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Book Review By Tom McInnes
The Hard Goodbye by Frank Miller

Basin City is dark, dangerous and generally nasty sort of place where the women are either prostitutes or table dancers and the men are either vicious, brutal murderers or good-hearted, brutal murderers, according to the storyline.

Marv falls into the second catergory. He is an ugly, brutish-looking ex-con with a heart of gold. One night a beautiful girl who calls herself Goldie comes for him, asking for help in exchange for her spending the night with him. He, of course, excepts. After a night of intimate love making, Marv wakes up to find Goldie lying dead next to him. He then vows to find her killer and treat him to a slow, painful and messy death. The only problem is, he's been framed for her murder. With the cops after him, he launches into a roaring rampage of revenge. Using his own brutal brand of persuasion, he gets the information he needs and discovers that what he thought was just a simple murder, is actually something much more sinister, as the horrific secrets of a haunting farm on the outskirts of the city come to light.


Plot & Themes
Tone of story - Dry-cynical
Time/era of story:
Kid or adult book? - Adult or Young Adult Book
descript. of violence and chases - 40 %
Planning/preparing, gather info, debate puzzles/motives - 20 %
Feelings, relationships, character bio/development - 20 %
How society works & physical descript. (people, objects, places) - 20 %
Crime Thriller Yes
Crime plotlets:
General Crime (including known murderer) Yes

Main Character
Gender - Male
Profession/status:
Age: - 20's-30's
Ethnicity/Race

Main Adversary
Identity: - Male
Age: - 60's-90's
Profession/status:
Eccentric: Yes
Motive of antagonist - insanity
The antagonists are: - cults
How sensitive is this character?
Sense of humor - Mostly serious with occasional humor
Intelligence - Smarter than most other characters

Setting
United States Yes
The US: - Northeast
Misc setting - sewers/subways

Writing Style
Accounts of torture and death? - very gorey references to deaths/dead bodies and torture
Explicit sex in book? Yes
What kind of sex: - touching of anatomy - actual description of sex - descript. of breasts
Unusual forms of death - eaten
Unusual form of death? Yes
Amount of dialog - roughly even amounts of descript and dialog
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