Writing style
Dialogue-driven · Direct · Spare · Witty
Apple BooksMiami Blues
Mystery and thriller · Dark comedy · Noir
- Print length
- 191 pagesVintage Books, 2004
Description
Recently released from a California prison, violent thief Junior arrives in Miami determined to resume his criminal life. He becomes involved with Susie Waggoner, a trusting community-college student and part-time prostitute who mistakes their unstable arrangement for the beginning of domestic happiness. A murder investigation puts weary police sergeant Hoke Moseley on Junior’s trail, but Junior assaults him, steals his identity, and begins posing as an officer to rob other criminals of their proceeds. He then draws Susie into errands that start with a pawnshop robbery, while Moseley tries to expose the danger behind her romantic hopes. Miami Blues is a darkly comic crime novel in which predation, police work, and fantasies of reinvention collide in a sunlit city.
Reading profile
About this profile
Collected’s assessment, not reader ratings. Complexity runs from 1 (least demanding) to 5 (most demanding).
- Writing
- How much attention the sentences and language require.
- Ideas
- How much interpretation or abstract reasoning the book asks of you.
- Structure
- How much you need to keep track of speakers, timelines and connections.
- Background knowledge
- Prior knowledge needed to follow the book, beyond what it explains.
- Emotional intensity
- Emotional pressure, from gentle (1) to intense (5). Separate from difficulty.
Pace
Brisk
Tone
Dark · Humorous · Irreverent · Tense
Structure
Linear
Focus
Character · Plot · Relationships
Emotional intensity
4 / 5
Reading complexity
1–5 · higher means more demanding- Writing
- 3 / 5
- Ideas
- 2 / 5
- Structure
- 2 / 5
- Background knowledge
- 1 / 5
Themes
More by Charles Ray Willeford
Book details
For the print edition listed above.
- Publisher
- Vintage Books
- Language
- English
- ISBN
- 9781400032464
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