The Blind Devotion of Imogene by David Putnam

The Blind Devotion of Imogene is particularly intriguing given the uniqueness of the characters. Imogene is a 75yo ex-con, recently released after spending time in the big house after accidentally (we think) killing her husband. Her sadistic parole officer predicts Imogene will never survive on the outside, is doomed to violate her parole and be back on the cell block. After 10 years inside, Imogene is determined to stay out. But she has to find a job. Not an easy job for a 75yo female con. She manages to find a job as a cashier at a variety store (something between a "Dollar Store" and a K-Mart) that serves the most desperate and down. Her days are spent watching the store, going home, then getting soundly drunk trying to forget about the circumstances of that night when she pulled the trigger. She never denied pulling the trigger, but she thought her mistake should have prosecuted as manslaughter, not murder.  

Imogene Taylor is an ex-con you might like to know or has as a neighbor. Her store manager (of a few other local branches) is a world class prick and uses the stores to launder money on a small-time scale. There are a few ne'er do wells that frequent the store and make Imogene's life interesting. Putnam populates Imogene's life with a co-worker trying to better her lot, a neighbor who thinks her husband in cheating, some local thugs trying to move in on the low-rent retail outlet.

Such is the life of Imogene.

Putnam develops his characters with a world-worn lower class ambiance and clever dialogue. Not often that a book told from the vantage point of a 75 yo ex-con woman can be wonderfully addicting.  Terrific dialogue, realistic plotting given the age and social class of the players makes for  novel worthy of your time. West Coast Don liked it. So do I. Recommended. You'll thank us.

ECD

The Blind Devotion of Imogene

 

The Blind Devotion of Imogene, subtitled The Misadventures of Imogene Taylor by David Putnam is my second Putnam novel and the fourth reviewed in this blog. We have liked them all. This book is particularly intriguing, and I cannot remember any prior crime novel in which I so enjoyed the conversation among characters, and sometimes when the characters talked to themselves. While it’s a crime novel, it is a departure from Putnam’s stories about Bruno Johnson.

 

This book’s protagonist, Imogene Taylor, was somebody I cared about from the outset. A 75-year-old woman who has been released from jail on parole to a sadistic parole officer who has predicted Imogene will never survive on the outside of jail, will violate her parole, and will be reincarcerated. After 10 years in jail for murder, Imogene was determined to stay free of jail, and one condition of her parole was to keep a job. She becomes a cashier at a variety store (think K-Mart) that serves the desperately poor. There’s conflict with the store owner and other employees. Meanwhile, she does a good job watching the store and then going home at night and getting soundly drunk in an attempt to forget when she pulled the trigger of a gun that killed the love her life, Wayne. She never denied pulling the trigger, but she made a mistake which she thought should have qualified her for a manslaughter charge, not a murder charge.

 

In addition to wonderful dialogue, the plot was fantastic. There were unexpected surprises throughout. I recommend this novel highly – you won’t be disappointed. Now, I’m ready for more of Putnam’s work.

The Diabolical

The Diabolical is David Putnam’s 11^th Bruno Johnson Novel. ECD, my fellow blogger and great friend of 52 years since we were beginning our post-college degrees, reviewed the 9^th book, The Scorned about one year ago, and the eighth The Sinister about two years ago. All three books have been published by Oceanview Publishing, one of our very favorite publishing houses. At some time, were going to have to do a deeper dive to get all of Bruno’s background stories. In ECD’s review of The Scorned, he described that much of the first half was devoted to backstory and especially about feelings. He wrote, “More discussion about feelings than you might find in a romance novel.” I’ve never known ECD to admit that he spent any time reading romance novels.

This novel takes place in Costa Rica where Bruno Johnson and his wife, Marie, have moved with their 14 children to find a better location to raise the kids. Bruno had apparently lost two of his own kids to LA’s gang and drug culture. He acknowledged that the kids with him in Costa Rica are not all legally his, noting that he had rescued most of them from at risk home in South Central Los Angeles. Bruno has found a job at the Lido Cabana bar where he can keep his eye on anyone who might be approaching him for extradition back to LA for both kidnapping and murder charges. The Johnson’s have also arrived with friends. Bruno depends on generous tips from his customers in order to clothe and feed his kids, and he can’t turn down an offer from Otis Brasher to watch out for people that want to harm him (for reasons that Otis would not fully explain). Otis spent his time sitting at the bar and consuming a 13 to 20 grasshoppers per day, thus getting totally drunk. Otis was an abrasive character, but Bruno certainly liked the $1,000 per day that he was receiving for escorting Otis to and from the bar every day.

