Ken Bruen and Jason Starr have again teamed up in this third over-the-top homage to pulp. I’ve read the first of this series Bust but not the second Slide. It doesn’t seem to matter much, although this one is funnier and the collaboration between the two seems more seamless, I think, than the first. The Max follows the saga of oblivious megalomaniac Max Fisher and his sometime-girlfriend Angela Petrakos as his drug trafficking and her homicidal taste in men catch up with them. Max finds himself greeting his hulking new roommate, Rufus, the Crips, and the Aryan Botherhood at Attica, while Angie finds herself confined to a Greek prison on Lesbos. Although they both eventually escape these confines, it is harder to run from their character. Added to the mix this time is failed mystery author turned true-crime writer Paula Segal who fantasizes over her lust for Laura Lippman while racing to write Max’s sordid story. Angela, meanwhile, finds herself enamoured of sleazoid Brit Sebastian, apparently a dead ringer for Lee Child. There are more in-jokes and allusions than I understand, but these two characters are comic masterpieces as they hatch their plots and drink and drive across the continent. Great fun, but probably not for polite company.
