Trans Noir: A Review of “One for an Old Friend”

Name on the door says “Sophie Lynne.” That’s me.

I kicked back in the creaky chair in the small hole I call an office. Ain’t much, But I can afford it. And sometimes work comes by.

A shadow fell over the dirty window on the door. A shadow that I knew spelled trouble. I reached into the drawer to check my protection as the door opened.

A Blonde. Dames are always trouble, blondes especially.  And this one?  I knew she was trouble the second I laid eyes on her years ago.  Skirt’s name is Angela.

“Busy, Sophie?” she said, mouth cocked in a slight sneer.

I looked up at her angular features. Offered her a drink. She didn’t even look at the bottle.

“Bit early for Diet Coke, isn’t?”  she said.

“What’s the job?” I asked, opening the can.

She pulled out and envelope on dropped it on my desk. Looked me up and down. Said “Think you can handle it?”  I looked in the envelope. Top sheet said One for an Old Friend by Amanda S. Holiday.

I looked up at her, but she was already slinking toward the door.

“I’m giving you two weeks, Sophie. Better be ready.”

Name on the door is Sophie Lynne.  I’m a writer. There are a million stories in the Trans world. This is one of them.

Noir. I’ve always had a soft spot for it. Ever since I saw The Maltese Falcon, I was hooked. The dictionary defines noir as “Of or relating to a genre of crime literature featuring tough, cynical characters and bleak settings.”  A writer friend of mine defines it as “a detective story in which no one wins in the end, especially the hero.”

Amanda S. Holiday (hereafter Holiday) wrote this book a couple of years ago and published it electronically using IUniverse.  I’ve toyed with the idea of writing a trans noir story and even wrote a few chapters. As you can read from above, my Noir needs work. And that’s the problem with noir — it’s so easy to fall into cliches and tired old characters. Cue the mournful saxaphone folks and and saunter off into the rainy streets of the city at night.

So, did Holiday fall prey to the cliche? Or did she pull it off? I don’t know who this Holiday dame is, and I don’t care. I do my job. And Angela is too much trouble to cross.

Right. The problem with reviewing a detective story is not to give away the show.

The book focuses around a core group of characters, but primarily on a reporter named Michele Stevens, known as “Mickie.” And it’s no stretch to sort out why the story focuses on her. Guess what folks — this Trans reviewer is reviewing a book about a trans protagonist. Mickie was once a cop who was wounded in the line of duty, and eventually found herself and transitioned. I guessed her as trans by the description of the outfit. Black stockings and four inch pumps for a trip to the docks?

Mickie is drawn into the plot by an old friend, Norma. Norma is a detective who knew Mickie back when she was a cop. They meet at a dive bar down by the docks called the Blue Onion, where Norman is known as a Working Girl. Welcome to clicheville. Norma is a stock character who we really don’t get to know too well, which is just as well, as she ends up as the body on the floor.

Before Mickie and Norma keep their rendezvous, we meet a few of the denizens of the bar and the world revolving around it. Sid is a private detective. He is a wisecracking type, almost cardboard, but he has some interesting quirks, which I won’t reveal. Sid is working on a case with Norma.

Nick and Stretch are henchmen, and not really good at their jobs. We’re given their point of view early on as well, and they are two of the better characters in the book. They were rounded out rather nicely, and I really began to care about their … well … problems with offing the nosy reporter and that detective.

Another bad guy was Casper. Casper was the first REAL cliche in the book. The super assassin. He drifts in and out of the book here and there, a floating deus ex machina.

Then we meet Gwen the bartender, the curvy, matronly owner of the Blue Onion. Is she trans or isn’t she? The question is posed early.  Gwen fills the role of message girl, as much of the action takes place in her bar. Whore with the heart of gold and all that. She is a necessary part to the story, but I wish she’d been fleshed out just a bit more.

We also meet police detective Chet Grabowski and his brother, Bruno.

Bruno is a one eyed grizzled sailor who frequents the Onion. No, there are no cans of spinach anywhere about, before you ask. Chet is on the trail of missing girls. Bruno is easily the best character in the book. He starts the book sounding like the worst sailor cliche to ever be dredged from the deep, but the more we learn, the more there is too like. Bruno is a superbly well rounded character, even if his role is as fore-ordained as a Greek tragedy. We KNOW what will happen to him, right? If there’s any criticism of Bruno, it’s that Holiday dips into the whole “don’t ask because he was a super spy hero type gone wrong” thing. Essentially, he’s the story’s “Batman” who has amazing skills, abilities, and unforseen experiences … but we never learn the exact story about them. That isn’t a bad thing.

Bruno meets Micky in the bar, and they talk. Gwen tells Bruno to watch out for Micky. And so he does. And he falls hard for her. As expected. But what about Micky being trans? I’ll get back to that.

We then meet the spider in the middle of the web: The Boss. The Cheese. Art Limburg. We learn quickly that he doesn’t tolerate failure well, and is quite ruthless. Another cardboard character? What makes him so different? We really don’t find out until later, and, well, the answer isn’t very satisfying. That said, he is a comptent enough baddie for the heroes to battle.

