Thank you NetGalley & PulpLit for this book, but unfortunately I will not be finishing it. DNF @51%/149pgs

While certain parts of this story captivated me, most notably how Krainin describes the interaction between Bronze and Carolyn after she gets out of the shower, a lot also didn’t.

This has an interesting premise, and I love the cover and title, but the story ended up not being something of interest for me. With many character POVs and jumping around, it was hard to keep track of.

If you ARE a fan of old style film noir or detective movies/novels, this will likely work for you!

"Blood and Mascara" by Colin Krainin is an extraordinary novel that captivates readers from the very first page. Krainin's masterful storytelling weaves a complex narrative filled with vivid characters, gripping tension, and unexpected twists. The book delves deep into themes of identity, resilience, and the blurred lines between reality and illusion, making it both thought-provoking and thrilling.

Krainin's prose is both elegant and evocative, painting scenes with a cinematic quality that brings the story to life. His ability to create atmosphere and build suspense is truly remarkable, keeping readers on the edge of their seats throughout. The characters are richly developed, each with their own distinct voice and compelling backstory, making them feel incredibly real and relatable.

"Blood and Mascara" is a testament to Krainin's talent as a writer. It's a novel that challenges and entertains in equal measure, leaving a lasting impression long after the final page is turned. This book is a must-read for anyone who appreciates finely crafted literature and a captivating, multi-layered story. Highly recommended.

What an amazing book. It was written with a pulp fiction flair. I was piecing together the different scenes throughout the book. As they started falling into place, I was stunned on more than one occasion. It was such a refreshingly new suspense thriller and I loved every second of it. It moved fast and I couldn’t piece it all together until the very end, which had such an impact. A must read!!

This author has a wonderful way with words, and the characters are "characters". You have a journalist turned private eye, a landlady that is an author, an international assassin, and politicians. What is the thread that weaves all these people together? You are compelled to keep reading to find the answer. I received this from Net Galley.

The synopsis for this book really drew me to it. I love classic noir movies, and really wanted to delve into this genre in book form. I am struggling as to how to write this review, because there were moments I loved in the book, but I also struggled with a lot. If you are reading this to decide whether to read it, I beg you to also read other reviews. There are so many who loved this book, and reviewed it in a fantastic manor. Maybe I am not a good target for the written form of this genre.

Things I liked:
1. I liked most of the character development. I felt this author writes and gives a more in-depth look at his characters. They were fascinating, intriguing and truly human. There are two scenes that have stayed with me because these were such honest, raw moments where we see the characters at their most human.
The first is when Roth, after experiencing the sniper shooting, is driving home and sees a cardinal in the middle of the road. He puts it on the ground in a safe place then goes home to his dog. However, that night he cannot go to sleep, and he goes back to check on the bird. Roth had been laying in bed feeling anxiety and despair about the case, and he couldn't stop thinking about the bird. When he sees that the bird is gone, he feels hopeful that it will be ok. This simple vignette of the character highlights the depth of this character.
The second time is towards the end. Roth is staying at his friend Bruce's house. They have been best friends since childhood. Bruce has always silently stood by and been a rock for Bronze. And it is in this scene that Bronze realizes this truth. Once again, the author does this with simple straightforward interaction and it is beautiful.
2. The atmosphere and tone of this story was straight noir. As you read, you feel that darkness, hopelessness and desperation of some of the characters that seem to be prevalent in this genre.
3. The mystery and action. This part was so well written, and once you get to it (it takes about 40 % or so to actually get there!) the story really takes off. All the plot points connect and make sense.

My struggles:
The stream of consciousness/philosophical wanderings of the characters. This mainly happens with Bronze and Iris. The plot would be moving right along, then suddenly it would remind Bronze of his past and he would have these very long thoughts that might have included metaphorical (I think) language. This would detract from the story. Although it is in these moments that we get glimpses of his past, they are so abstract and long that it is up to the reader to pick out the important pieces. And this was a struggle because these thoughts took up pages. Then when it returned to the story, you had to readjust you brain and remember what was happening. And even as I finished the book, I still don't know if I put all the pieces together to get a clear picture of Bronze. This was such a distraction, and when I finished the book, I was exhausted. And it was so verbose that I often skimmed parts- and maybe in those parts there was information I needed! But it was a lot of words, and I wanted to know Bronze's backstory to understand his character- but with the meandering thoughts and the abrupt stops in the story, I just struggled.

I am giving it a 3 due to the character of Roth, the beautiful scenes where the language was more simplified, and the tightness and connectivity of the case.
As stated before, this was my personal journey with this book. I think this author is talented. However, I am not sure that I could read another if it follows this way of character development.

Thank you Netgalley, Pulp Lit Publishing, and the author for the ARC. This is my honest and voluntary review.

