Stansberry's The Confession

I finished this Hard Case Crime original earlier today and as I promised, I'll say something about it. (Very catchy start, eh?)

Stansberry writes very eloquently and beautifully, but I believe it was a part of his scheme to step into the mind of Jake Danser, the early nineties' shrink who deals with psychopaths, sociopaths and others capable of criminal deeds. It's Danser who's talking nice, not Stansberry. The plot is on the surface a very simple one: a man is accused of what he says he's not guilty of. But Stansberry adds layers to this and he shows clearly how the psychobabble we've been accustomed to for at least five decades now enables everyone to reason and redeem their thoughts and actions. No one is ever wrong. The Confession makes a very intriguing read and has a nice twist on the stock plot of a noir novel.

This said, it seemed to me that Stansberry had some difficulties in the mid-section of the novel and it dragged quite a bit. (This was also evident with some grammar and spelling errors that were absent almost everywhere else.)

I haven't read any of Stansberry's other novels, but I like the premise of Manifesto for the Dead in which the legendary paperbacker Jim Thompson solves a murder, while soaking himself in alcohol in the last days of his life during the early seventies.