Once a Crooked Man

November 9, 2015
Actor McCallum, of NCIS and The Man from U.N.C.L.E. fame, makes his fiction debut with a suspense novel that opens promisingly with echoes of the classic Hitchcock film North by Northwest. Harry Murphy, a struggling New York City actor, is desperate to find a bathroom after an audition. When he’s denied entry at a restaurant, he goes to a nearby alley to urinate, only to overhear some men planning the murder of a man in London named Villiers. Without knowing exactly what’s going on or who the conspirators are, Harry impulsively decides to travel there to warn Villiers, after first trying to phone him. The proceeds from a new voice-over gig make the trip possible. Arriving in London just in time to foil the hit, Harry soon becomes the quarry of both good and bad guys, but he’s never plausible as a man of action in a story line that tends to the formulaic. Toward the end, the puzzling behavior of Det. Sgt. Lizzie Carswell, who befriends a mobster, may trouble some readers. Agent: Erica Silverman, Trident Media Group.

To hear a terrific book brilliantly performed by the author is one of life's huge pleasures. Is McCallum up to it? He's only been working on stage and screen for what--six decades? Oh, surprise, he's fabulous. Really, listen to him do a simple thing like chuckle winningly. Go on, you try it. His velvety voice is a wonderful instrument, and he uses it to purr, to alarm, to make you laugh while he remains quietly deadpan as he follows his Candide-like actor-hero Harry Murphy through a baroque series of toils and dangers he got into because he was trying to save a stranger's life. Only an actor could have written this deliciously entertaining story, and no one could have performed it better. Standing O. B.G. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award � AudioFile 2017, Portland, Maine

April 15, 2016

Actor McCallum (The Man from U.N.C.L.E.; NCIS) has written an outstanding novel with interesting, well-developed characters and a well-crafted plot. He adroitly mixes such elements as money laundering, a seemingly respected high-society money manager, a trio of older criminal bosses looking to go legit and erase any record of a life of crime, and a good Samaritan actor who overhears the wrong conversation while urinating in an alley. The author narrates the tense, funny work himself; listeners will easily see why he is beloved by his many fans. VERDICT Highly recommended. ["McCallum's characterizations are decent in this serviceable, competent thriller, and protagonist Harry is likable enough that readers would likely enjoy further adventures": LJ 12/15 review of the Minotaur: St. Martin's hc.]--Scott R. DiMarco, Mansfield Univ. of Pennsylvania Lib.

Copyright 2016 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.