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REVIEWS
Ben Bridges writes:
Mitch Holliday's life is about as unglamorous as it gets. A forty year-old former P.I. ("body by Hummer, face by hard knocks"), he lost his license after being framed for money laundering and is now reduced to helping his partner, Lionel Banks, pick up a missing girl named Lila Hendricks. En route, however, everything goes wrong and Mitch finds himself being drawn into a world of money, murder and double-cross.
For all its opulence, Mitch's new surroundings are as hard and uncompromising as a blood-stained knuckle-duster. At once seduced and repelled by the almost obscene wealth of sexy socialite Claire Dixon and her manipulative, crippled sister Elaina (especially when compared to the hand-to-mouth existence of his widowed neighbour Donna Banks), he is forced -- reluctantly -- to examine his own hitherto rootless existence.
But murder is the name of the game here, the target a wealthy businessman with few if any redeeming features. The question is, will Mitch, as tough and cynical as he is, go ahead and sacrifice what few principles he has left in order to kill for the promise of love and money?
It's a tough call, since Mitch is by his own admission a little on the slow side. Suffice it to say that he emerges at the end as a wholly credible character about whom this particular reviewer would like to read more.
Told at a vigorous pace, Steve Hayes's slick prose is sprinkled with delightful turns of phrase, numerous references to the noir movies of Hollywood's golden age and a crisp line in dialogue that's written exactly the way it's spoken ... all of which make this a vivid, compelling and above all highly satisfying read.
Tommy Lightfoot Garrett writes:
British born author Steve (aka: Ivan) Hayes first arrived in Hollywood in the late 1940s and moved here permanently in 1950. Once an actor, he helped support himself by parking cars at some of Hollywood's most glamorous and well-known hot spots on the Sunset Strip. He became friends during that time with legends such as, Ava Gardner, Lana Turner, Errol Flynn and Marilyn Monroe to name a few. In 1955 the handsome actor started writing and has now completed not only books, but movies and scripts produced and aired on TV.
I recently had the great opportunity to enjoy his latest fictional work, "A Woman To Die For," which was published by the esteemed publishing house Bear Manor. The book's protagonist Mitch Holliday is a down on his luck investigator who after being framed for money laundering is quickly lowered to helping his P.I. partner, Lionel Banks to search for and find a young lady named Lila Hendricks. Mitch soon finds himself lured into even more action and troubles while on the case.
Mitch crosses paths with the rich and famous and the ordinary criminal and is tempted and after years of being in the private investigation business he is not sure where his life and career are going. All the while, Lila Hendricks remains his focus and immediately the story takes a turn once several tragedies culminate into what has become Mitch's dysfunctional life and career.
Whenever Steve Hayes writes a book, you can expect it to move at a warp pace, but not difficult to keep up with. His stories move more like movies and television shows than the ordinary novel. Though Hayes is far from ordinary and this latest page turner entices the reader to take a chance and within a few dozen pages, you won't be able to put the book down.
Being a part of the end of the Hollywood golden age himself, this book as well as all of Steve Hayes's works are peppered with references to the classic noir era of films and unlike many who have to research this era, Hayes lived it, saw it first hand and witnessed some of the very things he writes so eloquently about in this book.
I give this book my approval, it's surely a very concise story filled to the brim and running over with excitement, splendor and all things Hollywood.
Paul Ehrmann writes:
"Viva Gringo" by Steve Hayes takes you back to the movies and stories where a solid, linear structure hung with original characters and a few surprises on the trail kept your attention start to finish.
The places evoked, the events -- largely true I would think -- give "Viva Gringo" a solid foundation on which personal conflicts and story events fit just right.
Tom McNulty writes:
A few years ago Steve Hayes took a break from his successful screenwriting career and began publishing novel-length westerns. I have dutifully purchased each novel upon publication and for good reason -- they're good. Steve's westerns are on par with Zane Grey and Louis L'Amour which is no small accomplishment.
Steve's latest is VIVA GRINGO! and it may be his best yet. Frankly, I wasn't surprised that it was good because Steve is a pro. He knows how to craft a story and make it interesting. I would ask him to bottle his magic formulae and sell it to me so that I might one write one as good as this. But it's not that simple. I think Steve's secret is that he works hard at his craft and his experience serves him well when creating his characters.
And VIVA GRINGO! is loaded with interesting characters, but the centerpiece is a U.S. Marshal named Macahan who carries a model '94 Winchester. It's a new century and there's something called the `Revolucion Mexicana' in its sixth year. For those that know American history, it was Pancho Villa and his troops that committed the first terrorist attack against the United States when they laid siege to the town of Columbus, New Mexico in 1916. This is the backdrop that Steve uses to build his story. But this is still very much a western in the traditional sense. Macahan is tough, perhaps even brittle, and one can easily imagine a stalwart actor like John Wayne playing this role.
VIVA GRINGO! is a western that was written the way westerns were meant to be written. It is at once a fantastic adventure story in the tradition of the grand old pulps, but it's also a mature, unrelenting drama. Steve Hayes is one of those rare talents who can make a western feel like a Shakespearean tragedy while satisfying the demand for action and adventure. His characters may be fictional but they populate the pages with hellfire, brimstone, compassion and insight. You won't find another writer of westerns who can hold your attention, and you won't find another book like VIVA GRINGO!
Steve Hayes is on a roll. I hope the well never goes dry because he keeps topping himself. I don't have a problem hawking this book because it is, quite simply, the best western to be published in the United States this year. If any of us working in the genre today could write one as good as this the "western revival" we've all been demanding would happen a lot sooner. VIVA GRINGO! is the book of the year!