Military History Book Reviews : “China Basin” by Edward Cline see note please
https://militaryreviews.blogspot.com/2017/10/review-edward-cline-china-basin-patrick.html?showComment=1507947990003#c1565013111171170715
Ed Cline is author of many books as well as pithy opinion columns often posted here. Check out his Amazon page
https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=edward+cline+books&rh=n%3A283155%2Ck%3Aedward+cline+books
China Basin is set in 1928 San Francisco. Edward Cline presents an American city of cable cars, plain speaking and Prohibition. As the author observed in the book’s forward, “The country was unhampered by political correctness in speech and manners, and uninfected with other cultural maladies, the seeds of which were just beginning to sprout in art and ethics, as the reader of the novel will see.” Except for the Progressive hangover of Prohibition, Cline presents the country and city as the Founders largely intended it to be.
China Basin could be identified as neo-noir detective story in the classic tradition. There is some truth to this judgment, but it’s not the whole truth. The reason is the character of the detective-hero Cyrus Skeen. Skeen is a hero, not an anti-hero. He is a self-aware man of intelligence, breeding, and above all moral rectitude. He is also a man of action who places his life on the line in the pursuit of justice and truth. Skeen’s moral compass places him a world away from such protagonists as Sam Spade or Jake Gittes.
I’ve known Ed for nearly three decades. I remember talking to him on several occasions when he was plotting and writing China Basin. Two things have stuck in my mind ever since. First, Ed’s explanation for the book’s setting. He didn’t much care for the world inhabited by Sam Spade of Maltese Falcon fame. It is a grubby world and Spade’s is a barren, unexamined life. He wanted to present a happy detective of intellect. Skeen’s perspective is much wider and grander. Unlike other neo-noir detectives, Skeen is a bon vivant who spends much time in the sordid world of crime, but doesn’t become a part of it. He also wanted to recreate a bygone, and better, era. On both counts, China Basin is a roaring success.
The book’s plot is complex, but not overly so. There are no loose ends and the resolution is most satisfying. I won’t go into details here and give anything away for people who haven’t yet read China Basin. The story takes place in December 1928 after Skeen’s return from a month-long trip to Europe. The plot revolves around Skeen’s attempt to recover a lost artifact for a client. Of course, during the search both villains and femme fatales are encountered and dealt with.There is also a riot or rebellion against Prohibition officers at a local speakeasy where Skeen was meeting suspect:
“Let me through, damn it!” shouted the lead Federal agent as he banged through the onlookers. Skeen did not get a good look at his face, and he did not think the man got a good look at his, for a shot glass sailed through the air and struck the agent on an ear. He cursed in pain and held a hand up to it, and with the other reached inside his coat for his revolver. But an arm reached out and yank it from his fingers the moment is appeared, while another jerked his shoulder around and ripped off the whistle and chain that was around his neck. A beefy ship’s stoker turned him around again and pushed him, and the agent toppled backwards over the kneeling figure of a railroad fireman to the sawdust. A waitress calmly walked up a dumped her full tray of drinks on top of him. And all hell broke loose. (p. 155)
China Basin is the first of what are now twenty-nine Cyrus Skeen mystery and suspense novels. Their world of the late 1920s is believable with many interesting details of the period included. Ed did a prodigious amount of research for these books, and it shows. If you’re interested in good stories, with memorable characters set in a colorful and exciting time, the Cyrus Skeen series is for you.
Comments are closed.
