#188 | Duplicity, Betrayal, and MDMA: Classic Noir and Crime Fiction Fans Will Love This Mystery Thriller

episode SUMMARY:

Douglas Vigliotti dives into the edgy yet fun crime thriller "Every Man A Menace" by Patrick Hoffman. With his experience as a private investigator, Hoffman brings a realistic and unpretentious writing style to this modern take on classic noir and crime fiction, filled with shady characters, drug trafficking schemes, and a shocking ending. Join Douglas as he explores the juxtaposition of a happiness drug and the violence that underpins it.

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Welcome back to Books for Men, a podcast to inspire more men to read and bring together men who do. So this week we are transferring back into or of fiction like always, we flip-flop back and forth between nonfiction and fiction. And this week's book is one that I read a while ago. This isn't something that I just finished reading or read this past month or anything of that nature. And I think that actually, I don't always say that, but a lot of these books are books that I've read over the course of my life. They're not necessarily ones that I just read, although sometimes they are of course, but this one definitely isn't, and I've wanted to share it for a while. It's called Every Man a Menace by Patrick Hoffman. I guess I should start with just some of the basics of the book.

(00:53)

It's in my eyes, the perfect length for a novel. This is something you've heard me talk about before on the podcast, but it's around 280, 290 pages, came out in 2016. It's a crime, it's a mystery. It's very much a classic crime story, and I can explain a little bit more about that momentarily. But first I think I should tell you a little bit about the author, Patrick Hoffman, and he's written three novels. This one I believe was his second. I've read all three of 'em. The White Van was his debut. Then, Every Man of Menace came out in 2016, and then his most recent was in 2020 called Clean Hands. They're all stylistically very, very similar, although in my opinion and why I'm sharing it, Every Man a Menace happens to be my favorite. And so one of the interesting things about Patrick Hoffman is that he's also a private investigator, and I think he's still a working private investigator, so he has a day job, so to speak.

(01:51)

And this raises sort of an interesting question for me, which is the idea that a lot of writers have multiple jobs. It's very rare to find a novelist who is just a novelist. I actually once heard Richard Price, who you've heard me talk a lot about on this podcast before Shared Lush Life, one of the first episodes on this podcast. And I once heard him say, and of course, when he said this, he was being a little glib and a little sarcastic, but the point still holds. And he said, there are only 15 novelists who don't need a second job, and I'm not one of them. And so I always found that to be an interesting thing because it's like this is someone who in my eyes is one of the great novelists of our time, and also somebody who has sold a decent amount of books and had a lot of critical acclaim.

(02:39)

And if he's saying that he needs to work a second job, then what are the hopes for a lot of other people out there? And the reality of it is the economics of being a writer is just a very interesting thing in general, especially if you're not writing for mass audiences. So in the crime sense, you're not writing psychological thrillers or you're not writing big international thrillers or all these different subgenres that sell a lot. If you're writing to a very niche audience, then it's very hard to create a living off of just your writing alone. And so of course, I don't look down upon any author who does this. That would be silly. I mean, I'm in that camp myself is I pursue my art and I also have ways that I make money because otherwise, how would I be able to pursue my art and my creative work?

(03:29)

So obviously with Patrick Hoffman specifically, his work as a private investigator has really helped him be able to write these crime novels. And similar to a book that I shared last month, which was Owning Up by George Pelecanos, his writing style is very unpretentious, and I love that about his work. You could tell that he's had experience with people of this nature and how they speak and how they act, and it doesn't feel phony at all. A lot of times when you read or even watch crime TV shows, there's a phoniness that you can't escape from. And I can't help but think that comes from people trying to project themselves into these situations and not having real-life experience that backs the creation of these works. And I don't want to get into the specifics of taste and preferences, but a lot of those shows do really well.

(04:30)

So I'm not here to make a judgment on those. The same goes for books in general, but I think that there is something distinctly different when you read something that has a very human realistic quality to it, even if it's a fun novel. And this is definitely a fun novel. And I think the other thing that really shines through probably more than anything else in novel form, when an author has some experience that backs the subject matter that he's writing about. And that's not to say that he has direct experience, it's just experience with these people or these types of situations or anything of that nature. The thing that shines the most, almost all the time is dialogue. So dialogue is so hard to pull off in a good way, but always, whether it's in crime or literary fiction—for me—when I read good dialogue, I can tell that the author has had experience with this subject matter.

