A hard-boiled genre exercise

Kirkus sort of liked it, but not completely: There are no good guys, or gals, in this novel. And there's no mystery, with police peripheral to the plot. Instead, Johnson seems to be paying homage to and subverting the conventions of the era of pulp fiction at its seediest. There's some dirty fun here, but plenty of authors are better at this sort of novel.

Book-a-day calendar liked it more (breezy, enjoyable read), and called Johnson "one of our contemporary masters."

Both mentioned Johnson's Tree of smoke, a Vietnam work (Kirkus: After his award-winning Vietnam epic, Johnson takes a busman's holiday with this hard-boiled genre exercise.While his previous novel Tree of Smoke (2007) elevated Johnson to a new level of renown