Mystery Review: Shadow Boxer is the second novel featuring Billy Nichols, a San Francisco boxing writer in the 1940's. Written by the host of Noir Alley on the Turner Classic Movies channel, Eddie Muller is an acknowledged expert in film noir, writing several books on the genre. This, his second novel, is historical fiction set in the heart of the first noir era, 1948. Shadow Boxer is well and cleverly written. It's entertaining, featuring a decent Chinatown-type story with some good patter. Almost too good, too clean, too perfect, without the rough edges seen in novels of the time. Although set in the 40's it doesn't really have the feel of an old hardboiled detective novel, too smart and too slick. Of course our hero is not a detective, nor particularly hardboiled. As Billy Nichols is a boxing columnist (as was Muller's father) I kept thinking at some key moment he was going to pull a right hook out of left field, but nope. Shadow Boxer just didn't quite touch the heart, didn't stir my emotions. I may well be missing something, however, as the story apparently follows directly after the narrative in Muller's first novel, The Distance (2002), which I haven't read. But for which I'm now scouring the charity shops. [3½★]
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