 

Things started to go south when there was a mass shooting at another bar which took out some of Bruno’s friends. It turns out some people, including Otis, think there are stolen diamonds in the area – the problem being, the diamonds were stolen from the mob. There were good cops and corrupt cops, more murders, more love with the elegant Marie. Especially there was the struggle that Bruno continued to have with himself from allowing the very dark side of himself to emerge. The author lightened up some of the moments with the dog, Waldo, who was wonderfully portrayed.

 

It's an excellent story, another winner for Oceanview Publish.

#1508. The Scorned by David Putnam

Johnny Fillmore is an LA entrepreneur who sits at the top of a SoCal business pyramid. Owns plenty of real estate, and restaurants - his crown jewels. A subordinate oversees the next layer down - bars and strip joints mostly. The lowest layer of his empire includes variations on houses of ill repute. Those places cater to the most basal of human demands and desires. While Johnny oversees all levels of his empire, it's hard to (legally) connect Johnny with the real money makers at the bottom of his holdings.

Call him Johnny Ef. A moniker that he doesn't appreciate it. Call that to his face and that face may be the last one you ever see. 

Remember Bruno Johnson? First reviewed last year in The Sinister. Ex LA County Deputy Sheriff, Ex-con. Wanted for murder and kidnapping now living in Costa Rica with Maria, his father, and 10 kids they've liberated from shit environments and even shittier parents. Bea, his mom, is largely absent. Been that way since Bruno was a child; she lived the life of a con artist. She resurfaced in The Sinister bound to a wheelchair and looking 20 older from a life of hard living. More importantly, Maria is pregnant and due. Bruno is beside himself with joy at becoming a dad (again) at 50y.

Bea's back and Bruno ain't happy. He's sure she's only in Costa Rica to con his dad of what little money he has squirreled away - about $20K to get back in the game in LA. Bruno agrees to take her back to LA to drop her off under the condition she never ever make contact again. 

Alisa and Aleck Vargas are Costa Rican friends in Tamarindo, CR. He's an MD and thinking about running for local office with the intent of an eventual national run. Their daughter, Layla, is an undergrad in LA.  That's a problem. They tell Bruno that she's been kidnapped and the ransom demand is $100,000. They ask Bruno to deliver the ransom and bring Layla home. Bruno figures he can do both in one trip. Can it wait until Maria delivers? 

That question becomes moot as Maria goes into labor and Dr. Aleck has to do the delivery. And it's a difficult one. So much so that Aleck tells Bruno that Maria will likely sleep for the next few days so he can do these two deliveries while she recovers from the birth. Reluctantly, he agrees. He owes Dr. Vargas.

Upon arrival, Bruno's first call is to his long-time wing man, Karl Drago. A massive beast of a man who thrives on violence. Keeps a rod of rebar up his sleeve and tampons in his truck (for wound care). And if his anger directed at biker gangs, all the better. Bruno and Drago are a team to be feared. Bruno's rep in LA lingers even as he hides in Costa Rica. Rumor on the streets that he is dead, but when he shows the unconvinced his BMF tattoo on his shoulder, attitudes change from arrogance to limp-wristed dread.  He makes one other call. Helen Hellinger, LA deputy sheriff who worked with Bruno and knows the felony warrants against Bruno are meaningless.

A simple up-back delivery and pick up goes south. Mom disappears as soon as they land. Layla had fallen into Johnny Ef's orbit. The track of Layla leads to a seedy rundown hotel hard by a recent freeway where every basal human behavior can be bought. Even babies. Babies that have been given up by strung out women as well as babies bred specifically for sale. Yuck. What they've found has bubbled up deeply hidden feelings in both Bruno and Drago that can only be jammed back into the darkness with violence. Bone and blood they call it. 

Was kind of surprised when I read that this is Putnam's 10th Bruno Johnson book. In each of the previous 8, Putnam develops Bruno's law enforcement history, how he ended on on the wrong side of the law, and more importantly, the back stories to how he and Marie ended up with 10 foster children, yanked from the mean streets of LA and taken to their home in Tamarindo, Costa Rica. Also why and how Bruno lost 2 of his own children in LA. The publisher's website says all can be read as standalones, but it might help to start at the beginning with 2014's The Disposables. 