The book is about a private investigator, Bronze, who is trying to solve a murder of a senator, Roger Haake. As he is trying to solve the murder, an assassin continues to kill people involved with a killing of a young intern years before. Bronze is immature and messed up when it comes to women and seems to mostly have one night stands. He has unrequited feelings towards his landlady, who lives on the floor above, who is editing chapters of Bronze’s memoir, she receives sporadically.
I didn’t enjoy the book. I found the plot was patchwork and at times confusing. The author has a lot to say and sometimes those things were deep and interesting, and other times the digressions were distracting. I especially found interesting, a few paragraphs describing how it might be for a woman to be beautiful in the eyes of others, and how difficult that might be for her. Most of us probably are the opposite, wishing we were a bit more attractive physically or in our personalities. Bronze was such tragic character that I did not have much hope for him or his unrequited love.
In the hands of a good editor this could be a very good book, but as is, I would not recommend it. 3 out of 5 stars!

The thing about hard-boiled noir is that there’s a thin line between “good” hard-boiled writing and “overwrought” writing, and it’s very easy to slide over that line. Such is the case with Colin Krainin’s adult debiut Blood and Mascara, a thriller set in the late 90s about an alcoholic journalist-turned-private eye investigating the death of a politician. Krainin spins a pretty interesting tale, with layers and layers of deceit to uncover, and he gives us a couple of interesting protagonists (the aforementioned detective, but also his landlord, an author who takes over narration every few chapters), all of which gives the book a lot of promise. But the plotting is bizarrely doled out, relying too heavily on the “a character is told something but the reader doesn’t get to learn it until later” technique, which ultimately finds the book having to spend a concluding chapter spelling out all of the story that the characters largely already knew. More frustrating is that writing, though, which vacillates between solid and pretentious and too often falls into the latter, especially when it feels like the book stops cold or forgets about its story in a way that’s frustrating rather than interesting. Combining all of that with some heavy backstory that takes over the book in an awkward way that never feels necessary, and Blood and Mascara ends up having a lot of promise, but never quite working. I think Krainin has potential, both in terms of plotting and in terms of his writing, and I think that if he continues, he’ll knock off the beginner’s issues and turn in something great. But Blood and Mascara, while it’s never bad, isn’t good enough for me to recommend it.

Unfortunately this book wasn’t for me. I can admit that I typically go for books that are quick cheesy thrillers. This book is a more mature, slower paced and deeper than what I usually go for. I have ADHD so it is tough for me to keep my attention for long so I find the quick suspenseful books easier to read. I would recommend this to someone who appreciates literature and has a more mature reading preference.

"Iris is watching Bronze.

Bronze is following Carolyn.

Carolyn is sleeping with Billy.

Now Billy is dead and a killer is coming for them all.

Washington, DC, 1997:

A city stumbling toward recovery after a decade of violence, drugs, AIDS, and exodus. Bronze Goldberg - a soft-boiled private detective in a hard-boiled world - scrapes out a living stalking the steps of cheating spouses while bearing the trauma of the past like an open wound. But his latest assignment, surveilling the indiscretions of a stunning femme fatale, has entangled him in the murder of an up-and-coming congressman and made him the target of an unstoppable assassin. Meanwhile, the spiraling chaos of Bronze's dangerous adventures has attracted the obsessive attention of his landlord, Iris Margaryan, a brilliant romance novelist who may hold the missing piece in the puzzle of Bronze's fatal past. Can Bronze survive long enough to reach the ultimate truth?

A gripping noir mystery-both intensely provocative and darkly thrilling - Blood and Mascara descends into the depths of the human soul before exploding in an ending too shocking to ever forget."

I'd think a PI would make a really good living in Washington, DC!

This book had a kind of noir and kind of literary feel to it. Lots of twists and turns in the plot, tragic backstory of the main character, whose also an alcoholic who gets beat up a lot. Also it's set in the late 1990s so not everyone has cell phones. I'd be interested in reading more from this author.

Sadly I am not finishing this book. I made it 37% and gave it a couple of try’s. I honestly just wasn’t connecting with the characters and the past/present changes. I think there will be a group that will love this book but it just wasn’t for me. Thank you for giving me the chance to read though!

I was immediately drawn to the cover art of Blood and Mascara, and when the blurb promised a gripping noir thriller I knew I had to read it.

The book starts slowly, taking its time to build the mood and introduce us to Bronze and the way he sees the world. The writing treads a very delicate line in trying to establish a grimy, noir-ish voice. For the most part I enjoyed the prose, but there were times when it threatened to tip into being overwritten and feeling like a pastiche of the genre rather than a sincere attempt at hard-boiled pulp fiction.

Thankfully this propensity towards over-writing mostly rears its head when Bronze is alone and contemplative, which most often occurs at the begininng of the novel. Once he starts to interact with other characters and take action the prose becomes a little more subdued and workman-like, and in the process it becomes much more assured and less self conscious. That's very much to the book's benefit.

