- Hardcover: 233 pages
- Publisher: Bleak House Books (April 2007)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 1932557415
- ISBN-13: 978-1932557411
- Product Dimensions: 22.9 x 15.2 x 2.8 cm
- Shipping Weight: 386 g
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #1,518,361 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Publishers Weekly
Set in late 1980s New York City, Coleman's gritty fourth Moe Prager mystery is somewhat less surprising and realistic than its acclaimed predecessor, The James Deans (2005), which won Shamus, Barry and Anthony awards. Prager, an ex-cop turned PI, has a cryptic encounter with his old friend Larry McDonald, the NYPD chief of detectives. Larry slips him a covertly recorded tape of an interrogation of a snitch claiming to know the secret behind the murder of Dexter Mayweather, a major-league drug dealer in the early 1970s. When McDonald himself turns up an apparent suicide, Prager calls in a variety of favors from old friends to sift the truth behind Mayweather's death, even as his marriage hits a lull, leaving him vulnerable to an attractive young Hispanic detective. Less sharply written than earlier books, this effort builds to a fairly predictable solution. (Apr.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Book Description
Winner of the Shamus Award. Nominated for the Edgar, Macavity, and Barry awards.
"Reed Farrel Coleman is a terrific writer . . . a hard-boiled poet. . . . If life were fair, Coleman would be as celebrated as [George] Pelecanos and [Michael] Connelly."—Maureen Corrigan, NPR's Fresh Air
Ex-NYPD cop turned PI and entrepreneur Moe Prager is faced with a gut-wrenching case. The apparent suicide of his old friend and NYPD chief of detectives Larry McDonald forces Moe back onto the decaying Coney Island streets he patrolled when he was in uniform. But now, beneath the boardwalk and behind the rusted and crumbling rides of the midway, he finds a trail of death, betrayal, and corruption reaching back to 1972.
This new edition features:
- New foreword by best-selling crime writer Craig Johnson (Junkyard Dogs)
- New afterword by Reed Farrel Coleman
Reed Farrel Coleman has published twelve novels, including two under his pen name Tony Spinosa, and Tower, co-authored with Ken Bruen. He has been twice nominated for the Edgar Award and is a three-time winner of the Shamus Award. Reed is the former executive vice president of Mystery Writers of America and was the editor of the anthology Hard Boiled Brooklyn. The sixth Moe Prager novel, Innocent Monster, will be published by Tyrus Books in October 2010. Reed is an adjunct professor in creative writing at Hofstra University, and he lives with his family on New York's Long Island.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
4.2 out of 5 stars (12 customer reviews)
22 of 22 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Crais and Coburn meet Hammett, May 15 2007
By Richard A. Mitchell "Rick Mitchell" - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Soul Patch (Paperback)
A lot of authors have been touted as the second coming of Dashiel Hammett, but Coleman comes closest for me. He has all the grit of Hammett, but has the personally developed main character that Crais and Coburn do so well.Moe Prager is an ex-cop turned wine salesman who would much rather be detecting than sipping and selling. When an old "friend" comes for help, bodies start turning up and his may be next. The plot is a good one with enough uncertainty throughout to keep the pages turning.
It is the characters that sets this book apart. Moe is rich and believeable. His observations (the book is written in the first person) about other characters in the book resonate with believability. We have all known people just like the characters in this mystery.
The setting is Brooklyn in the late 1980's and Coleman captures the tone of that decade well.
Frankly, I do not understand why Coleman is not a best-selling author. He is a winner of the Shamus Award and other prizes for his predecessor book, "The James Deans". This was my first Coleman/Moe Praeger book, but I'm going back to the bookstore for his others. This is highly recommended.
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Soul of Reed, April 11 2007
By B. G. Ritts "Old Beeg" - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Soul Patch (Paperback)
This is the first Moe Prager book I've read, and I love the spare but gritty prose Mr. Coleman uses. I liked Moe from the beginning, and his apparent marital problems set up the possibility that an attractive detective he ends up working with will turn his head a bit further than appropriate.I'm not familiar with Brooklyn, but I liked the feel of the place where the book is set. There are enough twists and turns in the story to keep people busy guessing what's next, and toward the end, when I thought I had an idea what might be coming, I so wanted it to be true.
I own two other of Mr. Coleman's books and they have been moved way up on my stack of books waiting to be read. The soul of a poet shimmers in this book, and that's very good for those of us who read it.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Coleman's Best Yet!, Jun 2 2007
By A. Pasternak - Published on Amazon.com
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Soul Patch (Paperback)
Not to diminish Coleman's earlier work -- they've all been great all the way back to his first, Dylan Klein novel, 'Life Goes Sleeping' from 1991 -- but he's really hit his stride with 'Soul Patch'. The plotting and twists are creative and non-stop, and his characters are completely alive and ones you care about -- though not always favorably. Moe Prager's empathy with some of the biggest losers is offset by his disdain for many of the other respectable and powerful. Moe himself is one the reader really comes to care about, and I can't wait for his next appearance. This fourth entry in the Moe Prager series is outstanding, dark and gritty and everything one could hope for from a crime novel. There are numerous references to plots of the previous three in the series, but that shouldn't deter you from reading this as a starting point. I'll be surprised if there's a better crime novel this year. Reed Farrel Coleman is as good as it gets! We'll be hearing a lot more from him.
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