Review of Dangerous Games: A Jack Liffey Mystery (Jack Liffey Mysteries) (Hardcover)

When we last saw Jack Liffey, he had found the perpetrator of various crimes of vengeance arising from the racist history of Terminal Island, been dumped by his new girlfriend, survived a collapsed lung and renewed his relationship with his teenage daughter, Maeve.Liffey also fell for a police officer named Gloria Ramirez, a Native American who was raised by Latino parents who taught her to hate her own heritage."Dangerous Games" begins with Liffey living in East L.A. with Ramirez; his moody daughter is delighted with Ramirez and hopes her father won't mess this one up.But Liffey's relationship leads inexorably to a new search for a lost child: Ramirez's beautiful 18-year-old niece has disappeared from her tiny reservation in the Owens Valley leaving enough clues to make everyone suspect that she's been swallowed up by L.A.'s porn scene.Liffey feels up to the task.

If it were left at that, our hero would have more than enough to occupy him.But during one clear day while Liffey waters his girlfriend's lawn and Maeve lounges alongside chatting with her father, a gangbanger loses control and shoots indiscriminately in Liffey's direction leaving Maeve severely wounded.As Maeve recuperates, Liffey adds a new mission to his list: revenge.His subsequent confrontation of the perpetrator and eventual solution is one of the most surprising and fulfilling aspects of the narrative.

But there is still a lost child to find.And this is where things get ugly as we're thrown into the world of phone sex, porn films, dangerous reality videos, AIDS and very violent men who truly believe that women are meant to be controlled and used in any way imaginable.Throughout, we're treated to Shannon's smart dialogue, complex characters and a thrill ride of action.The denouement takes place in the Malibu Hills, set ablaze by reality "filmmakers" as their ultimate get-rich-quick venture.As Liffey and others try to outrun the flames, Liffey muses on all the failures in his life and wonders about the meaning of it all.There are wonderful things in life to be certain: the love of both his girlfriend and his resilient, brilliant daughter.But all the mistakes are there too: failed relationships, a battle with alcohol, physical scars too many to count.In Shannon's sure hands, we see the world through the eyes of a man who struggles to reconcile life's joy and pain shaped in large part by Los Angeles itself.Shannon offers more questions than answers.But that's okay.Finely-crafted novels do that.And this is certainly one of Shannon's best.

[The full version of this review first appeared in The Elegant Variation.]



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Review of Terminal Island: A Jack Liffey Mystery (Hardcover)

Thank goodness it's not Jack Liffey that's terminal!Here's a wonderful new book that takes us back to Jack's hometown.We even get to meet a family member of his that he's hidden up to now.It's almost impossible to put this book down once you start it.Be warned!



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Review of The Orange Curtain: A Jack Liffey Mystery (Hardcover)

I'm not normally much of a mystery reader. I guess I'm a bit of a prose snob. I confess. For my taste, mysteries tend to be a bit insipid. Characters are too often one-dimentional: overly described and under-developed. Plots may be clever but are so totally predictable. Atmosphere is too often written in little florid slashes, in a kind of straight-jacketed prose brought in specially just to set the scene.

Not so with John Shannon's Jack Liffy series. Wow. These books rock. This man can write. His sentences are beautiful and thought-provoking, yet he can slash through a scene, leaving you breathless and needing more, as well as anyone I've read. And Shannon gives the reader real characters and a true sense of place, not just walking cartoons and specially engineered atmospherics.

This new book, The Orange Curtain, may be the best yet in the Jack Liffy series, but all of Shannon's Jack Liffy mysteries have been well done. The first book, Concrete River really captured for me a section of the slimy underbelly of Los Angeles. No mystery writer since Chander has sliced LA open and spilled out its guts as compellingly as Shannon has. LA is a huge place. There are lots of corners to explore. This new book, The Orange Curtain, takes in, among other things, Orange County and its huge Vietnamese population. It's a great book, whether you want to disappear into it on the coast-to-coast airliner or want to take it in over several days and savor its wonderful prose and interesting characters. It's a great book, and this is a series that just keeps getting better.

There is plenty of punch in this book for you mystery addicts, plenty of hard-boiled sentiment and riveting, page-turning action. But between the lines--in the lines--there is also some superb writing.

I can't wait for the next one.



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