SOUL PATCH
4th Moe Prager Book (2007)
Winner of the 2008 Shamus Award - Best Hardcover
In this darkly intriguing follow-up to the Shamus- and Barry-winning The James Deans, ex-NYPD cop turned P.I. and entrepreneur Moe Prager is faced with a gut-wrenching case. The apparent suicide of his old friend and NYPD Chief of Detectives Larry McDonald, forces Moe back onto the decaying Coney Island streets he patrolled when he was in uniform. But now, beneath the boardwalk and behind the rusted and crumbling rides of the midway, he finds a trail of death, betrayal, and corruption reaching back to 1972. As Faulkner once said, “The past is never dead. It isn’t even past.” So it goes for Moe Prager in Soul Patch.
NOMINATIONS & AWARDS
- Edgar Award Best Novel
- Barry Award Best Novel
- Macavity Award Best Novel
REVIEWS
"With Soul Patch, Coleman does The James Deans one better and then some. Moe Prager is the man." - Janet Evanovich, author of the Stephanie Plum novels
Coleman tells this story with the steady hand of a ship's captain. This is Brooklyn of the late '80s, long after the Dodgers had departed, but before the current round of gentrification. The earthiness and scrappiness of that borough and its middle-class inhabitants comes through on every page. There's no inferiority complex here - there's pride on every street corner and in every restaurant and apartment building. Soul Patch brings to life the essence of dignity through the inevitable day-to-day struggle. It's about trying to rescue the reputation of a man who didn't deserve your loyalty, and was probably guilty as charged, anyway. It's about trying to make the grade one more time, even after your time has passed and you should be moving on. It can happen to all of us, and fortunately, we have Moe Prager to show us the way. -Stephen Miller, January magazine, June 2007
This novel is the fourth in the series whose protagonist is Moe Prager, a former New York City cop, prematurely retired due to injury, who misses the life. In this installment, he becomes involved with the past—friends and co-workers in the Coney Island precinct where he broke in. Now partners with his older brother in a chain of wine stores, he still keeps his hopes alive as a sometime private investigator. At the opening of the latest wine shop, his long-time friend, the chief of detectives, hands Moe a tape, setting off a chain of events resulting in a series of murders and unwanted revelations. It all began many years before, under the boardwalk in the shadow of the now-defunct parachute jump. As were its predecessors, this book is good and entertaining reading, the character development solid, the writing terse and graphic. - Theodore Feit
EXCERPT
Hear Reed Farrel Coleman read the first chapter of Soul Patch.
WHERE TO BUY
Paperback re-release coming fall 2010 from Busted Flush Press. Available at Murder by the Book, IndieBound, Borders, Amazon (large print) and Barnes and Noble (large print).
Also available in recorded format at audible.com.