Synopsis/Details
Writer's block can be deadly.
For troubled novelist RAY COBURN, it's about to set in permanently. As he goes from staring at a blank page in his typewriter to being stared down by shadowy assassins, his lurid past in Macau, China, flashes before his eyes with an exclamation point. An execution style murder follows, leaving him face down in his QWERTY keyboard.
Rain. Coffee. Heroin... Welcome to Seattle.
Detective LOU CARTER has seen better days. Facing retirement and battling lung cancer, he is suddenly face to face with the man who killed his son 12 years earlier, triad kingpin WONG KAR KOI. All the pieces are in place, a buy and bust sting operation set up by DEA task force seems set to finally nab the heroin smuggling killer for good.
But things take a sudden turn for the worse when Koi abruptly kidnaps an agent at gun point, thus beginning a wild shoot-out and spectacular chase along the crowded waterfront that concludes with Koi's fiery death.
In the aftermath of this high profile spectacle, Carter is transferred to Homicide and teamed with a new partner, out of the blue-- Meet RODDY McGILL. A flashy transplant from London, Scotland Yard's brightest superstar inspector, an adrenaline junkie with a rock n roll lifestyle.
Their first case: The murder of the mysterious Coburn; A man who had many 'identities', a heroin habit, and a penchant for 'researching' his novels so thoroughly that it may have finally gotten him in over his head.
As more bodies with the same MO turn up in the morgue, Carter and Roddy's case begins to overlap with several current DEA investigations, including a high stakes deal with a major triad player. All the cards are on the table. All signs point to Koi. But,...he's dead.
Or is he?
In Macau they called him "The Devil King", the joker in a deck of cards. Brutal. Flamboyant. Clever. And now, Carter's curiosity is piqued. With Roddy's devil may care urging, and a roll of the dice, they are off to Las Vegas with 400 kilos of heroin borrowed from DEA evidence to try and set up another sting and perhaps raise Koi's hungry ghost from hiding. The moment of truth is at hand and Roddy's meeting with a confidential informant is a go. But Carter's illness suddenly overcomes him and he collapses, blacking out. When he awakes in a hospital bed 3 days later...Roddy is gone. The heroin is gone.
But the con is very much on.
Forced off the police force in humiliation, Carter is facing his own mortality, his chance at nabbing Koi seeming all but lost. Alone with just Coburn's dog-eared manuscript, he begins to read, between the lines.
As the final chapter begins, Carter turns the page one more time and is off to Macau, China, on his own dime and playing by his own rules as he battles DEA deceptions and Triad assassins every step of the way. The stage is set for a showdown at a racetrack where Roddy's ultimate hidden agenda is exposed.
Truth may be stranger than the fiction. That is, if you can beat the blues.
*************THE REVIEWS are in on SMITH CORONA BLUES*************
"A great cinema-noir cop thriller hybrid that pays off very well... a great visual read... Truly a great combination of action/noir genres... The climactic confrontation has a great twist..."
************************
"This was incredible! This screenplay is the best one I've read on this website! It is fast paced, well written and the dialogue is really good. This has the makings of a "Lethal Weapon" screenplay. It was well thought out and well conceived. The action is well done and I couldn't put the story down once I started reading it. Great job! I look forward to reading many more written by you!"
************************
"Smith Corona Blues is a crime story, in which an aging detective, ailing from cancer, sets out to take revenge on the man who killed his son. As he and his new partner work their way through a tangled web of misinformation and murder, he proves that nothing, not even death, is what it seems... OVERALL: Script is tightly plotted, with complimentary A and B stories and effective plot twists and reversals and a satisfying pay off... CHARACTER: Detective Lou Carter, the hero, straddles the line between wise-cracking, salt-of-the-earth cop, a la Die Hard's John MacLean, and obsessed avenger, a la The French Connection's Popeye Doyle... Roddy McGill, the detective's comical partner, on loan from the United Kingdom, is charming within the story as well as on the page. His colorful, idiomatic vocabulary is authentic and hilarious... PLOT: The story is tightly plotted. Highlights include: the B story, an investigation into a writer's murder, connecting shockingly with the A story about Carter's pursuit of a crime lord; and a series of reversals working equally well, the most delightful being the revelation of McGill's relationship to the murdered writer... QUALITY OF WRITING: Overall, the writing is snappy and appropriate. Striking visual descriptions make for an enjoyable read... CINEMATIC QUALITY: Urban rain imagery, along with the above-mentioned punchy visual description, is a source of production value, as is the peppering of compelling action. The scope of the story is fundamentally grounded in the crime and detective genre and, given today's difficult, high-rolling film investment market, the story may be most appropriate for the present at least for TV and Cable."
************************
"I liked the story... It was a typical who-done-it, drugs-for-money-for weapons-story, with some twists and turns along the way... I thought the whole thing came together well... The writing, the characters, the story, the plot, basically everything was done well... It was a brain teaser about who the good guys and who the bad guys were from the begining to the end... All in all I thought is was well done... "
************************
"SMITH CORONA BLUES is a neat "who-done-it" with a lot of intrigue, action and several good twists."
************************
"Overall there's a lot I liked here. It was a good fast read and ride with enough character development to make me care... Roddy pops from the page... I wanted to follow him, but only in the way you keep watching a car going way too fast... The action was well written... Good clean writing. You know how to get in late and get out early... It felt original enough and yet familiar, which is good. Putting some of it in Seattle was great. Cinematic Quality: No complaints. It read
like a movie with good visuals. As I said, the action moved well... keep up the great work! Someone's gonna bite soon!"
************************
"One of the unique qualities is the Seattle locale, rarely used for crime films. The waterfront is a great backdrop to a chaotic gun battle and chase scene. Another original concept is the smart British detective as ladies man. The sportscar-driving, snakeskin-boot-wearing character of Roddy could be written for Colin Farrell or perhaps Jason Statham... the third act adds international intrigue by being set in Macau, China... "
************************
"It appears to be told from the POV of it's author, who is dead, but his tome becomes evidence to untangle the messy espionage web at the beginning of act 3. The resulting atmosphere is more Ian Fleming than Guy Ritchie... The first three pages are a frenzy of action, jumping back and forth from Coburn's writing fantasy world (as it were) to his grim reality and then back to the incident that may have provoked the attack on him. It's quite exciting... Reality, fantasy and
memory collide in real time. Then there are pages of chase and fight action that is rousing and written taut and clean... The story forms a moebius pattern as the cops investigate the murder of the author of our story... More great action rounds out the story, with a killer last line from Roddy... I just had an overall good time reading this, for what that is worth. I wish you luck... "
*************************************************************************************************
