Hard Hard City [Paperback]

Manhattan Private Eye Terry Orr is still dealing with the death of his wife and son, who have been gone for three years. He has a bright twelve-year-old daughter named Bella who he should be spending more time with and he feels guilty about not doing so. He's got a new relationship going with attorney Julie Giada and he has a problem with commitment, and he has his work. He is a complex man.

One day his daughter's friend, a boy named Daniel Wu asks Terry to investigate the disappearance of Allie Powell, another teen. Terry agrees and before long he's run off the road, shot and and beaten to pulp. This, of course, does not deter him, on the contrary, he works even harder and, of course again, more violence ensues as he digs up some dirty secrets that have sent the boy into hiding. Secrets that could get both him and the boy killed.

Mr. Fusilli has written, in my opinion, a tension filled, character driven book that is a worthy addition to his series. I don't see how anyone who reads mysteries or thrillers could possibly not love this book. I know I did. It's dark, it's got suspense, it's awfully darn good.

Terry Orr tries to live in the present but the past is never more than a seconds thought away. Not that he doesn't have plenty of reason to live in the here and now thanks to his young teenage daughter, Gabriella whom he calls lovingly Bella, her friends, and other things of interest. But, he still feels the loss of his wife Marina and their young son and while he mourns their loss he also never will really know what his wife Marina truly felt and thought.

He used to write and hasn't in a very long time. He used to work as a detective until after his last case when Bella hid his private investigator license in an attempt to protect him from himself. It has been over a month and he really hasn't done much of anything. That is until a friend of hers, Daniel, asks Terry Orr for his help.

Daniel, describing a situation of a friend of a friend deal asks his help in locating a young student by the name of Allie Powell. Allie took classes at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City and hasn't been seen in days. His powerful parents don't seen to know or even care where he is. The Uncle who lives up on the Upper East Side wasn't much help either to Daniel's friend when she went looking for him. Daniel doesn't like the situation at all and thinks it needs to be made clear to the family of the missing student that Allie has friends.

Orr agrees to talk to the Uncle and things quickly get out of hand. Accosted and roughed up repeatedly, Orr works a case that quite clearly no one in the boy's family want him involved with. Beyond the rather strange Uncle and his issues, the parents have an agenda of their own and the welfare of their son seems to be a minor secondary concern. They share their lack of concern over the boy's safety with another group who is looking for him for unknown reasons and don't seem to care who gets hurt in the process. Through it all Orr tries to deal with a current mystery as well as the pain and unresolved questions of his own past.

This fourth novel of the series is a well written and features an interesting multi facetted main character as well as a slew of interesting secondary characters. Relationships matter deeply in the work as does the past. The result is a highly engaging read that could be read as a stand-alone but would definitely be better enjoyed if read in the sequence of the series. The pace of the tale is slow, broken by violent sequences of action at times, and at other times, by digressions regarding past events and motivations. As the story moves forward the real world falls away and the reader becomes enmeshed into this enjoyable and highly entertaining novel.

Kevin R. Tipple © 2005

(real name--way past 13)

I would suggest to anyone reading this particular novel to put on an extra sweater because every page makes your blood a little thinner. Both the city and Terry Orr, run from numbingly cold to red hot. Orr has this one little problem, he only relates to women that can't warm up to him. Those he loves eternally, while those who dare to say that they love him he runs for cover. Usually to thugs who enjoy knocking his block off. Could that be his way of connecting? Why? Of course it's his cold, heartless mother who never tells him what he has done wrong. Maybe its the chunky he stole from the candy store. In this installment, Terry revisits his past because of a half baked assignment from his daughter's young, charmingly warm and wonderful friend. Not her boyfriend, what father could truly love his daughter's boyfriend. Anyway this little excursion leads him back in his imagination to his morose, blue collar childhood, peopled with ineffectual fathers, weird uncles and the evil, crazy mother. Probably the true villian of this little rag to riches saga. He actually travels towards Springsteen country to hook up with the villian who is also from a dismal Jersey town, but who turns to the dark side, makes good and seeks status in all the wrong places. Not like Orr who struggles to overcome his working class roots but retain his soul.

Get off it Orr, tell us about what really is ticking you off so you can get this series in gear. If you haven't already, Mr. Fusilli, read Khaled Hosseini's Kite Runner, a great book about childhood, fathers and sons and absent mothers. This narrator pieces together his past in a way that reverberates through the reader. Break your no reading rule.

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