The Strangler

This family saga chronicles the Daley family, whose three brothers represent different sides of the law. The lives of a lawyer, a thief, and a corrupt cop are intertwined by kinship and crime. Stephen Hoye carries the detailed and ever-present dialogue well. He nails the Boston accent, and, from crime boss to widowed mom, each character is portrayed in his or her own voice. Although the setting is predominant, Hoye's pacing moves the novel's plot along. Boston's political landscape of the 1960s is woven into the narrative, and the social commentary is apparent. Using the case of the Boston Strangler as the focal point and the JFK assassination as a backdrop, this story is a convolution of greed, family ties, and revenge. D.L.M. (c) AudioFile 2007, Portland, Maine

November 20, 2006
Set in Boston in 1963, Landay's engrossing crime novel is less about the titular strangler than the three Irish-American Daley brothers: Ricky, a thief; Michael, a lawyer; and Joe, a bent cop. A year earlier, the Daleys' father, also a cop, was fatally shot on the job, and the killer has never been caught. The father's partner on the force, Brendan Conroy, has insinuated himself into the family to the point that he's now sleeping with the brothers' mother, Margaret, and is a permanent fixture at Sunday dinner, much to the disgust of Michael and Ricky. Landay (Mission Flats
) movingly explores the bonds of family and basic questions of honesty and loyalty. While the novel suggests another killer than the historical Boston Strangler, the emphasis remains on such themes as crime and punishment, love and honor, truth and justice.