In Nine O’Clock Gun, the fourth and final novel of his Gene Castle, hard-boiled Private Eye series, author Jim Christy once again mines the streets of vintage Vancouver for the gritty characters and nostalgic settings that pepper the previous volumes, Shanghai Alley, Princess and Gore and Terminal Avenue. Castle’s back in his room at the faded Rose Hotel, back at his table at Ramona’s Cafe, but the woman in his life has taken her seamed silk stockings and walked. Vancouver is as dangerous as ever, though, and Castle’s just the man to solve the string of murders striking a little too close to home.

Always in search of original characters and experiences, Jim Christy is a literary vagabond with few peers. He was once described by George Woodcock as “one of the last unpurged North American anarchistic romantics.” His publisher has called him a hip Indiana Jones; one reviewer credited him with a “Gary Cooper-like presence.” His buddies have included hobos, jazz musicians, boxers, and non-academic writers such as Charles Bukowski, Peter Trower and Joe Ferone. “I never dismiss another’s story out of hand,” he writes, “no matter what it’s about or how outrageous it may seem.” Christy’s often wry reminiscences of his travels, trysts and trials are fuelled by a hard-won pride. A gardener, a sculptor and a spoken word performer with a jazz/blues ensemble, Christy has been seen in film and television productions, usually in non-speaking roles as a thug or a gangster.

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