Where It Hurts

Starred review from November 2, 2015
Edgar-finalist Coleman (Soul Patch) offers a searing look at the dark underside of Long Island in this stellar series kickoff. Ex-cop Gus Murphy, whose 20-year-old son, John Jr., dropped dead playing basketball, works as a night shift van driver and house detective for a hotel whose lobby was “a pretty grand sight if you didn’t look too closely, and if your taste ran to despair.” His reputation as an honest cop leads thug Tommy Delcamino to ask Gus to help him find the person responsible for the brutal torture and murder of Tommy’s son, TJ, after the Suffolk County PD fail to give the case much attention. Gus refuses, out of anger that Tommy is trying to take advantage of Gus’s loss of John Jr., but he changes his mind after another murder. Coleman’s moving portrayal of a man in deep, deep pain, a tightly constructed plot, and a gift for making Long Island seem like James Ellroy’s L.A. add up to a winner. Agent: David Hale Smith, Inkwell Management.

October 1, 2015
Where does it hurt? Everywhere you can possibly imagine, if you're a Long Island ex-cop pressed into taking a dead-end case on behalf of a dead client. The sudden death of his son, John Jr., on a basketball court ended Gus Murphy's life as he knew it. Two years later, he's retired from the Suffolk County PD, divorced from his wife, Annie, on the outs with his self-destructive daughter, Kristen, and eking out a living working as a house dick and van driver for an airport motel. So one thing he's not prepared for is a visit from Tommy Delcamino, a petty crook he arrested more than once, who's not satisfied that the cops have done everything they could to catch whoever killed his son, TJ, a car thief who was tortured to death last summer, and offers Gus $3,000, every cent he has, to look into it. Assuming that Tommy D is counting on his own bereavement to garner his sympathy, Gus throws him out, and by the time his old friend Father Bill Kilkenny, a police chaplain who's left the church, has persuaded him to apologize to Tommy, the potential client is about to follow his son to the grave. Now it's impossible to pull Gus, whose depressive streak is matched only by his bulldog determination, off the case. Tracking down three lowlifes connected to TJ]drug lord Kareem Shivers, local dealer Lamar England, and mobbed-up carting scion Frankie Tacos]he quickly finds himself in a whirlpool of sex, drugs, murder, and warnings to walk away. The plot never exactly thickens, but a significant proportion of the cast will end up sleeping the big sleep. Fans who find Gus' "portable dark cloud" appealing will be glad to know that Coleman (Robert B. Parker's The Devil Wins, 2015, etc.) plans to build a new series around him. Bring on the gloom and doom.

COPYRIGHT(2015) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Starred review from July 1, 2015

In the two years since his son suddenly died, Gus Murphy, an ex-Suffolk County, NY, police officer, has suffered depression and a collapsed marriage, and is now living in a low-class hotel and driving its van to and from the railroad station. When Tommy Delcamino, an ex-con whom Murphy arrested several times, asks for his help in finding the murderer of his lowlife, druggie son, TJ, because the police are doing nothing, Murphy thinks he's playing the "dead son" card and tells him to shove it. However, he soon realizes the man has nowhere else to turn. When he goes to Delcamino's home and finds him brutally murdered, Murphy has no choice but to solve both murders, theorizing they are connected. That he is warned off by both policemen and drug dealers only strengthens Murphy's resolve. VERDICT The author of the "Moe Prager" series has created another engaging sleuth in the down-but-not-out Gus. His cynicism about God, the income divide on Long Island, and police corruption add dimension to his protagonist. The ancillary characters, both good and bad, are also a fascinating mix. Moe Prager fans will hail this new series, as will lovers of solid mysteries, especially those set on Long Island.--Edward Goldberg, Syosset P.L., NY

Copyright 2015 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from October 15, 2015
Former Long Island cop Gus Murphy retreated to a low-key existence as a hotel detective after his son's abrupt death unraveled his marriage and dissolved his dedication to the badge. When petty criminal Tommy Delcamino tracks Gus down and begs him to investigate his son TJ's violent murder, Gus has no intention of stirring up his own grief by tangling with another father's loss. But when he finds Tommy's body and is nearly shot by the killers, Gus needs his own answers. Warned off the case by cops and a deadly drug dealer, Gus obstinately digs into the investigation by interviewing the handful of witnesses Tommy listed in his amateur murder book. As he dissects the stories of a former outlaw biker, an outcast con man, a Mob-connected fence, and TJ's closest friend, Gus dodges attacks on his life with the help of his secretive, battle-ready coworker, Slava. Gus, who is absolutely one of genre veteran Coleman's best-drawn characters, brings the hard-boiled investigator's requisite battle scars to the table without the self-destructive bent we've been trained to expect. Instead, he meets his tragedy and its consequences with a considered straightforwardness, and his desire for justice reawakens in time with the investigation's quickening tempo, hopefully signaling the start of a series.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)