Customer Reviews

Mission Flats

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4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
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I finished a great book yesterday, William Landay's debut,
_Mission Flats_. Set largely in a fictional Boston neighborhood,
it nevertheless reminded me a lot of Dennis Lehane's PI books.
Landay is a former DA from Boston, so I guess he has the background
to make things ring true.

The book follows police chief Ben Truman, of Versailles (pronounced
"Ver-Sayles"), Maine, as he becomes involved in the investigation of
the murder of a Boston DA in a local lakefront cabin. Ben had been

a promising graduate student in history when he left school to come
back home and help care for his mother, whose Alzheimer's has been
getting worse. Ben's dad, Claude, is the former police chief and
Ben takes a job with the department to give himself something to do.
Given his family, he is quickly made chief, one of the youngest in
the country, and has a fairly liberal attitude to the dispensation
of law and order. He certainly isn't ready for a homicide investigation
and the other investigators are fairly condescending to him. For some
reason, though, he feels a need to stay involved and, with the help of
a retired Boston police detective, John Kelly, he is tutored in the
workings of a real investigation.

Evidence seems to point to a drug dealer, Harold Braxton, who has been
on the radar screens of detectives in the Mission Flats area for many
years, but who has managed to avoid having any charges stick to him.
About 10 years earlier, Braxton was the main suspect in the shooting death
of a Boston policeman during a drug raid, but a complicated series of
incidents lead to the case being dismissed. Now, once again, Braxton is
one of the main suspects in the killing of Bob Danziger, the DA, who might
have been digging into the earlier crime, intending to re-open the investigation.

This was a great, compelling story, with a lot of insider information on how
the police work, particularly in setting up controlled buys, and so forth.
We are schooled in the workings of a major investigation, as well as the
political issues that run a case, along with Ben, who is deceptively naive.
Ben has several secrets of his own that come out in the course of the
investigation and prove to be potential bombshells. The ending, in particular,
is quite a surprise and requires us to completely revise our understanding of
Ben. He's a complicated character and, ultimately, not particularly likeable.
I don't think this will be the first in a series of Ben Truman mysteries.

Still, Landay is a great writer and this is a memorable first novel. If you
like Lehane's Kenzie/Gennaro series, you'll probably like this, too. Highly
recommended.

Although two infamous Boston search warrant cases fuel the plot(as also "The Cinderella Affidavit"), it is the family scenes that carry real power. The ending is a not-unexpected twist, and the author may have tried too many plot elements, but he shows real potential and his next work is anxiously awaited.

From the other Amazon reviews I expected a better novel. This one toys with the reader. The story is a series of well-written vignettes, but the package as a whole doesn't make sense. I think the author wrote it to make various points, but failed to write a coherent, believable story.

Ben Truman is a police chief of a small town in Maine. A college graduate, Ben had high hopes of being a history professor but was drawn back to his hometown to care for his mother suffering from Altzheimer's. Now, as police chief, he performs the same tasks his overbearing father did years before. Ben's world is shattered, in a sense, when the body of a murdered man is found in a remote cabin by the lake. The investigation brings in the feds and involves the Boston Police in that the victim was a district attorney in Boston. Ben feels compelled to help in the investigation especially when through a few strange twists, he finds himself one of the suspects. His search takes him into the grittier sections of Boston and, of course, personal danger to himself .
MISSION FLATS is one of the most compelling character rich debut crime novels of the year. William Landay is a former assistant DA who has now turned to writing full time. Lucky us! This is a novel that will be highly praised and should be in line for all the major awards. It is beautifully written with descriptions that evoke the setting flawlessly. Characters such as Ben Truman are rendered with such care that the reader will feel they truly exist. The supporting cast are rendered with equal attention to detail. William Landay has attempted to write a literary mystery and in that he succeeds handily. When talk is of transcending the genre, MISSION FLATS should come to mind. It is a lengthy work but readers will not mind in that no words are wasted in the details. This is easily one of the best novels of the year and one worth seeking out.

This is the only audio book that I've listened to twice, but it was so good the first time that I couldn't resist. Author Landay is an excellent writer who has a knack for describing things in such a way that the reader (or listener in my case) feels like a fly on the wall of a reality.

