Trigger City

In fact, the right answer is that you do want to read both of Sean Chercover's books. Later, you can brag how you were reading him before everyone knew it was cool. "Trigger City" buries any doubt that "Big City, Bad Blood" was a fluke. Chercover is clearly a master of the form and PI Ray Dudgeon is going to have a very long life at the top of the "big-dog" pile. Chercover's stuff is just wicked fun to read. As good as he is, I am praying that he has another dozen books out under a pseudonym and that someone leaks the name to me soon.

Sean Chercover's sophomore novel is even better than his awfully-darned-good debut! In this one the characters seemed to have more of an emotional investment in the goings-on...I guess I just felt more involved with them this time around (even though I thoroughly enjoyed "Big City, Bad Blood"). The plot is compelling and always surprising. I also like the author's taste in music. :) Highly recommended!

I stumbled across Chercover's "Big City, Bad Blood" and was so impressed, I subsequently bought and devoured "Trigger City". Chercover is the real deal, an author who has made it to the top of my must read list in only two novels. He masterfully builds his characters and makes you care about them. He is adept at painting word pictures of Chicago so vivid that you think you are there at times. His plotting is tight, concise, and engrossing. Checover creates a Chicago noir with dialogue both spot on and believable. Ray Dudgeon is still recovering from the physical and emotional injuries he suffered in "Big City, Bad Blood" when he reluctantly accepts a case from Isaac Richmond, a retired Army colonel, who questions the official version of his daughter Joan's death, an apparent murder by a crazed fellow worker, Steven Zhang, who later commits suicide. Richmond was not close to his daughter as she grew up and now seems to want to know more about the details of her murder. Dudgeon begins nosing around and soon finds himself and his friends and family threatened by a shadowy organization. There is a lot of cloak and dagger stuff here with government cover ups, unscrupulous defense contractors, and shadowy agents working outside the government yet protected by its umbrella. Even Ray's friends, FBI special Agent Holborn, and Lt. Mike Angelo of the CPD, are hampered in efforts to work with Ray. Terry Green, his reporter friend and muse, is back to help Ray think through issues and to provide the psychological support he needs to get through his self doubts. Adding to the drama is the fact that Ray is still hopelessly in love with Jill Browning, his former love who is trying to move on in her life without Ray because of her dislike for his risky work. The interactions between these two star-crossed lovers are fascinatingly real and gripping. This novel will not disappoint as it is well written, fast paced, and filled with intriguing characters. There is an abundance of violence, deceit, lies, double crosses, and heart break. The reader is led into questions of national security versus individual rights, evil posing as good, goodness corrupted by evil, and the role of the individual in a nation influenced by the military/industrial complex. Few who Ray meets in this story are completely who or what they seem to be; indeed, the suspense builds as the reader flows with the relentless pacing of this novel and begins to uncover the truth of who everyone is and what their individual motives are. I highly recommend this novel as well as the work of Sean Chercover.

The only thing that disappointed me after reading Trigger City is that I hadn't yet read Big City, Bad Blood. It would've been nice to meet Ray Dudgeon at the start of the author's introduction of him. Still, from the opening pages of Trigger City, it was evident that Sean Chercover's is a voice steeped in the streets of Chicago and influenced by the pages of Raymond Chandler, Mickey Spillane and Elmore Leonard. Make no mistake though--it's an original voice that will stay with you long after you've finished the novel. I'm a slow reader and I FLEW this book. Hell, it even had me running late for work one morning! Terrific dialogue, scathing and self-deprecating humor team up with action scenes that, blended together, vividly paint a richly layered drama. It's a big story with the nuances of real life thrown in. Chercover manages to give Ray Dudgeon a soul yet still arm him with a pair of brass balls. He's the kind of guy you want to go have a beer with because you know the company will be great and that he'll have your back in case trouble breaks. Now I look forward--can't wait really--to start on Big City, Bad Blood so I can spend a few days following Ray's exploits. It's the Christmas gift I plan on buying myself.

Have you ever finished a novel but found you can't start another book because the one you've just finished won't leave you alone? TRIGGER CITY is one of those books. The plot begins as a quite satisfying detective story, but Chercover skillfully layers in threads of topical events and twists the plot into a deliciously complex thriller. Ray Dudgeon is not the same Ray we knew in Chercover's first novel (BIG CITY, BAD BLOOD). This sadder but wiser Ray is still plagued by physical injuries sustained in the first novel. But even more troubling for him is the self-doubt generated by those events. It's rare for authors to explore such emotionally complex issues with their protagonist and bring them to the page so realistically. On one level, it's a standard PI novel--stakeouts, car chases, witness interviews, and so on. But Chercover adds a dimension of realism that leaves most of the genre in the dust. While reading it, I kept one ear tuned to the news, expecting to hear updates on the story. It's that real, that powerful. Only his second time at bat, but Chercover smashes this one into the stratosphere.