Very Bad Men

May 9, 2011
Dolan follows Bad Things Happen, his acclaimed debut, with a riveting crime novel also featuring Ann Arbor, Mich., amateur sleuth David Loogan, editor of the mystery magazine Gray Streets. When Loogan finds a manuscript outside his office doorâa story about three murders, two already committed and one still being plannedâhe instantly realizes it's not a work of fiction but a declaration from the murderer of two local men. With the help of his police detective girlfriend, Elizabeth Waishkey, Loogan uncovers an elaborate, at times convoluted conspiracy including criminals involved in a 17-year-old bank robbery gone wrong, an adulterous statesman, a paranormal fantasy novelist turned tabloid journalist, and a charismatic politician running for the Senate. As the body count rises, the intrepid Loogan gets closer to the truthâand closer to becoming the killer's next victim. Relentless pacing, a wry sense of humor, and an engaging protagonist add up to another winner for Dolan. Author tour.

Starred review from May 15, 2011

A second mind-bending case for Ann Arbor editor David Loogan that begins just as simply and ominously and takes the reader on just as wild a journey.

Anthony Lark's mission is simple: to kill three of the men involved in a fatally botched bank robbery 17 years ago. He's already dispatched two of his targets—an impressive feat, considering that one of them, Terry Dawtrey, is serving 30 years in Kinross Prison—when he identifies them both and announces his third, nurse practitioner Sutton Bell, in an anonymous letter to Loogan (Bad Things Happen, 2009), who promptly shares it with his ladylove, police detective Elizabeth Waishkey. The timely intervention of aspiring tabloid reporter Lucy Navarro saves Bell from Lark's initial attempt and gives Dolan a chance to fill in some back story. Lark's motives are obscure, but they have something to do with U.S. Senate candidate Callie Spencer, whose father Harlan was the Chippewa County Sheriff shot and paralyzed in the bank robbery and whose father-in-law, John Casterbridge, is the senator she hopes to succeed. Lark keeps coming nerve-wrackingly close to killing Bell; Loogan and Elizabeth keep coming heartbreakingly close to catching Lark; and yet the tale still goes on. To divulge any more about the plot would spoil some of the dozens of surprises Dolan springs. But it's not too much to say that nearly every cast member, however minor, is complicit in some crime; that nearly every one, even though they're all rooted in excruciatingly familiar generic types, gets a chance to reveal unexpected depths; and that Dolan mixes his pitches with an ace's judgment, steadily complicating Lark's quest while keeping the psychology of his characters considerably more plausible than in Loogan's equally baroque debut.

The rare crime novel with something for everyone who reads crime fiction.

(COPYRIGHT (2011) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

February 15, 2011

David Loogan is back, still working as editor of the mystery magazine Gray Streets. All's well until he trips over a manuscript outside his door that opens with the sentence "I killed Henry Kormoran." And it's not fiction. Dolan's 2009 debut, Bad Things Happen, met with success, so many thriller fans will be looking for this one.

Copyright 2011 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

May 1, 2011
Like Dolans excellent Bad Things Happen (2009), this book begins with a story submitted to the crime-fiction journal, Gray Streets. In Bad Things Happen, David Loogans submission earned him an editing job and a role in an exceedingly twisty mystery. Now Loogan is editor-in-chief, and an intriguing manuscript (it begins, I killed Henry Kormoran in his apartment on Linden Street) involves him in the case of a serial killer with straightforward goals but motives that unravel a long-lasting, far-flung conspiracy. Dolans plotting is just as astonishing as in his first book. His wry, dry dialogue is nearly as good, and his character names are the best in the business. But his stories require strong suspension of disbelief. In Bad Things, we accepted the unlikely publishing enterprise because Ann Arbor noir was too tempting to resist. Here, the magazine is more believable, but Loogans partnership with his lover, detective Elizabeth Waishkey, strains credulity. Most readers will succumb, but its hard to justify an amateur sleuth when a professional is already on the job.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2011, American Library Association.)