The Mosh Pit

 “This Rancid Mill” by Kyle Decker, 2023

This is a work of punk L.A. noir. It's Raymond Chandler meets blue mohawks, leather jackets and safety pins. It's drinking bourbon all the time and women who easily fall for the young punk private investigator. There is an evil right-wing California Senator, a Salvadorean cop torturer, a vile drug dealer, Nazi skinheads, a loyal and large friend, and the ever humorous, ever semi-tough P.I. Then a new addition, a pushy rich girl who follows her own investigation. Under it all is something ginned up from TV, movies and books, but with a grimy counter-culture band atmosphere, punk rock instead of Sinatra, clubbing instead of cool. And yeah, for you non-readers, its a BOOK.

Some of these punks are lefties, including Alex Damage, the 20-something P.I. He's a hard-drinking smart-ass who has many quips even when facing death. Like no one alive of course, except in movies. Murder, kidnapping, gun threats, beat-downs, beheaded bimbos, porn stars, porn sets, the “Starwood” hard punk club, L.A. locations, torture, junkies, groupies and bro-brotherhood fill the bill. Everyone's broke, eats shit food and drinks too much. Suspicious dads and errant daughters too - yet it all comes back to the right-wing thug of a Senator, a former military advisor to the violent Salvadorean dictatorship. It's 1981 after all and the Salvadorean civil war is in full bloom.

Alex's real name is DeMaggio, as everyone has a nick name. He's way wiser than any early 20-something, inhabiting the experience of a man twice his age. This might tip you off that he's modeled on someone else, like Mike Hammer, not Sid Vicious. The “Bad Chemicals” are the key political band in the story, a Clashy Sexy X. A heroin overdose occurs and the unpredictable and convoluted hunt is on for the killer.

This is an entertaining read, funny and well-done, seen from Alex's intelligent point of view. He's like a college MA set down in leather. The amount of violence is Hollywood style, though that makes sense as it's set near Hollywood. Punks do not get off scot-free in the problem department, so its not just hosannas. Damage gets into so many fights it becomes ridiculous. The politics fade into the background, though the anarchist lead singer of the Chemicals is intent on a 'revolution' – a revolution organized around a blackmail plot. Really? The punk scene is portrayed as kinda sad, but a bulwark against mainstream bullshit. It's counter-culture clothes draped on a retro plot and probably the only one of that type. The L.A.-based noirs The Big Lebowski and Inherent Vice touched the hippie counter-culture instead. So if you're tired of the gumshoe darkness of Chinatown or the moronic language of Joe Friday, this might be your mosh pit. It's another detective story with another twist.

Now to the real question, why do 'detective stories' resonate at this time in history, even among alternos? Is it an attempt to solve a somewhat 'scientific' and concrete but small problem by the viewer? Or representative of a bigger crime that a small murder only hints at – genocide, corruption, exploitation, war, starvation, disasters? In that sense, giving viewers a sense of control over death or control over the chaos of the present? Is it morbidity, voyeurism or simple-minded morality plays of 'good versus evil?'  One detective writer told me it was about the 'pursuit of justice.'  Really?

The BBC started the trend with its Sherlock Holmes and Poirot series, followed by a legion of dull copies. Many countries now produce detective shows or books – the Nordics, France, India, Russia, Mexico, hell, even Romania. The cops are usually semi-troubled but persistent geniuses. Is this then also advertising for the 'smart' police state? Many crimes – including murder - are actually never cleared by cops.  They just pick up the pieces.  P.I.s are the civilian equivalent – unconnected to the state, yet doing the bidding of monied civilians or corporations. Politics increasingly intrudes on civilian murder, as it does in this book. Which might start to reflect how the biggest crimes are those being committed by the class with the most political power.

Prior blog reviews covering this subject, use blog search box, upper left, to investigate our 16 year archive, using these terms: “Salvador,” “Los Angeles,” “Inherent Vice,” “noir,” “detective,” “punk.”

And I got it at May Day Books excellent Left fiction section!

The Kultur Kommissar

December 13^th, 2023