Rolling Thunder

May 17, 2010
At the start of Anthony Awardwinner Grabenstein's enjoyable sixth John Ceepak mystery (after 2009's "Mind Scrambler"), the wife of Paddy O'Malley, an entrepreneur whose company has just built a roller coaster on the shore of the struggling resort town of Sea Haven, N.J., suffers a fatal heart attack on the new ride during the grand opening. As supercop Ceepak and his less obsessively straight-arrow partner, Danny Boyle, begin to doubt whether Mrs. O'Malley died of natural causes, the dismembered body of a party girl turns up in two suitcases. Since the most obvious suspect is too conveniently set up, the two cops must wade through a rancid swamp of local politics, sleazy sex, and family hatred for the truth. The corruption Ceepak sees drives him to be even more vigilantly upright. Vivid local color and sharply drawn charactersespecially as dramatized in the contrast between the partners' attitudeshelp make the pages fly. "(May)" .

April 1, 2010
Grabensteins well-imagined New Jersey beach town, Sea Haven, kicks off the summer season with the inaugural run of a new roller coaster. The seats are filled with the decidedly dysfunctional family of the coasters builder, Big Paddy OMalley, and local pols. When Mrs. OMalley has a fatal heart attack, straight-arrow cop and Iraq War hero John Ceepak and his wiseacre partner, Danny Boyle, wonder if shes been murdered. Soon after, Sea Havens hottest Jersey girl is found dismembered, and the evidence points squarely at Big Paddy. After moving off the beach with Mind Scrambler (2009), about Atlantic City casino sleaze, and Hell Hole (2008), about a bent U.S. senator who wants to be president, Grabenstein returns to his Jersey Shore wheelhouse: crooked businessmen, their idiot children running amok, murder, dismemberment, casual prostitution, and beer-bellied vacationers wearing AC-DC shirts and munching deep-fried Snickers bars. Creosote mingles with the aroma of Italian sausage, peppers, and onions, and the bars only serve plastic bottles and cups. This detail-rich series appeals on multiple levels: vivid atmospherics, rich characters, and a wonderful sense of the absurd.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2010, American Library Association.)