Ron Livingston (he has starred in several movings including my personal favorite, "Office Space") reads the book and is one of the best narrators I've ever heard. He develops a different voice and accent (most of the characters in the book are from Boston so accents are an important part of the dialog) for each of the many characters and does a fabulous job of acting the scenes.

The combination of Landay's writing and Livingston's reading puts this book on the very top of my favorites list. Worth every penny I spent and more!

This novel is as close to crime fiction perfection as you could want. It has the feeling of Dennis Lehane at his very best but is so very unique and special. I finished the last page ten minutes ago and I am haunted and affected by the characters and the story. This is the mark of a genuine literary experience.
The story is wrapped around a murder of a DA but this central plotline is wrapped in the wonderful family tale of Ben Trueman and his father. The sadness and ultimate unwritten tragedy of their story is deeply affecting. As Ben recounted his mothers last moments I felt as close to him as if he were tangible and real.
There is wit, pathos and suspense in solid measures and the various strands are brought together in a satisfying and credible finish. I am a serving police officer and the feel and tone of Bill Landay's observations about police work are masterly and real. As the truth behind the murder is revealed I was shocked at the facts. This is a contemporary masterpiece and I read a lot of crime fiction. Perfection.

First novels often have to be given some slack as the author learns his or her craft. Wile the overall story can be highly entertaining; one expects weakness in character development, plotting, or in a host of other areas. In this case, that expectation would be totally incorrect. This dark and very well written novel weaves a complex mystery all the way to a shocking end and works on all levels.

Chief Ben Truman runs the very small Police force in Versailles, Maine. He never intended to be in the Police Department let alone following his father's legacy as Police Chief. Things lately haven't been working out as planned. His mother has recently died from complications of Alzheimer's and his Dad, showing signs of his own failing health, has moved in with Ben. Ben is coping with everything the best he can and his life seems to be getting increasingly complicated. Then he finds the body and from the first arrival of the big city cops, loses control of the situation.

The deceased is Robert Danzinger, a powerful District Attorney out of Boston. Among other cases, the deceased was going after Harold Braxton, head of the notorious Mission Posse gang operating out of Mission Felts in Boston. Ben manages to stay involved in the case and the manhunt begins as secrets from twenty years ago are slowly revealed in a hunt for justice.

This is a slow moving dark read that relies mostly on character development to move the story forward. Not only is the character of Ben Truman painstakingly developed, so too are the characters of most of the major as well as minor figures. As each level is built, contradictions begin that begin to cast doubt in the mind of the reader regarding everyone, including Ben.

Wile a couple of minor plot points are telegraphed early, for the most part, the author manages to confuse and misdirect the reader making the ending a staggering shock. Isn't that the point of reading a mystery? Keep the reader guessing, tell one heck of a story with interesting characters, and then surprise the reader with an incredible ending. That is exactly what he does and why it makes this one well worth the read.

Small-town police chief Ben Truman discovers the body of a Boston prosecutor in a deserted cabin. Ben teams up with Boston police to investigate the murder. It leads him to the seedy Mission Flats district where the now-dead prosecutor was investigating several gang-style murders. Before the investigation ends, death and betrayal spanning over twenty years are revealed.

This is a very complex and emotionally involving debut novel from William Landay. The first third of the book was a little slow going because there were three deaths taking place approximately ten years apart. It got a little confusing about which characters belonged to which time period. Once you get all the characters straight you are in for a flawless plot that questions more than just right versus wrong. The characters are colored in shades of gray, rich in dimension, and possess all the frailties of humanity. You never know if they are speaking the truth as they see it or the truth as it really is. Here you have a novel with a plot within a plot and secrets within secrets.

Excellent debut novel. Highly recommended.

an absolutely great read! I recommend it highly!

I always like to be surprised by a debut novel, and when it is a mystery novel, all the better. Mission Flats begins twenty years ago when a cop is murdered in a bar, and his killer commits suicide by jumping off the Tobin Bridge in Boston. Then we go to Versailles, Maine, to the murder of a Boston district attorney, found by Ben Truman, police captain a town where not too much happens. Back and forth to Maine and Boston, until we slowly learn how and why so many characters are linked. The ending was a knock-out surprise, and well done by the author. The mysteries and secrets in this book are exquisite for a debut novel, and you will not be able to rest until you know them all. The mark of a good book for me is that I thought about the characters for hours after I finished the book, and as a voracious reader I was not ready to start a new book until I could let them go.