{"id":2060,"date":"2022-04-21T16:10:56","date_gmt":"2022-04-21T16:10:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/firstcluereviews.com\/?p=2060"},"modified":"2023-03-11T18:45:27","modified_gmt":"2023-03-11T18:45:27","slug":"the-wheel-of-doll","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/firstcluereviews.com\/?p=2060","title":{"rendered":"The Wheel of Doll"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>This is turning out to be one of the most unique, captivating, and above all emotionally engaging crime fiction series being published.<\/strong> Happy Doll\u2014yes, that\u2019s his real name\u2014is 50-ish, ex-military, and a former LAPD cop who lost his PI license and now calls himself a \u201csecurity consultant.\u201d Yes, Doll has many of the noirish trappings of your classic LA detective, from his worn-down office to his status as a regular at a dive bar. But he\u2019s also a fledgling Buddhist who\u2019s in love with George, a half-Chihuahua, half-terrier mix, is in psychotherapy, and is incredibly generous to those he comes across\u2014provided they\u2019re not trying to kill him. In this story, Doll is approached by a young woman to search for her mother, Iris Candle, who\u2019s likely to be homeless. Candle and Doll, it turns out, were lovers years ago, and Doll can\u2019t turn down an opportunity to see her again. After a week of searching, Doll finally locates Candle\u2014worn down by drugs and years of living on the streets\u2014and their reunion is one of the most poignant passages I\u2019ve read in years. It also sets off the book\u2019s real narrative, complete with some horrific, but highly entertaining, violence and a quest that brings Doll to the edge. As much as I love Ames\u2019 novels and comic memoirs, Happy Doll is his most innovative and successful character yet. Fans of aged, semi-hard-boiled, humorous Los Angeles detectives will also enjoy Andy Weinberger\u2019s <em>The Kindness of Strangers<\/em>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This is turning out to be one of the most unique, captivating, and above all emotionally engaging crime fiction series being published. Happy Doll\u2014yes, that\u2019s his real name\u2014is 50-ish, ex-military,&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2059,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[55,78,58,51],"class_list":["post-2060","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-review","tag-mystery-detective","tag-noir","tag-private-investigators","tag-thrillers"],"featured_image_src":"https:\/\/firstcluereviews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/formidable\/4\/Doll-400x400.jpg","featured_image_src_square":"https:\/\/firstcluereviews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/formidable\/4\/Doll-400x600.jpg","author_info":{"display_name":"Brian Kenney","author_link":"https:\/\/firstcluereviews.com\/?author=1"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/firstcluereviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2060","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/firstcluereviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/firstcluereviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/firstcluereviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/firstcluereviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2060"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/firstcluereviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2060\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/firstcluereviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2059"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/firstcluereviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2060"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/firstcluereviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2060"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/firstcluereviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2060"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}