My Last Willefords

Just finished reading my last two Charles Willeford books: The Difference and Made in Miami. I wish that I had read The Difference last. Neither book was all that great, but The Difference would have been a better note to go out on; it was at least an interesting take on the Western genre and was professionally produced. Not so much with Made in Miami.

For one thing, it seems to be presented as one of Willeford's "crime novels" . . . and has the oft-quoted Elmore Leonard line, "No one writes a better crime novel than Charles Willeford" on the cover (in hard to read white lettering at the bottom of this picture). But it's actually more of a twisted romance thing.

For another thing, there are quite a few errors in the text. I didn't keep track of them as I was reading, but there were at least a dozen of them.  Here's one example:

"When Ralph came back with the money it would be money had couldn't actually afford to pay . . . . " (emphasis added)

That's indicative of some pretty shoddy editing. 

For another another thing, the story just doesn't hold together very well . . . and it is not very compelling. I also didn't like the use of the name Tarzan for one of the bag guys. ERB's hero deserves better than that.

If you are, as I am, striving to be a Willeford completist, then make sure that you don't read this one last. It will leave a bad taste in your mouth, for sure. And he deserves better than that. I'm hoping that my recently purchased biography of Willeford (by Don Herron) will help to wash that taste away.