What lets everything down a little is Krainin's approach to developing the mystery, which relies largely on simply not telling the reader the things the characters already know. Our cast talk in cryptic riddles, referring to events and information that they all know about but we haven't been told about yet, always talking around the point and never addressing things directly so that the reader is left feeling like we're constantly struggling to keep up. The information we're lacking is usually revealed sooner rather than later, which is one consolation, but this occlusion of context happens so regularly that I began to grow frustrated with it very quickly. Thankfully this is a problem reserved largely for the opening chapters of the book, and it begins to fall away once the pace picks up.

Another minor frustration is that the most compelling character in the book is one who's given the least page time. Iris is out protagonist's landlady, a successful romance writer who's trying to reinvent her career by writing in other genres and having a hard time of it. From the first page of her first chapter I wanted to spend more time with her, and as I got further into the book I longed for her chapters more and more. I would have happily read a novel entirely about Iris. The prose in Iris' chapters is much more relaxed, much less stylised than the rest of the novel, and as a result her voice is much clearer. The rest of the novel is well written but wants to be sure you're paying attention to how well written it is; with Iris, the words on the page melt away and it becomes a joy to spend time with her.

It's in these chapters, too, where the book seems to have the most fun with genre. Where the rest of the book is a fairly standard noiry mystery, Iris' chapters peel back the layers of fiction to talk directly about the sort of story we're telling. I'm reminded in these sections of books like Auster's *New York Trilogy*, Bradbury's *Death Is A Lonely Business*, and even sections of Calvino's *...if on a winter's night a traveler*, and I wondered partway through whether the narrative was going to take a metatextual turn. It never does, and while "the book didn't go in the direction that I wanted it to go in" is not a valid criticism, Iris' chapters definitely pointed in that direction and I was disappointed not to see any pay-off from them.

All in all I enjoyed this. *Blood and Mascara* is Krainin's first adult novel, and it's a promising if uneven debut. It's certainly not perfect, but I enjoyed it and will likely keep an eye out for the author's next work.

There was a good story here, although I found it difficult to follow at times. It jumped time frames a lot. It always said what date and year it was, but it was still a bit much. Also, it tended to refer to things we didn't know about yet and the reader had to file that away and fill in the gaps later. I realize mysteries often do that, but for some reason this one was harder for me to follow than most. The characters got quite philosophical and analytical on a regular basis, so if you're looking for a lot of action, this surely is not it. Not a criticism - just a description. Some readers will love that, others won't. Bottom line: interesting story once you piece it all together.

“Iris is watching Bronze. Bronze is following Carolyn. Carolyn is sleeping with Billy. Now Billy is dead and a killer is coming for them all.”

I had a pretty hard time with the first half of this book. The author really takes their time setting the scene and introducing the characters. At times the narrative seemed to take on a “stream of consciousness” quality. Maybe the writing just wasn’t my style? Idk🤷🏼‍♀️
HOWEVER, things really picked up in the second half and truly redeemed the story for me. I definitely wanted to like this more than I did. All in all this was an “okay” read for me.

4.5 stars-
I’ve read thousands of books over the years and they all seem to come with their patterns and expectations. As a reader, we expect things to happen in a particular way while the author’s job is to make their story stand out in the most unique way possible.

This author has created a story that requires the reader to slow down and actually absorb the words and try to decipher their meaning and significance.

Written in multiple timelines from multiple points of view, I have to admit it took me a few too many chapters to get into the rhythm of the story. The characters are diverse with the main character seemingly telling this story from either a drunken haze or with a wee bit of mania attached.

Bouncing in between timelines, and from character to character, is admittedly a bit difficult. But once I hunkered down and just powered through, the story became much more clear. Short reading stints are not recommended! IMOHO

This is a murder investigation/mystery from a PI point of view. The author also incorporates seemingly random character points of view as well with minuscule details that circle back the deeper we progress into the story.

The author does not shy away from vivid, gruesome detail, and his imagery is cringe-worthy at some points. This book is definitely not one you read quickly, but one that you have to go with the flow and not overanalyze. The plot plays out as it unfolds layer by layer.

I have to say I felt bad for the main character, Bronze. He is a twisted soul with an amazing heart buried deep inside. The author depicts him perfectly. He is wounded and does not want to inflict that on those he cares about.

The other characters all offer key pieces to the overall plot in subtle detail which will come together at the explosive ending.

Blood and Mascara is a stunning murder mystery full of spins and detail which keeps the reader off balance in a slow methodical method. Take time to absorb and read between the lines. It is twisty and confusing, yet an intricate story with multiple timelines and pov’s. Gory and raw. Brilliant in its own way – this one is art.

“On the dotted line I’m Calvin Goldberg. People called me Cal until the ’76 Olympics. After I got the bronze, well, someone thought Bronze Goldberg sounded funny.”

