FORGOTTEN BOOK: THE NICE GUYS

 The Nice Guys by Charles Ardai (2016)

I can't really claim this to be a forgotten book, but it's an overlooked one, at least by me.

The book is a novelization of a 2016 neo-noir buddy action comedy movie starring Russell Crowe and Ryan Gosling.  The movie was co-written by Shane Black (Lethal Weapon, The Last Boy Scout, Last Action Hero, The Long Kiss Goodnight), so you know what you're going to get -- fast action mixed with comedy.  The movie grossed $62 million on a $50 million budget, and has gained something of a cult status since it was released.  I had never heard of it, which shows you what a happening dude I am.

I have a feeling the novel closely follows the film.  It reads like a fast-paced buddy film, and in my m minds eye I could not help picture the main characters as Russell Crow and Ryan Gosling (though, to be honest, I sometimes pictured the other Canadian Ryan, Ryan Reynolds -- am I the only one who conflates the two?).  It's to author Ardai's credit that I finished the book believing I had seen the film.  (I haven't seen the film, but I feel that it would now be superfluous after reading the novel.)

The time is 1977.  Jackson Healey is an arm-and-leg man who approaches his business as just that -- a business.  Holland March is a down-on-his-luck LA private eye; his wife had died in a fire that destroyed his house, leving him  with a precocious and innocent daughter about to turn thirteen, Holly.  March has basically given up on everything except his daughter, and has reverted to an amoral alcoholic.

March is hired by a sweet little old lady to find her niece, porn star Misty Mountains (two guesses where she got that name).  The problem is that Misty had died in a car crash several days earlier.  when her aunt went to Misty's house to clear out her things, she saw Misty through a window, but by the time she got the front door unlocked, the girl had escaped through the rear door and had driven off.  The aunt did manage to get the license number of the car.

The license number led to a woman named Amelia Kuttnet.  Then March gets a visit from Jackson Healey, who had been hired by Amelia to warn March off investigating her.  Politely and very professionally, Healy breaks March's arm.  that's enough to convince him to drop the case.

Later, Healy gets a visit from two button men who want Amelia's location because they intend to murder her (and, incidentally, Healy).  Healy managed to chase them off.  Then he went back to Marsh to get him to help find Amelia in order to save her.  And a strange partnership was formed. 

Amelia, it seems had written a porno flick, one in which Misty Mountains had starred.  Soon, people involved with that movie began dying and all copies of the film were destroyed.  This lead Marsh and Healy to an elaborate orgy at the home of the film's producer in a toney section of LA. in search of Amelia, who was reported to have attended it.  Sneaking along in the trunk of the car is Holly, the now thirteen-year-old daughter.  Marsh, Healy, and Holly each find themselves in different areas of the orgy (and Holly sees things she knows her girlfriends just wouldn't believe when she tells them).  Also at the orgy are the two button men, who are now out to kill Healy, Marsh, and Holly, as well as Amelia.  Holly stumbles upon Amelia, but she gets away.  Marsh, however, stumbles upon the body of the film's producer.

To complicate things, Amelia's mother is an Assistant Director in the Justice Department who is dividing her time equally between cracking down on organized crime and pursuing a major case against the automobile industry.  She tells Healy and Marsh that her daughter is unbalanced and hires them to find her.  Amelia, meanwhile, is saying that her mother is out to kill her.

Near misses, cross purposes, laugh out loud comedy, and a very real danger  for Healy, Marsh, and Holly combine before the ending, in which we discover why the porno film was so important that it and everyone associated with it had to be destroyed.

A truly enjoyable read.

Charles Ardai is the founder and editor of the Hard Case Crime line of mystery novels.  While in high school, he worked as an intern at Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine. eventually co-editing some anthologies from that magazine.  Upon graduating summa cum laude from Columbia University, he began working for hedge fund manager D. E. Shaw.  In the early 90's Shaw asked Ardai and another employee to come up with ideas for online businesses.  Ardai found the internet service provider Juno with Shaw as an investor.  The other Shaw employee, some guy named Bezos, started a bookstore.  Juno was sold in 2001, leaving Ardai very comfortable indeed.  Ardai then founded Hard Case Crime with Max Philips, a publisher specializing in the pulp crime fiction that both had enjoyed when they were younger.   Since then Hard Case Crime has published over 170 books, both reprints and originals, a number of which have won major awards.  Ardai himself has published five books in the series, plus an action-adventure novel in the Gabriel Hunt series, which he instituted.  He has also expanded the Hard Case Crime line into graphic novels.  Ardai has proven himself to be an extremely talented writer, editor, and publisher who has made a significant impact on modern crime fiction.