KILL WHITEY by Ken Harvill

I decided to attend Ken Harvill's KILL WHITEY signing based on the following description from Dead End Books:

"Kill Whitey" is the story of an Irish-Haitian drug-dealing albino called Whitey, who has been estranged by his gangster family. With two mob families fighting for the criminal trade, Whitey's family asks him to return. He reluctantly accepts the offer and must contend with beatnik cops, a deranged fullback, a Siberian hip-hop gangsta, a corpse that won't stay put and the biggest threat- his own family! Loaded with dark humor, shady characters and an excellent plot, "Kill Whitey" is a terrific debut for Ken Harvill.

At the signing, I learned Harvill hadn't been a big fan of noir fiction, preferring the works of Chaucer and Shakespeare, and having studied film history and theory. While the novel is dark and violent enough to be called noir, and has touches of humor as mentioned above, what I found most engaging was the novel's protagonist. Like all great characters, Leon "Whitey" Lynch is a bundle of contradictions: he has traveled the world collecting exotic herbs and plants and mixing potent potions, yet he remains naive, indecisive, wimpy even. He rejects his family's cold business yet holds out hope of gaining his father's approval.

Many noir protags are hard enough to take care of themselves. I know when push comes to shove they'll dish out as much punishment as they take. In Leon's case, all I could do was cross my fingers and hope things worked out for him. Very much like an edge-of-your-seat movie in that respect. Harvill turns Leon's weaknesses into strengths for the novel as a whole. The best suspense occurs when readers honestly don't know whether a character will survive.

Leon's history of drug use adds another layer of suspense that works to the novel's advantage. I could never be sure what really happened and what was imagined. I never knew who to trust all the way to the end.

The novel is written in third-person omniscient, traditionally a distant viewpoint, but Harvill gives an intimate glimpse of each character, even those who don't survive very long. I look forward to reading more from Harvill.