Blood and Mascara was a story with all the noir hallmarks, a seemingly broken down PI, women at every turn, murder, and mystery. The first half felt a little lighter blue noir as we get to know our PI Bronze, he's traveled a heck of a road, from a Judo bronze medalist, to an investigative reporter who solved a serial killer case, to only be almost killed by that killer, to alcoholism to cope with what he saw, fired from his job, to four years of sobriety and working as a PI. There's a sense of hope through Bronze as he has been sober for a while and building up romance between him and his upstairs landlady, Iris. This all gets derailed though, when an adultery case he was working on has Bronze the last man to see a congressman alive before he was murdered. Suddenly, he's working with his old detective friend Roth, and the FBI as they try to untangled a mystery that could involve an international hitman called “The Machine”, which leads into a second half that skips right over gritty and into dark noir.

Of course it wouldn’t balance the scales. Not even a little bit. (There was no one watching the scales.) (There were no scales.)

As with any good noir, the atmosphere is key, set in 1997 Washington D.C., most of the atmosphere is felt through the characterization and writing style. Bronze smokes his cigarettes, with alcohol always haunting, and he has his share of women playing roles in his life. This had multiple character povs, with Iris getting the second most to Bronze, and she supplied her own brand of world weary, with wanting to keep changes in her writing career, being middle aged, and deciding if she actually wanted Bronze, or the idea of him. The story is laced through with more and more information to what lead to Bronze becoming an alcoholic and losing his job, the final massacre committed by the serial killer, but we don't get the full picture until the end. This story utilized the style of focusing on a character to only fade out to a flashback to give another puzzle piece to why they are the way they are, if you're a timeline linear reader, you'd probably struggle.

You’re young and in pain. Then you’re old and hopeless.

With the flashbacks that were giving us character pieces, the main murder mystery is playing out and comes fully into play in the second half. It was a bit convoluted with some moving parts but things come into focus as Roth, Bronze, and Iris hone in with their investigation. I thought the ending moment where Roth info dumps the hows and whys of the tale felt unneeded, by that time it was pretty clear what had happened and this felt a little dumbing down. What I also felt wasn't needed, was the serial killer's pov as he commits the massacre. We're all aware of how these men feel about women, I didn't need to sit so long in his thought manifesto, which felt less like character development and more gratuitous. Between this and Bronze's “awe of women” that he mentally hashes through, I was somewhat worn out on how women were being discussed; it's not enough to make you put the book down, but, being a woman myself, it's an exhaustion that I don't search out to feel in fiction.

The main character in a story must believe in a lie. The big lie that will come undone in the end.

The ending gave us a ramping up that flew back and forth between life and death situations, answered all the questions, and after all the dark and grisly, returned to it's more beginning little light with some hope. I enjoyed feeling the noir atmosphere, the mystery came close to having one too many knots, but Bronze was a character that was memorable and I'd go with him anytime on an investigation.

I could not get into this book. I didn’t like the writing style, wandering descriptions that slowed everything down

Aggressively not-for-me™. This book started off great and I loved the prose, but I also quickly realized that as much as I found it intriguing I wouldn't be able to stomach how meandering/philosophical it is, which was so disappointing because the classic noir style was awesome.
I'm sure this book will find its readers, and I'm sad to not be a part of their group.

Thankyou Netgalley/pulplit for the ARC.
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This review was posted to Goodreads and Storygraph without a star rating.

Thank you to NetGalley and pulplit for the eARC in exchange for my honest review.

This book is a dark film noir esque read set in DC in the late 90s. But you wouldn't know it was set in the 90s at all, which is a shame because this could have been a key feature within the plot. Instead, the book (especially the first half) is almost 2/3s backstory. There is so much backstory that I lost track of the main plot. I was also easily confused between many of the secondary characters and their involvement in the main story. Finally, I'm not keen on excessive verbage. If something could be described in 20 words, in Blood & Mascara it was described in 200 words.

I wanted to love this, but I just couldn't get into it.

2.5 stars rounded up to 3.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with a copy of this book as an e-ARC.

Overall, it is an enjoyable read. I really enjoyed the poetic prose and the noir mystery of the story.

If you enjoy a fast-paced novel, this might not be quite the book for you. The story's start is pretty slow-paced and picks up about halfway through. I was glad to be reading this book on an e-reader because there were quite a lot of characters to keep track of and at times, I found myself having to use the search function to remember who was who.

The characters are well-crafted and multi-dimensional. But here is the thing, I just didn't like any of the characters 😕 I just... I don't know, as I said, the characters' work was well done but I just really couldn't get myself to like any of them. Or even enjoy the fact that... I didn't like them 🤷‍♀️ I'm really struggling to explain the why/how, etc. It just didn't click.

I did like it though, not to the point of raving about it, but still a nice read ☺️