Soul Patch

definitely worth it's placement as a nominee for the Edgar. i love thrillers and mysteries, my husband - not so much. I recommended this one to him and even he loved it as much as i did.

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.

Moe Prager turns in his NYPD detective's badge to open a wine store with his brother. He does it as a favor to his wife and daughter, and maybe to himself. He wants to lead a normal life and enjoy regular hours, more money and less stress. His deal with his brother is that if something interesting comes along or a friend needs his help, he can do a little private eyeing on the side. Not that this happens very often --- maybe once or twice a year --- but it's good to be able to help out old friends. Sometimes, showing up for work everyday to fill out orders and take the money to the bank gets kind of dull. His deal with his wife is another thing, and the change in careers isn't having the results on a shaky marriage they both had hoped for. Maybe predictable isn't all it's cracked up to be. The wine store business is so good that Moe and his brother are holding a grand opening for their third shop. Larry McDonald, his old pal from Precinct 6-0, shows up for the festivities. Moe is glad to see that Larry is now Chief of Detectives with the NYPD, though Larry is there for business purposes rather than to party. Larry pulls Moe into a side room, presses a tape recording into his hand and asks him to listen to it. Then he disappears. What Moe hears on the tape --- the questioning of a low-level drug dealer by two cops --- will lead to digging up, quite literally, a cold case in a murder committed under the Coney Island boardwalk over 20 years ago. The unsolved killing of an informant may involve too many people in Moe and Larry's circle of past friends and colleagues. It will turn deadly for some who are still around. SOUL PATCH is a classic hard-boiled detective drama containing crisp, often amusing observances and sardonic delivery with echoes of Dashiell Hammett. The story moves briskly from crime to denouement, passing through a colorful panorama of locations, subplots and flashbacks without the author's clearly-defined characters ever breaking stride. Every once in a while a writer comes along who makes the mystery fan sit up and take notice. Reed Farrel Coleman is the past winner of several coveted mystery awards --- including the Shamus, Barry and Anthony awards --- who has honed his writing style and plotting skills to a sharp edge. Maybe you've already read the previous three books in the Moe Prager series. I hadn't. In fact I had never even heard of them, but they're on order now. Give me more Moe! --- Reviewed by Roz Shea

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.

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.