Done Listening: "Where it Hurst" by Reed Farrell Coleman

Done Listening: Where It Hurts by Reed Farrell Coleman, 2016, overdrive.com download.

Another Coleman adventure on Long Island. A few years ago Coleman wrote two books under the name Tony Spinosa, Hose Monkey and The Fourth Victim. I enjoyed those two ex-cops-working-crap-jobs-in-downtrodden-Long-Island novels.  This novel has a similar theme with retired patrol officer Gus Murphy living in a lousy airport hotel and driving the hotel shuttle van.

Murphy's personal life imploded two years previous when his 20-year-old son died of a heart defect during a playground basketball game. Murphy's marriage fell apart. His wife slept with Murphy's former partner. His daughter starting boozing it up. Murphy was full of anger and loss. Murphy dropped contact with all his remaining friends and colleagues.

Murphy has basically put himself into a living purgatory. One day a skell from Gus's police days shows up asking Murphy to help investigate the murder of the skell's son since the cops on the case have been doing squat. Murphy gets angry thinking The Skell is playing for sympathy since Murphy's dead son also died youg. Gus kicks the guy out of the hotel, has second thoughts, tracks The Skell down to apologize. Gus goes to the scrap yard Skell works and lives at and Gus is shot at. He then finds Skell's corpse.  Gus is now involved.

Plenty of things happen. Gus has a focus now. Gus starts talking with former cop colleagues and with the police chaplain who helped him two years ago. Gus still loves his ex-wife but that relationship is poisoned and done with.

Bad guys show up and we meet plenty of the working class and criminal class of Long Island. No East Egg and West Egg and parties on yachts. This is overcast Christmas season with lonely people at the hotel's disco night, parents with dead children, divorce, betrayal, murder, torture, guilt, etc.

Jeeze. That last paragraph makes the book sound like a major downer. It isn't. Gus's arc is upward in this story: he is finally starting to recover and deal with his grief and anger.

Comments:
1. Long Island geography love.
2. Glock 26 love.
3. Beat-up car love.
4. Mysterious Russian-immigrant-with-history-of-violence love.