Where It Hurts by Reed Farrel Coleman

Gus Murphy is a retired Suffolk County cop who is grieving the loss of his son.  The seemingly healthy teenager keels over on the basketball court and never regains consciousness.  The tragedy changes Gus’s life.  Wallowing is self-pity, he abandons his wife and teenage daughter.  He takes a job at a run-down hotel driving the shuttle bus to the train station on the graveyard shift and lives in a shabby room at the hotel.  His life is reduced to a small circle of shadowy acquaintances and everything about him is sad, soulless, and meaningless.

Then one day ex-con Tommy Delcamino comes to Gus and asks for help.  Tommy’s son, TJ had been murdered four months earlier but the police are not making progress solving the crime.  Seems Gus was the only cop Tommy had ever trusted.  Gus has lost all interest in detective work but his compassion causes him to ask around on Tommy’s behalf.  Gus’s former cop buddies warn him to stay out of it and Gus begins to suspect the Suffolk County police chief is involved.  He also learns TJ had a drug habit and had gotten involved in dealing to support his addiction.  TJ’s best friend leads Gus to the underworld of Long Island and again he is warned to stay away.  But when Gus finds Tommy murdered, he is compelled to find the truth.  As Gus presses forward, the body count grows as do the attempts on his own life.  But in the sorrowful life Gus leads, death threats do not intimidate him.  Death may actually be an improvement to his life at his current depth of grief and despair.

I first came to know Reed Farrel Coleman’s work when he took over the Jesse Stone series from Robert B. Parker’s estate.  Coleman is a seasoned story teller and his strength is in character development… usually development of sad characters.  In Where It Hurts, he tells the story from inside his protagonist, Gus Murphy’s head.  And the story is as dark and brooding as his lead character.  Yet I can’t help but root for Gus… as miserable as he is, he’s a good man at heart and deserves better.  Since Where It Hurts is the first in a series, there is hope for Gus and I look forward to what happens to him next.

Thanks to NetGalley for an advanced look in exchange for an honest review.   

Robert B. Parker's The Devil Wins by Reed Ferrel Coleman

Reed Farrel Coleman was hired by the estate of Robert B. Parker to continue the Jesse Stone series.  The Devil Wins is his second project into that venture and is taking the Jesse Stone character to new heights.

Three bodies are discovered in an old abandoned factory in Paradise, Massachusetts where Jesse Stone is police chief.  The body of a man wrapped in a blue tarp is only hours old but a few feet away the skeletal remains of two teenage girls are unearthed.  DNA analysis reveals what all long time Paradise residents know… the skeletal remains are what’s left of two teenage girls, Mary Kate O’Hara and Ginny Connolly who disappeared twenty five years earlier during a Fourth of July celebration.  The dead girls were pals with Jesse’s best officer, Molly Crane whose motivation to become a cop stems from the disappearance of her two childhood friends.  The fresh body is identified as Warren Zebriski, also a former teenage friend to Molly and her two deceased girlfriends.

The town council is all over Jesse to make an arrest.  They want to fire Jesse because of his drinking and lack of respect for their perceived higher authority.  One council member, Bill Marchand believes in Jesse and holds the council at bay while Jesse investigates.  Molly is emotionally shaken but brings Jesse up to speed on events of twenty five years earlier.  But as he struggles to connect events from a quarter century ago to events of today, Mary Kate’s mother who had moved away after her daughter’s disappearance, comes back to Paradise to claim the body.  While visiting Paradise, she is murdered.  Jesse can’t have this in his town… not on his watch.  But as Jesse investigates in his usual ‘stir the pot’ style, he inevitably becomes the killer’s next target.

   

Reed Farrel Coleman has a different style than Robert B. Parker… not better, just different.  Parker is famous for the smart ass quips from the main character and relies primarily on the protagonist’s actions to understand his motivation.  Coleman, however, delves deep into back stories for character development.  The reader gleans new insight into Jesse Stone’s broody temperament and his reasons for drinking.  The contrast is like reading the book vs watching the movie.  But Jesse has the same code of honor… protect the underdog, break the rules whenever deemed necessary… we’ve come to admire.  While I miss the sass and simple straight forward approach that is Robert B. Parker, I enjoy Coleman’s more expansive and enlightening style as well.  Just don’t pick up Robert B. Parker’s The Devil Wins and expect much of Parker’s legacy.

Robert B. Parker's Blind Spot by Reed Farrel Coleman

Reed Farrel Coleman has been commissioned by the estate of Robert B. Parker to continue the Jesse Stone series.  Blind Spot is Coleman’s first in this series.

Jesse Stone has failed more than once in his life.  First an injury ended his chances to play short stop for the L.A. Dodgers.  Then he became a Detective for LAPD but his drinking ended that career.  His marriage to Jenn failed about the same time.  Now he is chief of police in the small town of Paradise, Massachusetts… still drinking, still hanging on to what he has, yet haunted by what could have been.

Jesse’s former minor league team mate, Vic Prado invites him to a team reunion in New York.  Odd because Vic had gone on to have a successful major league baseball career and had not kept in contact.  This after he had been involved in the mishap that ended Jesse’s baseball career and had married the beautiful Kayla, Jesse’s girlfriend from those days.  At the reunion both Kayla and Vic tell Jesse they need to meet with him in private after the party.  He also meets the lovely Dee, a friend and younger version of Kayla.

 

But Jesse’s trip is cut short by a murder back in Paradise.  A young woman is found murdered at the aging and nearly abandon summer estate of a local wealthy family.  Their college age son, Ben is missing but his car remains in the driveway.  Ben’s father brings in his attorney who complicates Jesse’s investigation.  But the more Jesse learns, the more he becomes convinced that his out of the blue invitation to NYC from old buddy Vic is related to the murder in his jurisdiction.

I’m a longtime fan of Robert B. Parker and really appreciate his flawed yet noble characters with quick wits and efficiency with words.  But Coleman takes these qualities and expands on them.  He delves into the backgrounds and motivations of each character, not with boring drivel, but in a way that enriches the experience.  I learned more about Jesse Stone in this one novel than in all of the six or eight I’d read (or viewed in movie form) previously.  I happened to hear Reed Farrel Coleman talk about his experience with Robert B. Parker when his book tour took him through St. Louis.  He is a longtime RBP fan himself and has apparently had some success with his own Moe Prager series.  I’ll definitely read his next Jesse Stone novel and maybe sample some of his earlier work.