According to the book jacket for The Way of All Fish, Martha Grimes has published at least one book a year for the last thirty years. Amongst her most famous, of course, are her Richard Jury novels. Her latest is a continuation of her take on the current world of publishing and let’s just say, I’m still waiting for her to say something nice about it.
If you have not read Foul Matter — her first in this series of books — that’s okay. The characters can stand on their own for these 341 pages. We have the blocked writer named Cindy Sella (pun? I kept wondering), her ex-agent L. Bass Hess, and the lovable assassins Candy and Karl.
The plot of the novel is everybody seems to dislike Mr. Hess. The opening pages start with a shootout that leaves nobody dead but a lot fish flopping on the floor and patrons rushing around trying to save them.
As I was reading, it kept reminding me of a Hiaasen novel filled with crazy people doing crazy things and all for the good of something. It makes for an interesting read that says: watch out reader, if we continue to let just anybody write, we may end up with books written by celebs, car mechanics, books about vampires, robots, and just plain fluff. Oh wait ,we already do. I guess if you want to find a good book, it’s probably sleeping with the fishes. Ugh.
