100 Must-Read Works of Noir (Book Riot, 11/9/2016) - The Kept Girl is listed alongside classics by Raymond Chandler, Margaret Millar, Patricia Highsmith, Donald Goines, David Goodis, Donald E. Westllake, Ross MacDonald, James M. Cain, Dorothy B. Hughes, Jim Thompson, Dashiell Hammett, Leigh Brackett, Horace McCoy and some fine contemporary scribes.
City of Angles: Raymond Chandler Takes on Religious Hucksters "Commendable... Cooper says she’s thinking about writing a sequel to The Kept Girl. I hope she does." (Kirkus Reviews, 2/4/14)
Angels With Dirty Hands interview with Kirkus columnist J. Kingston Pierce (The Rap Sheet, 2/4/14)
Knack (Belgium) review - Lukas De Vos writes (in Dutch) that he quite likes the book, though he quibbles with the American preference for a happy ending and would have omitted the final chapter.
The Hedonist Jive review - Jay Hinman says of The Kept Girl, "It’s brisk, it’s funny and it’s as bright and clever a genre read as I’ve come across."
Recommended bookstore reading, L.A. Weekly - David Cotner says this crowd-funded mystery is "a refreshing way to foster a literate community of like-minded Angelenos."
Featured review for LAPL Reads - Robert Anderson, Librarian, Literature & Fiction Department, says "Kim Cooper creates a fascinating, believable portrait of Los Angeles just before the Great Depression. Her characterizations are particularly adept, ranging from the various schemers, loonies, and perverts who populate the Great Eleven to her three flawed but sympathetic protagonists."
What I'm Reading - Comics creator André Sirangelo says The Kept Girl is "one of those stories that can give writers a serious case of premise-envy: It follows a young Raymond Chandler and the real-life guy who inspired Philip Marlowe investigating a murderous cult called The Great Eleven in 1929 Los Angeles. Kim is one of the geniuses behind LA's 'Esotouric' bus tours, and her knowledge of the city's weird lore is unbelievable."
What would Raymond Chandler do? - Michael Paraskos says "If the inclusion of the erstwhile master of the genre, Raymond Chandler, as a fictonalised character in a pastiche 1930s detective novel is a bit of a gimmick, it is a nice gimmick.... While the language and setting are not really Chandleresque, the book has a life and vitality of its own which makes it a compelling read." (The Spectator, 5/3/14)
No Big Sleep for Raymond Chandler: In Dick Lochte's survey of posthumous literary riffs on Chandler and Philip Marlowe, The Kept Girl is called an "intricate incorporation.. a clever fiction... [that] takes the reader back to a lovingly researched and presented 1929 Los Angeles." (Los Angeles Review of Books, 4/19/14)
Arena Crime Writing: On Irish RTÉ Radio One, Declan Burke reviews The Kept Girl alongside Benjamin Black's new Philip Marlowe novel, The Black Eyed Blonde. The Kept Girl section begins around 4:40 minutes in.
Con Artists and True Believers: J.C. Gabel interviews LA historian and author Kim Cooper. (Los Angeles Review of Books, 4/5/14)
The Kept Girl and other bits of Los Angeles: Frazgo calls The Kept Girl "a wonderful book" and reports from the LAVA Sunday Salon where Kim Cooper and cover illustrator Paul Rogers presented. (Blogging L.A., 4/2/14)
A round-up of the best new crime thrillers: Declan Burke says The Kept Girl is "a neat counterpoint to Benjamin Black’s new Philip Marlowe novel, The Black Eyed Blonde... the story is crisply realised... There are no hardboiled, quip-happy heroes here; instead we get a realistic appraisal of a difficult investigation in a fascinating time and place." (Irish Times, 3/29/14)
Book Notes - Kim Cooper "The Kept Girl": "Pitch-perfect dialogue and an exacting evocation of 1920s Los Angeles make Kim Cooper's debut novel The Kept Girl an engaging work of literary noir."(Largehearted Boy, 3/7/14)
On The Books: Literary Critic David Kipen on What’s Caught His Eye: "a voice-perfect 1920s mystery." (Los Angeles Magazine, 3/4/14)
Review by Kristen Valentine: "This novel is great fun. Effortlessly told in a Chandler-esque style, capturing the glitter and buzz of 1920’s L.A. like a master, The Kept Girl reads like a pulp classic without coming off as self-consciously trying to be one." (Black Heart Magazine, 2/22/14)
