Nothing Burns in Hell

By Philip José Farmer

Book Overview

Hired to witness an illegal transfer of money in a cemetery, a private detective has no idea the exchange will get hairy, but the bullets are flying before he knows what hit him, and he finds himself... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0312864701
• ISBN13: 9780312864705
• Release Date: January 1998
• Publisher: Forge
• Length: 287 Pages
• Weight: 1.00 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.5" x 1.0" x 5.8"

Customer Reviews

Quirky blend of humor, violence and noir

There's shooting, there's cutting, there's treachery, there's a snapping turtle used as a defensive weapon. And then, the violence begins.Tom Corbie is a private investigator plying his trade on the mean streets of (ahem) Peoria, Illinois. When a simple assignment to backup another operative on a payoff at a cemetery results in gunplay, Corbie finds himself drawn into a circle of escalating mayhem, violence, intrigue and murder.Corbie's character is unique in the genre. He's married to a practicing Wiccan and carries enough literary references in his head to earn a doctorate degree. While he shoots well, he prefers to talk his way out of most bad situations. Farmer loves his hometown of Peoria and gleefully presents it and its history to us, warts and all. He also flits in unique philosophical and metaphysical observations while detailing how to arm oneself when slipping into a marshy area to do battle with in-bred hooligans.NOTHING BURNS IN HELL is a fine example of a dying genre -- hard-boiled pulp fiction. Recommended!

Fast, Fun and very violent

PJF's foray into the realms of pulp fiction is a blast. Away from his normal genre Phil proves he is a very talented writer. Loads of weirdly named characters and some great funny lines fill this book. The plot is labyrinthine but somehow very simple. Phil manages to insert a few ideas which are normally present in his science fiction and fantasy novels... a wiccan, a femme fatale and some deformed humans. Be warned though the book is very light hearted and tongue in cheek it still has one of the most violent scenes ever in a book Buy it. read it and enjoy it

A successful blend of humor and mystery

What Farmer has done is to stage a complex mystery along the lines of Raymond Chandler's BIG SLEEP in the pocket universe of Peoria, Illinois, where he has lived most of his 80-odd years. There is a lot of deliberate humor, and it seems clear that a number of the characters are real denizens of Peoria, depicted with their permission. As for plot, a private detective gets mixed up with one of the wealthiest families of Peoria, and finds himself matched against a ruthless murderer who will stop at nothing to exterminate the whole family. Farmer has deliberately and successfully striven for a level of continuous action matching the pulp detective fiction of the 1930s. About the novel's only failing is a final summing up that (as in THE BIG SLEEP) makes little sense and leaves more loose ends than a mop, and I suspect this is Farmer's deliberate choice.

Very funny, witty, and well-written

Hopefully Farmer will write more books about the dark side of Peoria. This is a hillarious, action-packed, witty book, filled with the bizarre Farmerian characters that his readers have come to expect. It's apparent that Farmer has created an ingenious Peoria geneaology just as complex as his intriguing Wold Newton family (the latter including Tarzan, Doc Savage, Sherlock Holmes, and Captain Nemo, amongst many others), which I would love to see developed in future books. Buy this book!

NOTHING BURNS IN HELL- a luscious piece of pulp fiction

Phillip Farmer's "Nothing Burns in Hell" is a fresh, quickly paced mystery/suspence thriller that has the feel of an old fashioned film noir. This is one part "Pulp Fiction," One part "Deliverance", and one part "Sherlock Holmes." Filled with imagination and colorful characters. A classic!