The first half of the book is more about Bruno wrestling with his conscious about his mom/dad, his newborn son, this ill-advised trip to LA, and his own flawed history. More discussion about feelings than you might find in a romance novel. But once both Bruno and Drago take the bit, they are cleaning up all things connected to Johnny Ef. And not in a way that Helen Hellinger can take to court so they have to take out the garbage in a more biblical manner and get back to doing the thing he loves . . . being a dad.

An other Oceanview winner. What can I say.

Thanks to Netgalley for making the advance reader copy available.  To be published February 7, 2023.

ECD

The Sinister by David Putnam

 Meet Bruno Johnson and his wife Marie. Bruno is a ex-cop and ex-con (having killed the man who killed Bruno's daughter). He is also wanted in LA County for a cadre of kidnappings that are actually children he and Marie rescued from abusive neglectful homes. Bruno and Marie spirited the children to safety in Costa Rica, ably assisted by his father. 

As the book opens, Bruno is recuperating from being shot twice (by his ex-wife) while breaking up a motorcycle gang's meth operation. Been in a too expensive hotel for a couple months running up five-digit bill. He has to stay low because of he has about a dozen warrants for his arrest on kidnapping (those kids) and murder (of a child trafficker). Mostly recovered, the Johnson's are packing up to go back to Costa Rica. The FBI knocks on his door. It's longtime friend and  now a Deputy Director Dan Chulack.

Chulack's granddaughter was kidnapped two weeks ago. Two million ransom raised, paid, and lost at the drop/exchange. The FBI's investigation has stalled and Dan knows that no one on his radar knows the LA streets like Bruno. And no one hands out justice like Bruno. When Bruno gets on the scent, blood and bones are going to spill. 

A street thug involved in the failed exchange is in county lockup. Bruno's first stop is to question him. But how will a wanted felon get into the jail, see the punk, and get out. An overgrowth of beard and hair while recuperating, some big sunglasses, still walking stooped over from his injuries . . . and a set of counterfeit FBI credentials (friends in high places helps) get him in the door but only under the watchful gaze of the LA detective investigating the kidnapping - Helen Hellinger, an intense and uber tough cop. Bruno sure hopes she doesn't put 2 and 2 together and figures out his real identity.

They meet at the jail to find out that two thugs drop the perp, head first, off the third floor landing in the jail's common area. To make things worse, the two thugs had just made bail. Best Bruno can do is corner one of the thug's cellmates in hope that inmates still love to brag. The cellmate is Whitey, a sleaze ball who could be a cousin to Lethal Weapon 2's Leo Getz (the Joe Pesci character). 

Yeah, Whitey knows stuff and he's willing to trade. He'll talk, but he wants out first. The next two days Whitey takes Bruno and Helen into some of the worst areas in LA where beatings are as common as doorbells. Bruno isn't shy about getting what he wants. And there are a couple exit ramps from the main investigation to keep Bruno honest all the while gaining the begrudging respect of Helen. 

One of the exit ramps is all Helen. Her sister is a biker bitch with a meth habit and a 4yo daughter. Once she unloads this on Bruno, the hunt branches from looking for Agent Chulack's granddaughter to include getting little Stephanie out. In the best of all worlds, He and Marie will take Stephanie into their home in Costa Rica. And find Chulack's granddaughter, too. But that's getting less and less likely as time drags on.

Turns out this is book #9 in the Bruno Johnson series. And while the publisher (Oceanview - one of my favs) says that each can be read as a standalone novel, it wouldn't hurt to start at the beginning. That could mean two things. Start with book #1 or start with book #6 because Putnam did a  recent 3-book backstory run (books 6, 7, and 8). Knowing this, I might start with #6-8 and then do books #1-5. That way the books would be read chronologically. Time to hit that BooksInOrder.com website.

Bruno Johnson is one bad dude. And he's especially bad when the victims are children. You don't want to be in his way when he gets on a roll. Marie is a trained Physician Assistant and those skills come in handy at times. She has the same temperament as Bruno when it comes to abducted/abused children, having recorded a kill of her own in a previous book. She is also a saint for putting up with Bruno's aggression and single-minded pursuit and execution of justice. While the book is a good look at the gutter of LA, it's not quite as good as George Pelecanos' grasp of life on the streets (of DC). Just don't let your guard down when Bruno's around. 

ECD