My Dirty California by Jason Mosberg

Author: Jason Mosberg

Title: My Dirty California 

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Published: 2022

Pages: 432

Genre: Crime Thriller 

     A young man descends into the Los Angeles underworld to find his family's killer--aided by a group of strangers with their own shadowy pasts. When Marty returns to Pennsylvania after living in California for ten years, he's happily welcomed by his father and older brother, Jody. The joyful reunion is short-lived. Two days later, Jody enters the house to find his father and Marty shot dead as their masked killer flees out the back door. Without any answers from the local police, Jody heads to Los Angeles looking for who murdered his family and why. Soon, he finds a trove of strange videos recorded by his brother that leads him into the city's most dangerous corners, where he comes up against drug dealers, crooked cops, surf gangs, and black-market profiteers. 

     My Dirty California was a book that I had never heard of up until the author had liked a couple of my reviews specifically that of  Tapping the Source by Kem Nunn. Now he didn't ask me to read his book or offer a copy for reviews. But I did find a copy on the subscription service I read a lot of my Ebook and audiobooks from. So I figured that it wouldn't hurt to give it a shot and see whether it was any good. Now I'm a big fan of these California noir-style books, it's part of the reason  I loved Tapping the Source. It is however something that I haven't seen come up all that often in recent years. But having read the blurb on this it sounds like the sort of book that was going to tick a lot of boxes for me.  It also sounds satisfyingly complicated enough to keep me going through what is a longer book than I usually go for. 

     Now, this is definitely one of those books that you need to keep your wits about you. You have to get used to the narrative swapping between multiple heroes as we get this grand sprawling tale. I suppose you can call Jody the main protagonist. He is after all the person that sets this demented spiral all into action. It's interesting to see how what might seem like a fairly small event in the history of the world go on to create a vortex that can pull in so many people and ultimately change so much for all those who touch it. But this is getting massively ahead of myself. Jody is the kind of guy that wants to do right by his friends and family but always seems to manage to go about it in just slightly the wrong way. As a result, he seems to hit dead ends or nearly get himself killed more than once. What he does have going for him is his doggedness. It's this that will ultimately see him through to the end of this complex and twisted Cali Noir novel. 

     As for our other heroes, each has a very important part to play in this tale. Now usually you would think that less time would be devoted to fleshing out these characters and making them have a purpose beyond helping Jody's plot.  But here Mosberg has devoted just as much time to each of them allowing these characters to breathe into their own tales and also how they fit into this world. It was a relief to see that their pages weren't just for the purpose of feeling space. Pen, Renata, and Typh all have unique tales that I was happy to get stuck into. I suppose in some ways it is like getting four separate novels that happen to intersect at different points allowing for a much big world for us to explore. But I would have happily spent the whole book with any of them and still greatly enjoyed myself. 

     As for this sundrenched tell of deceit and skull duggery where exactly is one to begin. It's one of those books where you can feel the oppressive heat beating down on the back of your neck and the salty sea water caress your lips. I can see these people playing out their fates before my eyes and it's one that seems to get worse and worse as the book goes on. I guess if you are going to go down the route of Noir crime fiction bad things are to be expected really.  But for me, it does seem like he managed to find a new angle to tackle this. And in doing so has created an intriguing narrative, all be it a very complex one  You can tell that Mosberg must have taken a great deal of time in plotting out this narrative as at times it seems like a complete cat's cradle.  But thankfully it is one that does pull its self-taught into a most satisfying conclusion. 

     My Dirty California is a book that took me on a trip to places that I had not expected. It is at times a heartbreaking tale as we follow these heroes on what seems like fool's errands. And with another twist also a down-and-dirty fight for survival from which I can still feel the dirt under my fingernails and smell the blood on my clothes. But then again, it has moments that made me laugh out loud. So what category does this book really fall into? I feel the answer is the place Cali Noir has always been and at the same time is where it's headed towards. There is something about these dirty deeds being done in the dark in a place where it is impossible to escape the beating heat of the sun.  These characters are sure to stay with me for some time if not for anything else other than the sheer endurance that it took for them to fight their way to the last few pages.