Book Review: Baby Shark's High Plains Redemption By Robert Fate

Baby Shark's High Plains Redemption is the third book in Robert Fate's Baby Shark Series. It's a '50s crime novel in the hard-boiled style. Kristin Van Dijk, aka Baby Shark, is a hard-hitting private dick from Texas working a case with her meatier, harder hitting partner Otis. The case is a simple one - be the bagmen for a simple kidnapping-for-ransom deal between bootleggers.

Being a hard-boiled crime novel, and the bag-drop happening within the first chapter, things of course go more than slightly wrong-  and that quite quick. The drop was nothing more than an excuse for a little killing and soon our heroes find themselves being hunted for reasons they can't quite be sure of.  There are car chases, state-line crossings, non-stop action, enough bodies piling up to have a ball team, and lots and lots of one-liners.

Fate knows his genre and is relentless in his desire to keep the pages turning and turning and turning until the novel is read in one fell swoop. I've not read the previous two novels in the series, but I never felt like I was behind. He does a good job of giving the new reader a good sense of who the characters are without boring old readers with a rehashing of events or ideas.

Fate's use of language could be considered adequate - I didn't find myself underlining any turns of phrases for later usage, nor did I cringe at any failed attempts of uniqueness.  He keeps the action moving quickly, and by choosing a female lead he easily differentiates his book from the heaving piles of similar detectives-in-peril stories.  Unlike so many of the early pulps Fate also adds in a little moral pondering to the story which makes Baby Shark more than just an empty vessel.

The crime genre, perhaps more than any others, creates a great gap between the good writers and the lousy. For every Raymond Chandler and Elmore Leonard there are a dozen lame mediocrities dishing out stinky tripe. Fate manages to occupy some nice middle ground here. No one is going to mistake Baby Shark's High Plains Redemption for high literature, but neither should they be embarrassed to show themselves reading it on the subway.

For fans of the genre this is a great edition to the library, and for those looking for something to pass the time in front of the fire as Lady Winter fast approaches, Baby Shark is 300 some pages of exciting goodness.

Article Author: Mat Brewster

Mat Brewster is a periodic ex-pat wondering if he'll ever find a home. You can find him musing on pop culture, and obsessing over concert bootlegs at The Midnight Cafe.

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