Ghosts Of Morning: Amazon.ca: Richard Barre: Books

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Book Description

Release Date: Dec 12 2012

In his Shamus Award-winning first novel, The Innocents, Richard Barre introduced audiences to Wil Hardesty, a private eye with a deep, dark past--and an uncertain future. In The Ghosts of Morning, Barre plunges further into Wil's history, to a far off place where murder and friendship collide.

#outer_postBodyPS { display: none; } #psGradient { display: none; } #psPlaceHolder { display: none; } #psExpand { display: none; } In his Shamus Award-winning first novel, The Innocents, Richard Barre introduced audiences to Wil Hardesty, a private eye with a deep, dark past--and an uncertain future. In The Ghosts of Morning, Barre plunges further into Wil's history, to a far off place where murder and friendship collide.

Product Details

Hardcover: 1 pages
Publisher: Prime Crime (TRD) (Dec 12 2012)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0425163008
ISBN-13: 978-0425163009
Product Dimensions: 23.1 x 15.7 x 3 cm
Shipping Weight: 3.2 Kg

Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (10 customer reviews)

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Product Description

From Amazon

In Richard Barre's The Ghosts of Morning, a homicide that exploded the glorious sun, surf, and beach-party youth of two teenage surfers in still-golden Southern California reemerges to haunt the lives of the survivors.

Wil Hardesty, Vietnam vet, ex-surfer and ex-husband (introduced in Barre's Shamus-winning The Innocents) is sucked into the intrigues of a wealthy and powerful family, the Van Zants. Denny Van Zant, Wil's mentor and friend in the Southern California surfing fraternity, enlisted in the Vietnam-era Marines to escape allegations of a homicide cover-up and died in the bloody assault on Hue. Now, however, his mother has received an anonymous letter. Denny is alive, and for a large sum of money, he can be found. She needs an investigator. Hardesty, pulled into the investigation by gratitude for past kindnesses, finds himself ensnared and finally endangered by the opposing claims of loyalty, love, and, finally, the truth.

Barre's well-crafted narrative propels a believably human Hardesty into the worlds of news reporting, police investigations, body builders, dingy seaside motels, and a haunted post-Vietnam bivvy for burnouts outside Hilo, Hawaii. Amid escalating violence, each puzzle Hardesty solves raises new questions. He moves inexorably toward a final confrontation in the penthouse of an L.A. office tower, looking down on the glittering lights and dark shadows of his city and his past. --Barbara Schlieper

From Kirkus Reviews

As in both previous outings (The Innocents, 1995; Bearing Secrets,1996), Wil Hardesty, passionate surfer, professional sleuth, plunges into the past to solve a modern-day mystery. This time, though, its his own past to which attention must be paid. Way back when, the teenaged Wil and Van Zant kids were inextricably connected. Start with Denny Van Zant, exciting, courageous, knowing, everything a 17-year-old best friend should be. Its Denny, after all, who teaches Wil to surf. And while Denny is doing that, his kid sister, Trina, is offering instruction of another sort to Wil. These prove to be satisfactory arrangements all around until the day young Carmen Marquez is found murdered, a knife in her chest. Pregnant Carmen. Carmen from the wrong side of the tracks. The Van Zants, of course, are very definitely from the privileged side, and as the murdered girls boyfriend, Denny inevitably heads the suspect list. With the case against him still in its formative stage, however, the Van Zants hustle him off to join the Marines. But you dont outwit Fate that easily. In Vietnam, Denny is killed in action. Or is he? There are those who dont think so. Among them is Dennys mother, who hires Wil to prove her right. And while hes at it, she wants him to clear her son of Carmens long-ago murder. From there on, the plot twists and turns ferociously, though not always persuasively. The ubiquitous drug lord makes a wearisome entrance, for instance, paving the way for an overly familiar Grand Guignol climax. Trying for noir, Barre too readily crosses into melodrama. Writers who do that pay a price: Its hard to take them seriously. -- Copyright ©1998, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Customer Reviews

Most helpful customer reviews

3.0 out of 5 stars GOOD CHARACTER---NOT SO GOOD BOOK!!!!!! Feb 17 2002

By Mac Blair

Format:Mass Market Paperback

I have read three books about Wil Hardesty. I really like the character. That is the only reason I gave it a three. Did not really like this book. Not as good as the others I have read. A lot of this was totally unbelieveable. Also, I do not like flashbacks but am sure a lot of people do. Wil is someone I can relate to. He is not superman, he does make mistakes, he does get hurt. There are really two things Hardesty is trying to find out. Is Denny Van Zant still alive and who killed Carmen Marquez. Are they tied together??? Trina Van Zant, name is different after three marriages, leds Wil a merry chase. It all does finally get drawn to a close but I have read better by Barre.

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1.0 out of 5 stars I'm in Mourning Oct 16 2001

By Mike Wilson

Format:Mass Market Paperback

After reading the reviews here on Amazon I decided to buy this book. It was extremely difficult to read the writing is blunt and has no flow to it whatsoever. The characters are shallow (although this is probably because of the writing style) and the language is bad making the characters seem unintelligent.

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4.0 out of 5 stars Fast And Furious Jan 31 2001

By John J. Raspanti

Format:Hardcover

I wouldn't compare Richard Barre to Ross Macdonald or for that matter Raymond Chandler. Macdonald's writing was more subdued and touching, Chandler more witty and crackling, while Barre's is more 'wham bam'..'lets go'.

The Ghosts Of Morning is like that, fast, and twisting, it reminded me of a good action flick. Around page seventy the story really kicks into gear. I didn't find the plot confusing, Barre held it together nicely, injecting little tidbits of information to keep the reader guessing.

The flashbacks scenes are written very well as our hero Will Hardesty, attempts to find some meaning from his past as well as how it connects to his future.

Hardesty is a part-time P.I. hired by his best friends mother to find her son, who everyone has presumed dead for years. Hardesty takes the job as a favor, not realising the depth of the secret's his former friends family has buried.

I agree with some of the other reviews that, some of the charecter's are sketcy and typical, BUT the story moves along so nicely that i just ignored these shortcomings.

A very nice read...enjoy.

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