DETOUR: An Extraordinary Tale

Two not very pleasant people in a not very pleasant tale, hard-boiled and sordid, without the gusto of Cain to pull it off. It has some dramatic value and a certain vitality, but it doesn't classify as important. The story of a jobless violinist, and a would be movie star, told in parallel chapters. An accident to the driver of the car which Alex has ridden part of the way to the Coast, gives him a chance to impersonate the dead man; he gets involved with a girl, who turns blackmailer, kills her and escapes.... The parallel story is of Sue, a waitress, of her affair with a small bit actor, of her launching on a screen career. Obviously not for conservatives.