House on Lily Street, The-Jack Vance mystery novel, book review

House on Lily Street, The-Jack Vance mystery novel

This novel was written in 1958 by the amazingly talented science fiction and fantasy writer Jack Vance.  Vance also published fourteen “mystery” novels, but this is not one of his better ones and can only be recommended to the most devoted Vance fans.  Published initially in 1979 but long out of print, The House on Lily Street was reissued by Spatterlight Press in late 2017 in an excellent, 181 page, high quality paperback.  All Vance fans should be thankful to Spatterlight for reissuing these out of print Vance works which were previously only available as expensive collector's items.

 

The setting of the novel is in Berkeley and Oakland, California in the 1950s when the beat generation was at its height.  It involves the investigation of a missing welfare worker who seems to have been investigating extortion reports from his clients.  The plot is weak and it has almost none of Vance's brilliant dialog, wry humor or engaging intrigues or plots.  There are some awkward time shifts but these are easy enough to follow.  It does have some character development and the investigation is mildly engaging.  But overall this is one of the least interesting of Vance's novels, thus the brevity of this review.  The House on Lily Street is recommended only to Vance completists.  I’ve read all of Vance’s novels multiple times and this is my least favorite of them.  Having read it three times, I don’t plan to read it again.  I rated it a 3- which means barely liking it.