AN HONEST LIVING

Ari Fliakos is an ideal performer for this noir pastiche. He's mastered the world-weary Bogartian rhythm that Murphy's prose imitates, and he's good at shifting his timbre and accents for waitresses in bagel shops and all the other New York characters Murphy cooks up for atmosphere. You don't want to try to follow the plot too closely, nor is there extra credit for guessing that this is an homage to Roman Polanski's classic film CHINATOWN--the characters point it out for you. If you want a thriller that thrills, this is not for you. But if you have an appetite for metafiction aspiring to the style of an earlier period and art form, or you just loved CHINATOWN, Fliakos will show you a very good time. B.G. © AudioFile 2022, Portland, Maine [Published: SEPTEMBER 2022]