Boystown

by John Shannon

Overview

Introduction by George Easter, Editor and Publisher of Deadly Pleasures Magazine 

Legendary LA sleuth Jack Liffey is back, and facing down a changing world, when his brazen daughter Maeve enlists him to help find Benjy—a gay social justice activist gone missing. Meanwhile, a needless act of violence sets off an urban range war between a group of gun-happy poachers and former Soviet paramilitary soldiers in an unlikely location: West Hollywood. Jack, still recovering from heart surgery and grappling with Maeve’s aspirations to follow in his footsteps, must save the day before the entire community goes up in flames. 

In this latest installment of the Jack Liffey series, John Shannon picks up where he left off, taking readers deep into the many, unexplored communities, enclaves and cultures of Los Angeles that sometimes co-exist, sometimes clash, but always surprise. Fans of Vince Flynn will fall deep into the fast-paced, unpredictable, and dangerous world John Shannon creates. 

Widely recognized by mystery authors and critics as one of America’s most acclaimed crime fiction writers, John Shannon has authored twenty novels beginning in 1972. His revered Jack Liffey books earned praise from every major publication including the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, and Library Journal.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781964008004
Publisher:	The Unnamed Press
Publication date:	09/17/2024
Series:	Jack Liffey , #15
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	272

About the Author

John Shannon is widely recognized as one of America’s most acclaimed crime fiction authors with starred and rave reviews from leading publications including Publisher’s Weekly, The Wall Street Journal, and The New York Times. A former newspaper reporter, Shannon was raised in the gritty harbor community of San Pedro, California, among the sons and daughters of longshoremen and fishermen. Boystown is his first novel in eleven years.

Editorial Reviews

PRAISE FOR THE CONCRETE RIVER (#1 in the Jack Liffey Mystery Series)

“Noir master… Shannon tackles a tough social issue with intelligence and a clear moral compass. His spare, noir style and articulate dialog strike just the right balance between thriller and social consciousness. His growing audience will love this. Recommended.” —Library Journal

“Witty, alert, energetic, talented way above the ordinary.” —New York Times Book Review

“The hands-down winner in the long-running ‘Where is the Next Raymond Chandler Coming From?’ sweepstakes… Jack Liffey is the most interesting new private detective since Walter Mosley’s Easy Rawlins.” —Dick Adler, Chicago Tribune

“Shannon has mastered the most essential element of the genre, giving us a guy we want to stand shoulder to shoulder with while we try to make sense out of a senseless universe.” —Booklist [Starred]

“Shannon has written an intelligent, surprising book, found the heart of his working-class characters, and delivered a first-rate thriller in the bargain.” —George Pelecanos

“Liffey is a most unlikely action hero whose feats of intuition, verbosity, and personal empathy make an interesting contrast to the exploits of his hard-boiled peers.” —Tom Nolan, Wall Street Journal

“Shannon matches the master, Raymond Chandler, in several key areas, notably location, characterization and dialogue.” —Dick Lochte, Los Angeles Times

“The real rewards of this novel are the wounded and searching souls caught up in the madness… and his appealingly thoughtful hero.” —John Koch, Boston Globe

“Southern California has always been fertile ground for crime writers and one of the very best of them has to be John Shannon.” —Denver Post

“The landscape of Los Angeles… has been deconstructed by writers from Chandler to Didion, but never quite as artfully as does John Shannon.” —James Crumley

PRAISE FOR THE CRACKED EARTH

“Jack Liffey is an extraordinary creation… Shannon is the philosopher king of the mystery forum. And long may he reign.” —Charlotte Vale Allen, CT USA

From the Publisher

2024-10-10
A 21st-century Philip Marlowe blithely soldiers on.

Now that wisecracking LA shamus Jack Liffey is down—but not out—after open heart surgery and a stroke, his girlfriend, Gloria, is on hand to assist in his recuperation. So is his daughter, Maeve, who wants his help in finding her roommate Bunny’s missing brother, Benjy, who was last seen at a gay rights rally. Maeve has yet to identify Bunny as her girlfriend, but it’s not exactly a secret. While Jack’s hobbling to the lunch table, a Ukrainian Jew named Petro Ivanchuk Pogorelets is chasing butterflies in the Eastern Sierras, dangerously close to a small group of hunters led by the arrogant Zeke Tomlin. In an effort to impress his friends, Zeke shoots Petro, who falls but uses his butterfly net as a hiking pole to escape. All this unfolds in the brisk opening chapter of Shannon’s 15th Liffey novel, which jumps round-robin fashion in short cuts between multiple locations. The deft juggling of multiple characters and plotlines, bolstered by a mastery of the sharp one-liner, makes Shannon’s long-running series compulsively readable. Keeping up with every new character and twist is challenging but rewarding. It doesn’t matter that the other members of the hunting party want to distance themselves from Zeke, who’s clearly tangled with the wrong lepidopterist. When Petro teams up with the super-shady Sergei, who lives off the grid, sweet vengeance is on the menu in an homage toReservoir Dogs. Will Gloria’s vengeance be equally severe when she learns that Jack’s slept with the gritty intellectual Yana?

A lively private eye caper with a delightfully diverse cast.

Kirkus Reviews