Empty Ever After

Coleman can take a series farther in fewer books than almost anyone in contemporary crime fiction. Empty Ever After takes the complex life of Moe Prager, a man haunted by multi-generation family problems, and turns it completely upside down. As usual, there is a great plot, which twists and turns in more ways than the reader expects. Two, there is just a great family background in the Prager extended family being developed in this series, and Coleman makes every character seem very alive and real (even the ones who are dead.) Finally, there's a great loop back in the plot to one of his former books (can't say which one without inserting a huge spoiler) that I found both surprising and believable. Moe is a very different plan in a different place at the end of the book. Not since the climax of Charlie Huston's 'Half the Blood in Brooklyn' has a character been thrown out of his comfort zone as Moe is at the end of this book. It will be very interesting to see where the next book takes him.

The author starts with a quote - The past is not dead. In fact, it's not even past.- William Faulkner. As I barreled through this wonderful novel which is also a mystery, I understood the importance of the quote. Reed Farrel Coleman is a wonderful writer. He has created a compelling main character in Moe Prager. Moe is deeply flawed, but his flaws come from misguided judgment rather than from malice. Often he tries to do the right thing, sometimes he does. Other reviewers have provided plot details and background. I prefer to comment on the writing and the characters. For me, great fiction requires great characters. Coleman writes characters who you recognize and who incite opinions. He writes good guys, bad guys, and in-between guys (and gals.) His plot is convoluted, but the plot is merely a road taken for character development. I have now read the last 3 Moe Prager books, and recommend them highly. Somewhat similar authors include: Ian Rankin, George Pelacanos, Michael Connelly, Robert Crais, James Lee Burke. Coleman is not very well know, but he should be. He writes prose which makes you think and care. I would love to meet Moe Prager, and therefore I would love to meet Reed Farrel Coleman.

Moe Prager is a complex man, and Empty Ever After, the newest book in the series of which he is the protagonist, is a complex novel. Moe is an ex-cop and currently a p.i., as well as co-owner of four wine shops in and around New York City. He adores his teenage daughter, Sarah, and has a more or less amicable relationship with his ex-wife, Katy. As he says, "Divorce, no matter how amicable, isn't easy, and Katy, Sarah and I were still in the midst of realigning our hearts to deal with the new tilt of our worlds...Divorce impacts couples in different ways. It's an equation of losses and gains. The gains, however large or small, are usually apparent early on. The losses, as I was discovering, reveal themselves slowly, in painful, unexpected ways." Moe's marriage fell apart when the truth of Katy's brother's death years earlier became known to her, and the fact that Moe had kept that truth a secret for all that time. Moe is called to the grave of Katy's brother, Patrick Michael Maloney, when it is found to have been desecrated, and subsequent events make it apparent that someone is out to hurt, if not destroy, Moe's family. Secrets are a big part of this tale, and the harm that they can do which can far outlive the events that gave rise to them. Moe finds it necessary to search back over the last few decades of his life, and has to "focus on closing chapters in my life." [Vengeance, cemeteries, and `ghosts' all play a part.] He tries to comfort his daughter, distraught at the awful way unfolding events have affected her mother. In the past he had always been able to provide that comfort, but now wonders "Had she finally outgrown the magic...or was it that the magic wouldn't work if the magician no longer believed in his powers?" Mr. Coleman has written a book that is much more than a suspenseful novel - it is a beautifully written work imparting some universal truths. About truth itself, the author says "....the truth doesn't conform to the rules of Sunday school or sermons, to clichés or adages. The truth doesn't always come out in the wash or in the end and it's frequently not for the best. The truth often makes things worse, much worse. The truth can be as much poison as elixir, cancer as cure." It's often moving, and it resonated with me as much as I did partially because I, as Moe, grew up as a Jew living in Brooklyn, with the Belt Parkway part of the backdrop of my life and Shea Stadium part of its fabric, but also because of the very human and well-drawn characterizations. The book, simultaneously issued in hardcover and paperback, is highly recommended. The author has a new book coming out in October from the same publisher, "The Fourth Victim," written under the name of Tony Spinosa , and I cannot wait to read it, as well as the next book in the Moe Prager series.

EMPTY EVER AFTER (PI, Moe Prager, New York, Cont) - Ex Coleman, Reed Farrel - 5th in series Bleak House Books, 2008, US Hardcover - ISBN: 9781932557640 First Sentence: We walked through the cemetery, Mr. Roth's arm looped through mine. PI Moe Prager has secrets he's kept from his wife, now ex-wife. Now those secrets are making themselves known with tragic results. It's Moe's job to find out who hates him so much they want to destroy his life and the lives of those he loves. With each new book by Coleman, I am reminded just how good a writer he is. He is a true stylist and an author whose writing elevates the genre. While his sense of place and dialogue are very strong, he excels at character development. Coleman never assumes the reader has read the previous books in the series, but incorporates the back story in such a way that it becomes part of the plot rather than distract from it. Moe is a complex character but one that has evolved through the series. He is not all static character, but a very realistic one. Moe is Jewish by birth, but not by faith, yet that plays an interesting role in the story and the character. The story is dark, the ending shocking but with an element of hope. Even though one needn't have read the previous books in the Prager series, I recommend starting at the beginning of the series for the joy of reading it, and everything else Coleman has written.

The major secret stayed safe for over twenty years and provided the backbone of a story arc that has traveled the first four novels of the series. The shattering aftermath of the revelation provides the springboard of the current novel as Patrick Maloney won't stay dead and buried. The Maloney family plot has been desecrated and the bones of his ex brother in law, Patrick Maloney are missing. Moses' ex-wife Katy is distraught as one would expect and it is left to Sarah, their now grown daughter, to somehow bridge the distant gap between the parents. In so doing, she contacts Moe and before long, Moe is standing at graveside in the year 2000 inspecting the scene for himself. A former NYPD officer who had to leave the force after a knee injury as well as a rather unorthodox P.I. in the few cases he handled over the years, Moe finds himself at a crossroads in his life. Multiple changes in a relatively short period of time have left him feeling adrift and alone. The desecration of the family plot gives him something to do and a focus for his days. From the beginning, the desecration of the plot which wasn't just limited to the removal of Patrick's body, has him thinking long and hard about his past, the people in it, and the secrets he has kept over the years as well as the secrets he has learned of others. Soon, Moe learns of another grave desecration in Dayton, Ohio this time with links to Patrick and himself. Moe realizes someone is targeting what is left of his family and they are using Katy as a means to get at him. It is working as Katy's mental state worsens due to repeated shocks to her already fragile system. Seeing her dead brother outside of her home and hearing him on the phone pushes her steadily towards the brink of insanity. Moe desperately seeks to find those of the living responsible and to bury the past once and fore all. This book is incredibly disturbing and at the same time a very disturbing read. There is a certain depressing relentless series of events that leads to a shocking conclusion that comes at a total surprise to the reader and yet when the book is finished, inevitable and obvious. It is a book that could serve as a fitting ending to a series and yet could mark a huge turning point and a new way forward in a series. One doesn't know quite how to take this very good book as it could easily go either way. What is very clear is that this book goes into extensive detailed commentary about past events, past cases, and past relationships that have been covered in earlier books in the series. Much of this book goes into such descriptions of past events with the actual event described as well as all the ramifications of the event. Such detailed examination not only allows Moe to consider his past, secrets, and his responsibility but other themes that have been part of the series. In so doing, Author Reed Farrel Coleman continues his history of evolving the Moe Prager character. Unlike some main characters that seem to rem