The Wheel Of Doll

A while back I read a favorable review of The Wheel of Doll, a private eye novel by Jonathan Ames, and decided to get a copy of it from the local library. It features the adventures of a down and out private investigator named Happy Doll (Yes! Happy Doll). It was the second in the series after A Man Named Doll, which I decided to read first, in which his hero, Doll, gets involved in investigating the murder of an old police detective friend. It was a pretty good read, and so I then read The Wheel of Doll, where Doll is hired to find a homeless woman, who was once his girlfriend, by her daughter. It was a quick read, and a page-turner, but in addition to the large body count, I was kind of surprised at how Doll, during the most stressful parts of the investigation, would repeatedly snort cocaine to keep him going, and then marijuana to mellow him out. The series does take place in Los Angeles (Doll lives in a 1920s era house directly under the Hollywood sign), and so I guess that is just the way it is out there, which is something I have always suspected. And if Ames comes out with a third book in the series, would I read it? Definitely. I very much enjoy finding out what it is really like in the City of Angels.