Black Mountain

December 1, 2018

Copyright 2018 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

March 15, 2019
A former mob enforcer-turned-private eye is called in to investigate the savage murder of a Mafia leg-breaker in New York's Hudson Valley and finds himself on the trail of corporate espionage and a serial killer long believed dead.The second book in Barron's series featuring Isaiah Coleridge (Blood Standard, 2018) seems, more than the debut, an obvious attempt to establish Coleridge as a strongman smartass in the Jack Reacher mold. The fight scenes are the written equivalent of action-movie choreography but without suspense, because the setup--Isaiah being constantly outnumbered--is so clearly a prelude for the no-sweat beat downs he doles out to the various thugs who get in his way. There's nary a memorable wisecrack in the entire book. What does stick in the mind are the sections that go out of their way to be writerly. It's not enough to say that it was a starry night in the Alaskan wilderness. Coleridge (the name is a clue to the series' literary aspirations) says, "I could've read a book by the cascading illumination of the stars." A later flash of insight is conveyed by "The scalpel of grim epiphany sliced into my consciousness." What with the narrative that spreads like spider cracks in glass and the far-too-frequent flashbacks to the man who was Coleridge's mentor, you might wish another scalpel had made its way through the manuscript.This is secondhand tough-guy stuff, memorable only in that it feels like you've read it all before.

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March 25, 2019
Barron’s second novel featuring retired mob strongman Isaiah Coleridge (after 2018’s Blood Standard) is as nasty as a cornered pit viper—and its plot is about as sinuous. Isaiah is newly established as a PI in his Hudson River Valley digs when he’s contacted by the Albany Syndicate to investigate the murder of thug-for-hire Henry Lee. Someone removed Lee’s head and hands with a serrated blade before dumping his corpse in the Ashokan Reservoir, a ghoulish dispatch that recalls the handiwork of Morris Oestryke—a psychopathic hit man and serial murderer, whose kill count is legendary and whose techniques border on the supernatural. The only problem is that Oestryke is supposed to have died in an explosion and/or been assassinated by the mob. Meanwhile, Isaiah discovers that Lee’s girlfriend is the daughter of an industrialist mogul whose business concerns reek of black ops espionage and cover-ups. Barron peppers the text with literary references and philosophical reflections that provide rich counterpoint to the violent bashing and bloodletting. Fans of hardboiled crime fiction and wiseguy vernacular will be well satisfied. Agent: Janet Reid, New Leaf Literary & Media.

Starred review from April 1, 2019
Isaiah Coleridge (introduced in Blood Standard, 2018) lives in a violent world. Once an enforcer for the Outfit, he's now a private eye in New York's Hudson Valley, and the only thing worse than the world around him is his terrifying dream life, often featuring the men who influenced him: his Maori maternal grandfather, his father, and hit man emeritus Gene Kavanaugh, who tutored him in the fine art of murder. When local Mafia capo Marion Curtis hires Isaiah to investigate the murders of two men who worked for him, both killed with a serrated knife, the job becomes a nightmare-inducing quest centering on the Croatian, a legendary freelance serial killer fond of torture, who's reputed to have carried out hundreds of hits since the late 1970s. Finding links to Delia Labrador, daughter of the head of the multinational Zircon Corporation, who moonlights as cabaret dancer Midnight Star, Isaiah traces the killer through identity changes and a claim, from Curtis himself, that the Croatian had been killed years earlier. Coleridge is a large, unbelievably strong, scarred man?a thug, yes, but a thinking-person's thug?who may recover physically but still has to face his nights. Readers with a tolerance for violence will want to meet him.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)