So. Norma ends up a corpse. Mickie is drawn into the case. She poses as a “working girl” at the bar to gain information. The plot, while simple is satisfying enough, serving up some nice twists and minor characters. Then there’s Bruno and Mickie….

As expected, they fall for each other. And they consumate this relationship. And the next day, Micki tells Bruno her secret….

Here’s where the book is going to fly or fail. Micki’s gender issue. How will others react to it? She’s just had sex with this grizzled tough guy, and told him … well, you know.

And what of the others? Do they know her past?

And this is where the book really succeeds. Holiday doesn’t make Micki’s gender a major issue. It is one, to be sure, but it’s really handled well. A couple of trans issues are brought up, and there are some brief conversations. The usual reactions. Then they move on.  Except for Bruno.

This is where Bruno really won me. One can almost hear the gears grinding in his head. This hard man of the sea, this wounded warrior — let’s face it folks, he’s suppossed to be a a cross between Popeye and Nick Fury — has a concept dumped in his lap  that most people only see on Jerry Springer.  And he….

Takes it in stride. We learn more about Bruno’s past, and about what drives him. And we learn that his experiences help him see past the person’s outer shell and into their true selves.  Yes, the trans-person’s dream. Unconditional acceptance, and done in a well written way.

People die in this book. Characters dance around the dockside stages set for them. The plot moves forward nicely. The ending, while satisfying, has one major hitch that I won’t describe, but it didn’t bug me enough to take away from the enjoyment of the book.

That’s right: Enjoyment. I enjoyed this book. It engaged me early and kept me reading, despite its electronic format, which I really don’t like (I read it on a Nook.) While there were a whole host of cliches, they weren’t enough to drown it. And the only “oh please give me a break” moment was the hints at Bruno’s past.

Ok. Let’s get down to the nuts and bolts of why that broad Angela dropped the job on my desk. Lets talk about writing.

As a whole, the book could stand a good solid edit. There were occasional spelling errors and “there/their” issues. Structurally, the plot was sound and moved nicely. There were sections of truly fine writing here, and sections of “amateur night in Dixie.” A strong edit would give the tone and structure more consistency.

The dialogue was fine, and the characterizations of the major characters quite well drawn. The minor characters, well, some were cardboard targets set up for target practice, some were okay. A certain secretary reminded me of a slug from Monsters Inc, but that wasn’t a bad thing. We see the usual stock characters of the genre: dirty cops, prostitutes, working stiffs, even the crazy, homeless informant. At times, I wondered if some of these people were necessary, especially two new characters near the end who, well, you’ll meet them.

Tone. Noir is special because of it tone. And was this a proper noir?  Well … not as I define it. Happy ending-ish. Is Micki in a better place at the end than in the beginning? Absolutely. As are all of the surviving heroes. Crime foiled. Off to happy land. And know what?  I’m ok with that. I WANTED Micki to be happy. I WANTED her, a transwoman, to succeed where so many of us flounder.

Sidebar. There were two what I’ll call “distracting issues” one good, one not. The good one was that Holiday knows her way around a gun.She obviously has fired a weapon or two in her day.  In fact, her love of firearms shines through. She also knows her way around a boat and a harbor as far as procedures go. From some of the things she writes, and other clues, I get the impression that Holiday was a Vietnam era soldier.

The other distraction was the liberatarian politics that pop up here and there. I understand that authors do this — it’s her book, her world. I do it with my liberal views too. Guilty as charged. But in some cases the references are really unnecessary and detract from the scene. We never are given a setting for this story, it’s a port city of indeterminate size. But we know it’s an American city by the references to the ‘intrusive but ineffective government’ and the ‘liberal justice system.’ My eyes rolled, and I think I wouldn’t be the only one doing so. It didn’t kill the book, but it bothered me enough to note it.

As I said above, I enjoyed this book. I enjoyed my visit to the Blue Onion, and meeting its denizens. I enjoyed getting to know Micki and Bruno. Would I love to see them again sometime? Sure. I’m sure that their actions could draw some … international attention … from some upset customers who don’t like being upset. And I’d like to see more of Chet, who was really the brother I wish I had. And mostly, I like seeing the Good Woman win one for Us.

The book is available electronically for a reasonable price. If you like detective fiction, noir, or just an enjoyable pot boiler, you could do far worse than this. Invite Micki and Bruno in for a “schooner of the best dark,” pull up a bar stool, order a burnt burger from Gwen, and enjoy!

One for an Old Friend
By Amanda S. Holiday
Paperback: 236 pages
Publisher: iUniverse.com; Revised edition (February 17, 2011)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1450298338
ISBN-13: 978-1450298339
Available from Amazon.com and Google Books

Tags: Amanda S. Holiday, book review, books, featured, mystery novel, TG noir

Category: Product Review, Transgender Fun & Entertainment