'The Wrong Case' is the Right Book for Hardboiled Mystery Fans

Review of THE WRONG CASE (Vintage Books 1986)
Author, James Crumley

I've been hearing people sing praises for James Crumley's writing for years. Now I finally know what all the fuss has been about.

I chose THE WRONG CASE as my first Crumley book, because I had the impression it was one of his grittiest works. And I wasn't disappointed in that department.

The protagonist, Milo Milodragovitch, is a man whose livelihood has been legalized out of existence. He's an ex-county deputy who'd been earning his keep gathering evidence for divorce cases back when you had to prove adultery, by doing surveillance and getting photos of cheating spouses, as they say, in flagrante delicto. But the divorce laws were changed to make breaking up easier to do and, when the story begins, he's at his desk, staring out the window at the mountains in an unnamed Western state and listening to the sound of his phone not ringing.

It tells you loads about Milo that his first line of dialogue, spoken when his client-to-be knocks on the door, is "Go away." Apparently, he's too busy hitting the office bottle (yes, there's an office bottle) and eating yogurt (okay, that I wasn't expecting) to be bothered with drumming up business.

The client-to-be is Helen Duffy, a lovely young redhead. (More standard hardboiled fare here, but at least she's not blonde.) Helen wants Milo to find her younger brother. Although he's never done that kind of work before, Milo goes through the motions of getting some information, then basically says he'll work for Helen if she'll sleep with him. Helen doesn't go for this arrangement. At least, not right away.

Needless to say, Milo does end up on the case. Except he ends up getting involved after the brother's been found (and not looking at all well). Per the title, he finds out the hard way that it was the wrong case to take.

Crumley captures the essence of a small Western town in this book. Although the essence reflects a particular period in time (when was the last time you heard anyone use the term "freak" to describe a long-haired man or "balling" to describe sex?), the dated references didn't bother me, any more than the term "reefer" or "tea" for marijuana would bother me in an even older book.

And Milo is such great fun to watch. He reels through his investigation, almost constantly high on booze, amphetamines and weed, wielding the occasional firearm, like a cross between Philip Marlowe and Hunter Thompson. But he's basically a nice guy who doesn't want to hurt anyone. He gets mad sometimes, roughs a few people up (no one who doesn't deserve it), even fires a shotgun at one point and brings a house down (literally), but he doesn't want to kill anyone. And when people start dying, by his hand or others', you can feel his remorse.

Finally, I can't recall ever reading about a character as sad and screwed up as Milo, who could make me laugh out loud with some of his dour observations and outrageous behaviors.

What can I say? THE WRONG CASE turned out to be the right way for me to become a James Crumley fan.