I generally stay away from contemporary fiction in my reading except when I need to clear my mind or give it a vacation from non-fiction and poetry... sort of a day off for my brain cells. I saw some reviews for Floodgate and that interested me. My fiction reading mind tends towards dark (Selby Jr), noir, or slightly twisted (J.G. Ballard). I also like the time period of the 1970s and 1980s. It is when I grew up and where I grew up.

Auction City is far worse than the worst part of Cleveland, where I grew up. The city itself was destroyed in violence and reborn in a slight less corrupt and slightly less violent area. Former honest cop Andy Destra is out to prove the chief of police is corrupt and end his career as he ended Andy's. Andy, however, finds there is much more going on and plenty of people who do not want Andy to continue on his personal investigation.

The story jumps back and forth in time and takes its time revealing its secrets. There are many 1970s and 1980s references in the story from The Rockford Files and C.H.U.D. to Quiet Riot and "Super Mario Brothers". Quite often I had that suspenseful feeling of being in a Warriors type movie throughout the book. The storyline is enough to keep the reader's interest then add in colorful characters, witty remarks, and suddenly you have a winning novel. I thoroughly enjoyed Floodgate. It took me back to the happy days of my youth buying pulpy paperbacks from a turnstile display rack at the local convenience store.
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Johnny Shaw’s newest novel is a journey into uncharted territory for the California-born author, best known for Big Maria and the Jimmy Veeder Fiasco novels, Dove Season and Plaster City. Unlike these books, which are set in Southern California’s Imperial Valley, Floodgate is set in Auction City, an imaginary dystopian city where what passes for order is maintained by a loosely-knit coalition of criminal gangs and a corrupt police department. In many ways, Auction City reminded me of the free-wheeling city in David Wong’s Futuristic Violence and Fancy Suits, minus the social media. If you take out Shaw’s trademark sense of humor, it would be more reminiscent of Aleppo.

The story alternates between 1929, when social order first collapsed and 1986, when a series of assassinations reignited the violence that plagued the city. Andy Destra, the story’s protagonist and, according to the book’s cover, a mostly honest ex-cop, falls in with a gang of not-so-honest crook who nevertheless are fighting to maintain order in the ‘most notoriously corrupt and crime-ridden city in America’. If it weren’t for Shaw’s deliciously cynical sense of humor, the story would quickly have devolved into a tedious maelstrom of shooting, stabbing, burning and bombing.

A special treat that the book offers is a series of fictional epigraphs at the beginning of each chapter that are included to give the reader a sense of just how crazy a burg Auction City is. An example is:
When our eyes met I was sure we had made a cDove Seasononnection. That we understood each other. I’ve always believed that eyes never lie. Maybe that only applies to humans.
-From apprentice zookeeper David Downing’s statement after being asked why he entered the tiger cage at the Auction City Zoo. His injuries required three surgeries and more than one hundred stitches (1972).

Bottom line: I’m a big fan of Johnny Shaw and have previously enjoyed reading Big Maria and . While Floodgate has much of the humor I’ve come to expect from Shaw, the absence of a cohesive plot leaves me unable to rate this as highly as I would like to.

*Quotations are cited from an advanced reading copy and may not be the same as appears in the final published edition. The review was based on an advanced reading copy obtained at no cost from the publisher in exchange for an unbiased review. While this does take any ‘not worth what I paid for it’ statements out of my review, it otherwise has no impact on the content of my review.

FYI: On a 5-point scale I assign stars based on my assessment of what the book needs in the way of improvements:
*5 Stars – Nothing at all. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.
*4 Stars – It could stand for a few tweaks here and there but it’s pretty good as it is.
*3 Stars – A solid C grade. Some serious rewriting would be needed in order for this book to be considered great or memorable.
*2 Stars – This book needs a lot of work. A good start would be to change the plot, the character development, the writing style and the ending.
*1 Star - The only thing that would improve this book is a good bonfire. ( )

Fast paced thriller with lots of history and twists and turns you couldn't possibly predict. A great entertaining read. ( )