January 27, 2014
Carter Ross looks into the outbreak of a debilitating and sometimes fatal illness within a poor neighborhood of Newark, N.J., in Shamus Award–winner Parks’s engaging fifth mystery featuring the investigative newspaper journalist (after 2013’s The Good Cop). Soon Ross comes down with the same illness and suspects an environmental cause. He discovers that a majority of the workers at a shopping center complex breaking ground nearby have exhibited the same brittle bones and flu-like symptoms as local residents. Then the chief developer of the shopping center, Vaughn McAlister, turns up dead—the victim of a baseball bat to the skull. Ross digs into McAlister’s background and churns up a noxious slurry of underhanded political and business collusion, mob links, and personal drama. Meanwhile, Ross juggles stunning news from an old lover and his mother’s well-meaning meddling in his romantic life. Parks smoothly blends grit and wit, though a muddled climax dulls the final punch. Agent: Dan Conaway, Writers House.
Starred review from June 30, 2014
Verner’s lively narration makes for an entertaining ride for the fifth novel in Parks’s series chronicling the adventures of Newark Star-Ledger reporter Carter Ross. The story centers on a shady urban renewal project plagued by environmental misdeeds and cover-ups, as a sordid family conflict surrounding a recently murdered real estate developer unfolds. Verner brings a compelling first-person voice to the protagonist Ross, who finds himself juggling the caper with the demands of his complicated love life and the stresses of print journalism in an increasingly digital age. Verner’s tone conveys both Ross’s earnest commitment to try to do right by his conflicting obligations and his sometimes bumbling nature. The juicy cast of characters provides Verner with ample opportunities to shine. His turn as the murdered developer’s gruff father—an aging slum lord with a few tricks up his sleeve—is especially memorable. A Minotaur hardcover.
Starred review from February 15, 2014
A mysterious epidemic of illnesses and accidents in Newark's South Ward is the tip of a very dirty iceberg in reporter Carter Ross' fifth case. In the months before she died, 77-year-old Edna Foster's health dramatically declined. She got recurrent attacks of something that acted like the flu but kept going away after a few days. Then she broke her leg and after that, her arm. After surveying similarly disquieting results among Edna's neighbors, her granddaughter, medical student Jackie Orr, is convinced that something is rotten in the South Ward and asks Carter Ross, of the Newark Eagle-Examiner, to look into it. Taking newly hatched intern Neesha "Pigeon" Krishnamurthy under his wing, Carter (The Good Cop, 2013, etc.) begins to dig into the particulars of the McAlister Arms, a mammoth new construction project adjoining the blighted neighborhood. But soon after he interviews Vaughn McAlister, who, together with his father, Barry, heads McAlister Properties, Vaughn is beaten to death, and Carter's editor, Tina Thompson, pulls him off the investigation, demanding he instead find out who killed the developer. The murder will end up closely linked to the rash of medical problems in the South Ward, but before Carter can uncover the connection, he'll have to straighten out his romantic life, which involves some unwelcome news from his ex-lover Tina, some assertive moves on the part of his sometime-lover, Eagle-Examiner librarian Kira O'Brien, and an awkward episode that involves Pigeon, some potent drinks and a big misunderstanding. It's typical, and typically satisfying, that even after the mystery is solved, Carter will still have to face his sister's wedding, to which both Tina and Kira have managed to get invited. Muckraking has rarely been so meaty or so funny.
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Starred review from March 1, 2014
Newark's Eagle-Examiner reporter Carter Ross smells a major story when he meets with a group of African American residents, all getting sick, who live adjacent to an old factory site being cleaned up for new commercial development. But Carter has to shift gears quickly when the slick developer, Vaughn McAlister, is murdered. Carter pauses to consider the timing and to wonder why the police appear disinterested, and then he forges ahead in pushy journalistic fashion. In quick order he comes up short against a sleazy lawyer, a well-known crime family, and details about Vaughn's checkered history. Both Tommy Hernandez, Carter's gay colleague and series staple, and the paper's latest hapless intern are deep into the chase with Carter at this point. Expect a complicated, thrilling ending with a splash of mayhem. VERDICT Parks, a gifted storyteller (with shades of Mark Twain, or maybe Dave Barry), shows his mastery of the comic absurd behind serious journalism in his fifth outing (after The Good Cop).
Copyright 2014 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
February 1, 2014
Carter Ross, the hero of this high-spirited novel, book five in the series, is a reporter right down to the tip of his ballpoint pen. His idea of a good guy is someone who returns phone calls right away. His friend wishes he'd get better pants. He's curious about the world. He can listen if he has to, but he'd really rather talk. Parks begins his story in good news-feature styleunadorned English with a pulse underneath, compulsively readableand the topic is still fresh. A developer's project is tearing up ground, neighbors are developing flulike symptoms and dying. Readers may groan when Parks abruptly ends this narrative for a disquisition on Carter's love life. Fortunately this seems to bore Parks, too, and we're back to the good stuff: a painstaking inquiry into a real-estate scam with murder at its core. Parks tries for a high-concept finale, but the novel really ends when we learn what the moneybags are up to. Ink-stained heroes are a dying breed. Enjoy this one while you can.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)