Skip to main content

Trigger City - Review

The Hungry Detective is closing in on two years of blogging. I started this blog because I wanted to involve myself in the 'wonder' that is Crime Fiction.

The secret reason I started this blog is(...clears throat, leans in, and whispers his Old Grand-Dad breath into your ear...) I wanted free books! Not the most high-minded of ideals, but honesty should be valued for something, right?

So I got my first 'free' book a few weeks ago. Trigger City by Sean Chercover. Mr. Chercover was kind enough to send me an ARC. Cheers to you Sean. I owe you a moderately priced beverage of your choice at next week's Baltimore B'Con.

And oh, the book is fantastic. Trigger City continues the adventures of Chicago PI, Ray Dudgeon. Big City, Bad Blood was the first in this series and if you have been paying attention that books is up for a bunch of awards. I hope it snags a couple of them. Trigger City is the second in the series and is just as good if not better. Wonderfully paced, I stretched out the reading of this book to almost a week. I just did not want it to end. Mr. Chercover has received this comparison before, but his work is reminiscent of Michael Connelly around the time of The Concrete Blonde and The Last Coyote, particularly The Last Coyote. When I think about that book I remember the overwhelming sense of sadness that permeates the story.

That sense of sadness is here in Trigger City, and it is wonderful. The sense of loss and the sense of things that never will be is heartbreaking in Trigger City. As a reader I will carry these 'fictional' events and people with me for a long time, and that is something truly special. The 'dead body' of most crime fiction is only the means to start off the action. Here, with Trigger City, death hangs over this book reminding you that with its arrival something is irrevocably lost. Only the reader is richer for its coming. This is the best book of the year.

Trigger City will be in stores, just ten days from now. My fingers are crossed that there will be a copy or two available in Baltimore.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Very Best of Mr. Dennis Lehane

I thought this post would appear in October. Ya, know when SHUTTER ISLAND: THE MOVIE was supposed to be released. And then it wasn't. Something about Leo not being able to do 'press' for the movie. Doesn't really matter the reason, a February release date has one of those fancy Hollywood meanings: Not Good. Look I'll be honest, I didn't connect with SHUTTER ISLAND. I loved the fifties setting, the haunted house atmosphere, and impending doom of the Hurricane. Even the set-up of the story was intriguing but how it played out just didn't work for me. Some interesting characters, a bunch of great set pieces, but the ending announces itself with an expected, thud that went nowhere. Am I still going to the movie? Its Lehane, Scorsese, Leo, and Ruffalo of course I am. Anyway the list. 8. Prayers for Rain - 1999 The last Kenzie-Gennaro book follows our heroes as they investigate a guy who is terrorizing women into committing suicide. The book played like an episo
4 comments
Read more

Small Mercies - The Return of Dennis Lehane

 A time honored tradition at The Hungry Detective HQ is to perform the twice annual, and largely ceremonial, 'Dennis Lehane New book 20XX" Google search. Nothing comes up on his long abandoned Website, except notification of the script work for his television and film projects.  Grousing aside, 2022 was a big year for Mr. Lehane. BLACK BIRD, a show he created, played on Apple+ to solid acclaim. The show's star, Paul Walter Hauser, won a Golden Globe. But despite that I have yet to watch it. Not for any other reason than I am a movie person more than a TV person. The TV I do watch is watched in an arcane order that is difficult to decipher and even more baffling to explain. Short story, I need to watch ANDOR [Editor's Note: Slow going on ANDOR despite everyone telling me it is amazing.] And then BLACK BIRD, or maybe SLOW HORSES. I'll get there...  Anyway at the dead end of 2022, I did the search. Found out he wrote a book. SMALL MERCIES . I was excited to hear it. I
Post a Comment
Read more

A Fogotten Post: A Remembrance

[Editor's Note: Started this missive, never came back to it. Still relevant, I suppose.] I am reading MURDER IN OLD BOMBAY by Nev Marsh. This was... technically still is... on my to buy pile. In the before time... the overwhelming to be read pile time... I would have bought this and thrown it on the shelf to read in the near or more likely distant future. I hope I like it enough to buy the second in the series. Buying a book is fun, buying a book that is good is better. [Editor's Note: Abandoned this book, unfinished.] BLACKTOP WASTELAND - S.A. COSBY So glad I didn't buy this last summer. Good decision to put off buying and reading what would have certainly been one of the best books of the year. New goal for the remaining 2021 calendar. Don't be dumb. Buy Mr. Cosby's follow up and read day one! [Editor's Note: I did buy a signed copy of RAZORBLADE  TEARS, meanwhile B.W. won every award, except the Edgar where it wasn't even nominated!? Also Signed firsts of
Post a Comment
Read more