The Devil Sure as Heck Ain't in These Details!
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Author: Michael Ledwidge
Title: Before the Devil Knows You're Dead Genre: mystery Ever had one of those days where everything - and I mean everything - goes wrong? NYPD beat cop John Coglin sure is having one. He is supposed to be sitting in court this morning, waiting on the verdict in his murder trial (a trial that never should've happened). That verdict is almost certain to go the wrong way... But last night, John slipped away from his surveillance to meet with the uncle he hadn't seen in decades, the uncle who rumor has it retired from the IRA to become an international criminal. Uncle Aidan had a few words of advice about surviving in stir, not to mention plans for a 36-million dollar heist. John, it seems, has nothing better to do this morning... So John's in - but the caper that looked like a lead-pipe cinch on paper suddenly begins to disintegrate before his very eyes. It starts when the hallway the team expected to be guarded by a couple of rent-a-cops turns out to be occupied by a full team of Secret Service Agents with a VIP in tow. And it gets worse from there. Capsule: gorgeous Mafia widow, truckloads of jewelry, politically-connected captain, trunk full of M-16s, stereotype redneck, armored car, gorgeous FBI agent with revenge on her mind, Rockefeller center, stereotype Hispanic gangbanger, a clumsy secret service agent with an Uzi on full auto... May You Be Half an Hour in Heaven... The third novel from the pen of Bronx author Michael Ledwidge, Before the Devil Knows You're Dead will certainly raise the blood of action fans to a rolling boil. With breakneck pacing and rapid-fire, almost choppy styling, the novel has much the flavor of a television action show filmed with handheld cameras. The scenery jumps in huge panoramic lunges, and characters appear and disappear at the drop of a hat (or of a firing pin). It's picture-perfect fiction for the MTV generation, with their legendary short attention span. It is not, however, targeted at those who are fans of carefully constructed fiction with well-crafted characters. With the obvious exception of the lure of 36 million buckaroos, Ledwidge's characters are devoid of motivation and as flat as the proverbial pancake. Their back stories are thin or completely absent, and their actions are unexplained and often inexplicable. The plot is heavily larded with conspiracy and paranoia along hackneyed lines: grasping politicians; power-mad bureaucrats; an unidentified shrill-voiced liberal actress (is that you, Barbra?). Upshot, Uproar, Overall Here's a tome that'll keep you turning pages relentlessly. Now, if that's all you want, you've got yourself a five-star effort. If, however, you want to feel something about the characters, Before the Devil Knows You're Dead lands far closer to the opposite end of the stellar spectrum. Combine this with some slap-happy editing - there is no country named Columbia that exports cocaine to the USA; alright, contrary to popular opinion, is not a real word; and aside is an adverb, not a preposition) - and you end up with a fast-food version of fiction. It's filling, all right, but it ain't good for you. Four stars for its unbroken stream of action scenes, two stars for characters seemingly constructed from Kraft paper and Elmer's glue, and round it down for having an editor who needs a remedial Comp 101 course, Two... all content copyright © 2014 by scmrak
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