(05:35)

That's not to say that you can't project yourself into situations that you haven't had direct experience with, but dialogue is super hard to pull off if you haven't because there's a lot of abbreviated sentences and little minor bits of action that characters do in between the things that they say and all of that stuff that really adds to the dialogue if you know it and you've seen it. And this is why people who have direct experience have a leg up when they're writing dialogue because it feels much more believable. To me, believability is one of the biggest things that a piece of fiction needs to have in order to feel good for the reader. And that doesn't mean it has to be realistic, it just has to be believable based on the context of the story that you're writing. As I had mentioned, when you are writing a story like Every Man of Menace, which I will tell you more about it right now, this having experience with shady people and people who are being duplicitous, which Patrick Hoffman has as a private investigator, it really adds to the work.

(06:48)

And so I really love this novel. What is it about? A guy named Raymond Gaspar who gets out of jail and basically a guy from inside who he's worked with his four years as he's been in jail, he hooks him up with somebody on the outside as a favor to help him get on his feet because he owed his uncle from years past. And this guy Raymond, gets mixed up in an MDMA running scheme that links San Francisco, Miami, and Bangkok. And it really has the DNA of every classic crime novel. And you heard me use the word duplicitous before because that's a great word to utilize in a crime novel because so many of the characters are back-dealing shysters, scam artists, gangsters, and this novel features all of that. And with bloodshed and betrayal and every great crime story, it has a terrific ending.

(07:49)

And I think for me, that's what makes it better than his other two novels, The White Van and Clean Hands, the ending on Every Man of Menace is really strong. And of course, I'm not going to share it with you because that would be an awful thing to do, especially if you plan on reading it. This book, especially because of the way that it's plotted out, relies on you not understanding or not knowing how the thing is going to end. And you want to flip the pages to find that out. One of the things that I love the most about this story particularly is that it involves an MDMA, mass trafficking, drug dealing scheme, whatever you want to call it, and MDMA or Molly, as people call it, is a happiness drug. And what this novel represents is the undercurrent of violence and evilness in a way that gets this happiness drug to the market.

(08:41)

And so to me, that was just a really interesting juxtaposition as something that is happy and fun and really does provide euphoric experiences for people. But in the background of that, there is this violent way and violent lifestyle that gets this thing to the nightclubs and to people's hands. And of course, this is a story of fiction, and you're probably not going to read the novel for that juxtaposition. You'll read it because it's fun, and it's engaging, and it's written well, and the story is compelling, and all of the things that make it a super fun read. But at the end of the day, it is still there. So it adds to the novel for me. Alright, so I've shared a decent amount about the book. I think you have a decent understanding of what it's about, and what you can expect. I've been sharing a quote to close out these episodes lately, so I want to continue to do that.

(09:38)

And I think that this one is perhaps my favorite from the novel, and it goes like this, “My father used to tell me it's easier to walk in the dark if you close your eyes than it is to do it with your eyes open. You know what that means? It means that if you admit that you're blind, you end up taking the appropriate steps. Get it?” So I want to thank you so much for listening to today's episode. If you enjoyed it, as always, I'd love for you to share it with friends and family members and other people who you think might enjoy it, because word of mouth is everything. And with this podcast specifically, it's to inspire more men to read. And the number one way that you could double down on that support is by subscribing to the show. So whether it's a follow or subscribe, it takes literally one second, or two seconds. So especially if you are a repeat listener, please take that one or two seconds to go and do that.

(10:30)

If you'd like to connect with me, you could always do so on Instagram @douglasvigliotti. It's the only social media that I have. And for more information, you could always visit BooksforMen.org where you can get full transcripts of every episode. As well as sign up for the monthly newsletter, which is a roundup of every episode, complete with full book and author information, all the best quotes, and newsletter-only book recommendations. Again, if you'd like to sign up for that, all you have to do is head over to BooksforMen.org.