In early September, I finished Hop Alley by Scott Phillips. Hop Alley is a sequel of sorts to Phillips’ 2004 novel, Cottonwood. Cottonwood takes place in the town of Cottonwood Kansas, a small town in southeastern Kansas, in 1872. My interest in that novel was due to the fact that it told the story of the Bloody Benders, a family that ran an inn in which they robbed and killed people who came to stay. This part is true. In fact, along US Highway 400 and US Highway 169 interchange is a historical marker about the Bloody Benders (see below) and one can still drive by the Bender Mounds, a series of hills in which the Benders lived. Suspicion grew and people came to investigate the Benders. However, by the time anyone came, the Benders vanished into history. They were never caught or heard from again.Cottonwood tells the story of saloon owner and photographer Bill Ogden during these events and then picks up the story in 1890 when two women purported to be members of the Bender family are caught and tried.I had read about the Benders when I was young and had been to the historical marker and driven by the Mounds many times as I had relatives living in nearby Parsons Kansas. When I read about the novel, I immediately purchased it and read it with great fascination.Now 10 years later, Phillips gives us Hop Alley, a novel that explains what happened to Ogden in the years between the original events and his reappearance at the trials in 1890. After moving around with Maggie, a women he had an affair with in Cottonwood, and abandoning her at a commune in Colorado, Ogden, now known as Bill Sadlaw, turns up running a photography studio in Denver in 1878. He, and the newspaper editor, Ralph Banbury, are both seeing a fallen singer addicted to laudanum, Priscilla, and are both trying to find ways to leave her. Sadlaw’s studio is in the Chinese section of Denver known as Hop Alley. Events turn tense when his housekeeper’s brother-in-law, a mean and evil man, is nearly murdered, and then murdered. The Chinese residents are suspected of having committed the murder and a riot ensues that eventually leads to Sadlaw once more hitting the road.Although Phillips does a good job or recreating the time and place in Hop Alley, I found the novel not to be particularly engrossing. It seemed to just be a slice of life and didn’t have a fixed resolution as such. Yes, there is a thin plot and there is action, but I couldn’t find myself becoming interested in these characters. I’m not sad I read the book, but I can’t give it much of a recommendation either.
idk, i guess you could say this is subtle, but others could come away underwhelmed by this prequel to a great western/noir novel 'cottonwood'. we learn what 'bill' does after he kills the richest man in cottonwood and vacates with the beautiful widow in tow.they end up in colorado territory, he as photographer, she as acolyte utopian in greely.he quickly decamps to denver and sets up his photography studio and lives the life. solves are murder mystery, saves an old chinese guy in hop alley during a race riot, gets arrested for murder, busts jail and takes the train to san francisco (where cottonwood starts)author phillips has become famous for his brutal truthful look of motivations, morals, murders, what really moves us.this one really for scott phillips fans and not the neophyte, but if so inclined, do do read cottonwood too and it'll be a five star historically accurate noir of unique gritty style, lots of sex, avarice, and violence. just like it is. Cottonwoodbtw phillips uses his tropes in interesting ways= war vet back to square life, sees the pettiness and corruption of 'everyday american life' , figures he is due a living too, and takes it by their rules; through duplicitous, violence, con, friendship, hard work, using people, forging partners, ...so author plugs this 'formula' in to books taking place in 1980, 1950, 1850, 1880it works every time.
Do You like book Hop Alley (2014)?
Wonderful stuff.Funny and action-packed.Required reading for anyone who's read Cottonwood.In the earlier account of the adventures of the multi-enterprising photographer Bill Ogden there appeared to be a missing section.A section that should have detailed what happened to Ogden following the events that occurred between 1873 in Cottonwood, Kansas and 1890 in San Francisco.This short novel chronicles narrator Ogden's misadventures following his abrupt departure from Cottonwood.If Donald E. Westlake had ever written a novel set in the Victorian Era of the American West it might have been this good.Scott Phillips is a gifted author and the three novels of his that I've read so far have been delightfully engaging.I enjoyed this novel every bit as much as I enjoyed reading Cottonwood.If you've read Cottonwood, I can't imagine what's holding you back from reading Hop Alley A Novel
—Still
Like a fine cognac, Scott Phillips is to be savored, the snifter swirled, a goodly glass but rarely overly full."Hop Alley" first brings to mind Dashiell Hammett. Now, this is certainly high praise, but I venture that Mr. Phillips has studied the literature of the late 1800s as well as Hammett. Here he writes with a restrained grace as was common approaching the fin de siecle while tossing grim humor, an amorality worthy of de Sade, and an irony noteworthy in noir fiction.Nothing important has changed between the 1870s Denver tersely limned here and today's America. Oh, we have a few more doo-dads and such; the people, corruption, hypocrisy, racism, mis-distributed well being and general incompetence all remain familiar. SSDD. Our story follows an engaging fellow out of Jersey Kosinski, Voltaire, Richardson, Defoe, MacDonald, Thompson and their kin. Money is made, women are bedded, random good deeds performed amid general bastardy. Great fun.Recommended.
—Dan Downing
