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Michael Koryta is a very young man, only 22 years old according to his biography, but he writes as well as the best of them. It's a treat to see him follow up his acclaimed debut, TONIGHT I SAID GOODBYE, which won the St. Martin's Private Eye Writers' First Novel Award and was shortlisted for both the Edgar and Shamus, with a book at least as good as his first. Lincoln Perry, an ex-cop turned private investigator, was responsible for sending his childhood friend, Ed Gradduck, to jail years ago. As a young police officer, Lincoln had hoped that by pressuring Ed with the threat of prison, he could get him to clean up his act, testify against worse offenders and get off with probation. Ed didn't do that, though. He refused to inform and spent years in prison as a result. In the neighborhood where Ed and Lincoln grew up, sending your friend to jail is enough to make you an outcast, so out of guilt and embarrassment, Lincoln lost touch with Ed and failed to reconnect with him once he was released. Now Ed is accused of the murder of a housing official and arson in an attempt to cover up his crime, but this time Lincoln is determined to help him. Before he can have anything more than a brief conversation with his friend, however, Ed is struck by a police car and dies. Lincoln quickly enlists his partner Joe Pritchard in an investigation into the truth behind Ed's death. Through stubborn determination they begin to uncover a complex web of deceit and corruption rooted in Lincoln's boyhood, but with major implications for Cleveland's future. This is a novel about the enduring friendship between working class white men who grew up together with a strong sense of obligation to each other and to their neighborhood. The strains on the friendship are mirrored in the decline of the close community that supported them into adulthood. Cleveland is a real star here. The extraordinarily vivid sense of place is made all the more palpable by the heat and humidly that can only erupt into thunder and lightening storms in a kind of arson in the sky. Lincoln Perry and his partner Joe Pritchard are perfectly orchestrated characters -- the young, idealistic and sometimes brash investigator balanced against the older, seasoned pro has never been done better. The characters they encounter during their investigation are unique, fully realized and absolutely alive. Ed's mother stood out for me in particular. I don't know how a 22-year-old man could write a middle-aged woman with such precision and empathy. This is an exceptional novel, to my mind every bit as good as MYSTIC RIVER. Buy it. Read it. Give it to your friends. This book just might change the way you think about the private eye novel forever.
Reviewed by Carroll Johnson, March 2006
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