Kim Cooper on 'The Kept Girl,' her 1920s L.A. noir (Los Angeles Times Jacket Copy, 2/12/14)
A Conversation with Mystery Author Kim Cooper (Omnimystery News, 2/4/14)
Kim Cooper’s Noir Novel Is Inspired by Raymond Chandler (Book Dirt, 2/3/14)
Debunking the Myth of Raymond Chandler's Perfect Marriage (Hardboiled Wonderland, 2/2/14)
An Interview with Kim Cooper (Deranged LA Crimes, 2/1/14)
Foreplay (Dublin Review of Books, 1/22/14)
Be On The Lookout: Eight Tales to Warm You Up for the New Year. "Acknowledging my sad lack of superhuman reading skills, I... have come up with eight novels... that I really want to spend some time with before springtime arrives in the Northern Hemisphere." (Kirkus Review, 12/24/13)
Advance praise for The Kept Girl
"Holy cats, this woman can write! Kim Cooper's The Kept Girl evokes 1920s Los Angeles in general and especially Raymond Chandler magnificently, without ever stooping to mere ventriloquism. It abounds in grace notes, snappy character sketches and, yes, similes that keep their dignity even in the presence of the master.... Still, Cooper is the real thing. Like Marlowe working outside the law, she chooses to work beyond traditional publishing channels. But, also like Chandler, she writes rings around most of what New York is turning out."
David Kipen, editor of The WPA Guide to Los Angeles
Matthew Specktor, author of American Dream Machine
"Kim Cooper is the perfect Virgil to 1929 Los Angeles, a city that was both a paradise and an inferno. Her knowledge of the city that was is unparalleled, her imagination unnerving. The real-life characters and crimes that would give birth to the pulp fiction of the 1930s and the film noir of the 1940s can all be found here. Aficionados of noir Los Angeles will read The Kept Girl with fascination and with growing horror as the terrible crime at its core is revealed."
"Before Raymond Chandler became LA's crime laureate, he was an LA oil company executive. Inspired by this historic nugget, Kim Cooper, social historian and co-founder of Esotouric, spins Chandler's early LA years, a sinister 1920s angel-worshipping cult, an LAPD cop and a heroine who is much more than a 'kept girl' into a deeply researched and compulsively readable crime novel."
Period Peace (Hardboiled Wonderland, 12/9/13)
John Buntin, author of L.A. Noir
"Before Raymond Chandler became LA's crime laureate, he was an LA oil company executive. Inspired by this historic nugget, Kim Cooper, social historian and co-founder of Esotouric, spins Chandler's early LA years, a sinister 1920s angel-worshipping cult, an LAPD cop and a heroine who is much more than a 'kept girl' into a deeply researched and compulsively readable crime novel."
Denise Hamilton, author of Damage Control
Press clips and mentions
BE ON THE LOOKOUT: EIGHT TALES TO WARM YOU UP FOR THE NEW YEAR (Kirkus, 12/24/13): "[I] have come up with eight novels—all to be released in U.S. bookshops—that I really want to spend some time with before springtime arrives in the Northern Hemisphere..."
Subscribe to THE KEPT GIRL, a noir novel by Kim Cooper (Silver Birch Press blog, 12/28/13)
A Very Kim Cooper Xmas (HiLoBrow, 12/16/13)
Berlin to Bangkok – 11 new crime releases (Crime Fiction Lover, 12/13/13): On the Radar —"Expect a very high profile launch campaign for this title early next year. The main, and frankly intriguing, selling point is not that the book is set in 1929 Los Angeles, nor that it is yet another homage to a certain Chicago-born alumni of Dulwich College. No, in the year that the Graf Zeppelin flew into LA from Japan, and Wall Street well and truly crashed, we are faced with a sinister cult of murderers who claim that they are doing the bidding of angels. Up against them is a young writer called Raymond Chandler, helped by a determined young police officer with a smart mouth and and a world weary philosophy. Remind you of anyone?"BE ON THE LOOKOUT: EIGHT TALES TO WARM YOU UP FOR THE NEW YEAR (Kirkus, 12/24/13): "[I] have come up with eight novels—all to be released in U.S. bookshops—that I really want to spend some time with before springtime arrives in the Northern Hemisphere..."
Subscribe to THE KEPT GIRL, a noir novel by Kim Cooper (Silver Birch Press blog, 12/28/13)
A Very Kim Cooper Xmas (HiLoBrow, 12/16/13)
Period Peace (Hardboiled Wonderland, 12/9/13)
