Synopsis/blurb.........
The Second Detective
John Lynch Chicago Thriller
A taut US urban
thriller by Chicago’s answer to Dennis Lehane. For fans of Lehane, C. J. Box
& Jeffery Deaver.
Ex-Marine, Nick
Hardin, heads back from a decade in Africa to his hometown, Chicago, with $100
million in blood diamonds stolen from an Al Qaeda’s financing pipeline. His
retirement plan? To cash out through a Chicago Mossad contact and head for the
beach.
But soon, Hardin’s
stuck in Chicago with diamonds he can’t sell and a series of hit men, mobsters,
and a Washington off-the-books black ops team on his tail.
The resulting body count
leaves Chicago detective John Lynch trying to find connections among the
victims, while simultaneously solving the murder of a dead infectious disease
expert who’d drafted a biological weapons plan that could turn Chicago into a
ghost town.
Dan O’Shea is one of my finds of the year so far. (Ok, it
was late 2013 when he appeared on my radar – if we’re being picky.) Last month
his debut novel, Penance scooped the
much coveted, supreme accolade of Col’s Criminal Library January book of the
month. This month his follow-up, Greed smacks
it out of the park again and is a contender for February. Fortunately I still
have his short story collection Old School to look forward to.
My Penance thoughts
are here.
We are re-introduced to Detective Lynch and his partner, Slo-Mo
Bernstein as well as a whole new cast of intriguing characters this time. I’ll
give up on reviewing this thing coherently, because if I was to wax lyrical
about every facet of this superb multi-layered crime marvel, I would be here
for a month of Sundays and still wouldn’t be able to do it justice.
In the space of 410-odd
pages we have tech-wiz surveillance, diamonds, WMDs, hit-men, Mexican drug
lords and cartels, Chicago gang-bangers, Hollywood actors, Mob bosses and
flunkies, hookers, FBI, DEA, Mossad, Al-Qaeda, local cops, ex-marines, Scottish
nearly-nuns, Washington-black op types, Hezbollah, the Foreign Legion, financiers,
Oprah, Liberia, Africa, Lebanon, Iran, Vietnam, France, Israel, family, death,
loss, refuge, robbery, shootings, revenge, identity, retirement
plans...........and a whole plethora of things I have forgotten.
If you were to sit me down and pin me to the chair and force
me to re-read this straight away, I’d thank you. Not a dull sentence,
paragraph, page or chapter in sight.
O’Shea deserves to reach a wide audience with this book, which
was recently released by Exhibit A books. Up top in the blurb he is compared to
Lehane, Box and Deaver, but having read two of the three, I’d disagree – he’s
better!
6 from 5
Accessed via Net Galley.
Col - I'm so glad you enjoyed this one that much. I always think it's so nice to find a book like that - a book that one would cheerfully re-read a number of times. And it certainly sounds as though this one has a lot of plot points and themes. Thanks for sharing.
ReplyDeleteMargot thanks. Definitely a new favourite author of mine. Multiple plot strands and likeable characters, all presented believably. Happy days!
DeleteWell you did do a good job on selling Penance when you read it... I guess I'll try that one first. But I do like it when you do the features of a book in list form, I reckon you could make anything sound exciting. I'd like to see your list for the Bible....
ReplyDeleteMoira thanks - you're excused for now, but hopefully you take the plunge on the first. I wonder whether listing is the art of a lazy reviewer - but I like to just touch on things as opposed to reveal to much detail.
DeleteNow the bible.....hmm not read that one for a few years, remind me.....
Well, you've put him on my radar. Hope to read him this year. His first book is on sale for $1.99. Can't beat that. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteNo problem - fingers crossed it works out for you as well as Virgil Tibbs did for me!
DeleteCol, those 400-odd pages pack a lot, all good reasons for me to read this book. I have heard and read much about Dan O'Shea.
ReplyDeletePrashant, I can't sing its praises enough TBH. Just a really intelligent book, with a great deal going on. I loved his analysis of how certain events could be spun and would be spun in the States by the black op dudes and how theY constantly re-assess and manipulate and massage and control things - brilliant IMO.
DeleteI will keep an eye out for Penance. I will put it on the book sale list, it may show up there. And if not, I will seek it out. Unless Glen beats me to it.
ReplyDeleteIt would be good to see you and/or Glen read one or both of these. It's a very busy book - both are actually, but brilliant.
DeleteCol, thanks for the kind words about both PENANCE and GREED. Very much appreciated. I'm glad you enjoyed them both. For my next trick, watch for ROTTEN AT THE HEART, by my alter ego Bartholomew Daniels and also from Exhibit A. It comes out in April.
ReplyDeleteDan O'Shea
Dan, thanks for stopping by and cheers for the heads-up on your next outing. I will check it out for sure.
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