discovers the key to the mystery surrounding Helen Duffy's brother. It then becomes abundantly apparent to both Milo and the reader that the case he's spent the entire book working on has been in so many ways a wrong one.
This is hardboiled detective fiction in its most unvarnished form. Recommended to fans of the genre.
almost too noir July 14, 2005
6 out of 8 found this review helpful
This is probably the most noir crime novel I've ever read. The main character is so far the anti hero, that you almost quit caring about him. The pacing of the story is a little odd also, it seems to come and go with no clear arch. The climax (if you can call it that) isn't really that climactic, and leaves the reader feeling almost let down. Also, this was written in the 70's and the dialog shows it. When they say 'ballin' or 'outa sight, man', it seems almost quaint.
The story was interesting, and there were a lot of twists that I didn't see coming.
Overall, it's good, but I would have liked a little tighter pacing.
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