The first lines of A Man named Doll leave no doubt that you are about to immerse yourself into a novel moulded on the classics of American hard-boiled noir.

“Shelton had always been a hard man to kill. But this time he looked nervous. He came to my shabby office on a Tuesday in early March, 2019”

Ames was quoted as saying he admired the prolific hard-boiled noir writer Donald E. Westlake. But does he succeed in following in the master’s footsteps?

Full review as part of the blog tour here: https://westwordsreviews.wordpress.com/2021/05/12/a-man-named-doll-jonathan-ames/

So refreshing!

I am a fan of crime fiction and this one didn’t disappoint. It has all the ingredients of a dark and twisted crime novel, with the added bonus of noir humour… Brilliant!

Happy Doll, also referred to as Hank or Hap, is the perfect anti-hero. He’s got some attributes such as strength and deduction, but it all goes wrong. He’s not yet hit rock bottom in his life but he’s about to.

Murphy’s Law catches up to him when his best friend Lou (Shelton) asks him for a kidney, and ends up dead 24 hours later. Doll will stop at nothing to find out what happened even if everything starts to unravel. You follow Doll through the rabbit hole that never seems to end.

“My logic was stoned logic; everything I was doing was smart if you were stupid”

As flawed as he is endearing, there is so much depth to Doll’s character despite his facade. With his mother dying during childbirth, being raised by a mocking and unloving father has left its scars. He is committed to getting better though, and is going to therapy (4 times a week).

But despite it all, Happy really tries. He is most loyal to the one relationship in his life, and the most important: the one with George, his unconditionally loving and faithful dog, as happy as its master’s name!

Unfortunate deaths, near misses, violence, disfigurement, absurdity, sarcasm, satire, I could go on and on about the variety of subjects you get to experience whilst reading this book.

A really quick and easy read, that I highly recommend – to be experienced with a pinch (or two!) of salt – I cannot wait for the next books in the series.

There is also a Spotify Playlist (https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4vA6JKnFQPo2qHbKlcD3jK?si=6AbsNGW1QwecpygPqJWxOw) available that I strongly recommend listing to whilst reading. Enjoy!

This is an old school dark novel, packed with action and bad men that are ready to do anything for their greed.
I’ll start saying that I loved the main character name “Happy Doll”, I think this is one of my favorite names, after the one I read a long time ago from an identity card “Ceniceros Gratis” (Free Ashtrays); one is fiction, the other one not! 😉
Let’s focus on this story, because Hank (he prefers it instead of Happy) deserves a special mention; he is not a bad man, only in a bad place. He is a PI and an ex-cop, he works as a security at a spa; and everything will go south when an old friend asks for his kidney. Lou is dying, he once saved Hank’s life, now he is asking for a kidney for money. The decision is not easy but when Lou appears dead in front of Hank’s house, there’s no more questioning, he needs to know what happened.
With diamonds, lazy cops and organ’s trafficking, the story can’t be more complete. You feel transported to Hank’s world, where everyone has secrets and they are ready to do whatever they can to make money and not be discovered.
As I said, Hank is on a bad place, but his desire to save everyone puts him in danger; several times! I think that if he was a real character he would be dead before arriving at the end of the story.
Also, there’s his beloved dog, George, I think it is the cutest character of the story! And while Hank uses his brute force to fight we can also see his golden heart for George and his friends. I think that’s what makes this book special, this duality, the force but the sweetness.
This had been a short and intense read, I really enjoyed the action and characters; let’s hope this will not be the only adventure of our character. I need more of him!
Are you ready to discover “A Man Named Doll”?

A Man Named Doll
Jonathan Ames
Pushkin Press Vertigo

A Man Named Doll is the first in a new crime series written by Jonathan Ames. He is an author of 9 books, comic memoirs and the creator of the Bored To Death (HBO) and Blunt Talk (STARZ) TV series, yet even creating the former show, Ames stated that it was his “Holy Grail was to be writing crime novels”.

With this first slice of Los Angeles Noir he has certainly cultured a memorable beginning. It is quite evident that Ames is tipping his hat to the traditions of LA PI fiction introducing his main protagonist through a first person narrative in an approach reminiscent of Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler. Yet there is plenty of flavour, quirks and unexpected moves in a novel that shows some light amongst the noir. The fact that his character is named Hank “Happy” Doll is a first indication that there will be a degree of humour in the novel. A former navy man and NYPD officer, Doll is now a private investigator.

A superb opening lays the scene of a shabby office in a less salubrious part of LA during the raining season where Doll is visited by one time police colleague Lou Shelton. The chain smoking and nicotine scarred former sergeant has had more stints inserted than he has fingers and his voice is "A toss up between a rasp, a wheeze and a death rattle." Many years before, when Doll was still a rookie, Shelton took a bullet for him in the line of duty. While Doll knows he’s after a favour, the request he makes is both unexpected and surreal leaving him stunned. Not being a particularly profitable PI, Doll has a second evening job providing security at a massage parlour. The first of a large early body count occurs when one of the masseurs is attacked by a meth high giant of a man. Our narrator comes to her defense, with accidental finality.

There is no slowing in the pace when later Shelton appears at Doll’s home. He's been shot and near to death. When Doll sees an armed stranger has followed him to the apartment he then tries to retrace Shelton’s steps, stumbling on another death and then causing another; yet all in the means of self defence of course!

Hank Doll is clearly a well-intentioned and sympathetic main character who loves his half Chichuhua half terrier George, has an on off (mainly off) relationship with Monica and feels a loyalty to Shelton. Yet you get the feeling his cards have been stacked against him and those good intentions don’t always bring beneficial results, particularly with bodies dropping around him. As the story settles we see behind the hard boiled exterior as we learn a bit of his backstory being raised with an unaffectionate father and then how he got into his current line of work while still feeling lost:
“At thirty-five, I quit the cops and life got a little better, I liked working for myself and Dr. Schine sent a lot of business my way. I was a functional alcoholic and pothead, and my love life was busy, though it was really like a version of that children’s book where the little bird – not knowing where he is – goes around asking all the other animals – Are you my mother?”
The narrative is fast paced and the sentences are elongated as Doll meanders from one predicament to another with actions that he would be unable to explain to his hostile former police colleagues. Like a delusional PI Philip Marlowe failing to reach an equilibrium between prescribed dilaudid and marijuana our new hero finds himself in mortal danger within a murky world of diamonds, dead men and kidney transplants. This is a real attention grabbing first novel for Happy Doll. The characterisations are strong however the best quality is that Ames manages to combine serious and grisly deaths with a sarcastic comical aspect so effectively. It’s an entertaining fast paced story that will at times make you laugh and at times keep you gripped. I look forward to more!

A Man Named Dog is released on Thursday 29 April 2021 by Pushkin Press Vertigo.

A rising body count and the unappetizing "harvesting" shenanigans of a very deranged and utterly disgraced USC medical faculty member are definitely giving a big headache and countless bruises to Happy Doll, the latest world-weary private detective to appear on the ever expanding criminal underworld of fictional Los Angeles and its limitless urban sprawl.
A fun and quirky madcap adventure that feels a bit uneven at times as if the plot were struggling to stay on track especially by the end where the denouement is excruciatingly slow and bafflingly quick at the same time. A colorful cast of characters and some great verbal pyrotechnics made it a fun & pleasant read after all despite being a bit annoyed at the story and its wobbliness.

Many thanks to Netgalley and Pushkin Press for giving me the opportunity to acquire this ARC