Customer Reviews

Bad Things Happen

5 star:		(63)
4 star:		(34)
3 star:		(13)
2 star:		(11)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Some books are delicious. BAD THINGS HAPPEN is black caviar on 'wry' toast with an extra twist of lemon. Even the plot twists have twists. Mystery fans are in for a treat -- reading this book is like having a glass with a fizzy drink and knocking it down and realizing -gulp- that it was premium champagne!

The first sentence perfectly illustrates the author's deadpan style: "The shovel has to meet certain requirements." By page four, the reader knows for sure that the man calling himself David Loogan wants the shovel to dig a grave. By that time, it's too late to have any thoughts of doing anything else other than to keep reading; one is hooked, line and sinker. No point in fighting, just let yourself be reeled in by this sophisticated noirish mystery set in Ann Arbor, centering on a literary magazine that prints mystery stories. Part of the pleasure is the contrast between the lurid tales the magazine prints with the complicated puzzle that the author sets the reader.

There are layers upon layers of mystery. What is in David Loogan's past? Who is the dead man he helps his friend bury? Who killed the man?

David Loogan is a man of mystery who just wants to lead a quiet life. Tom Kristoll, editor of Gray Streets, discovers that David has a flair for editing. In addition to hiring him to improve the sometimes dreadful stories submitted to his publication, Tom befriends the reclusive stranger. But there are shattering secrets in the literary circle clustered around Tom. Success, disappointment and betrayal can all be motives for murder. And since the suspects are all mystery writers most of the deaths are staged to look like suicide!

This novel is exceptionally rich with characters: the mysterious and resourceful David Loogan, the convivial Tom and his seductive wife Laura, Elizabeth Waishkey the lovely and clever police detective tasked with solving the murders, her daughter Sarah, Michael Beccanti the cat burglar...Harry Dolan seems to invent startling people in the turn of a phrase who seem quite solid and real. Tongue-in-cheek homage is paid to the masters Chandler and Stout and just when you think you have reached the grand conclusion--another twist! The suspense is spun out exquisitely thin and dry before all is over. This is an outstanding debut novel by an exciting new talent that combines taut action with literary sophistication. Highly recommended!

First time novelist Harry Dolan has hit the jackpot with this witty page-turner of a detective novel set in the college town of Ann Arbor. The plot revolves around a mystery magazine, Grey Streets, published out of Ann Arbor, and the owner, his wife, an editor, secretary, and the various writers that write regularly for the magazine. When the owner of the magazine apparently jumps to his death out of his office window, the police quickly discover that he was in fact murdered, setting off a dizzying chain of events that will keep the reader up till late at night. Dolan creates a variety of intriguing characters, including an editor with a mysterious past, an appealing female police detective, a lesbian mystery writer, etc., who have complex interrelationships that will keep the reader guessing as to who is responsible for the string of murders in the novel.

Highly recommended--an entertaining thriller that is sure to keep the reader on the edge of his seat.

Harry Dolan has written one of the very best first novels I have ever come across. Bad Things Happen is a sweet mix of Agatha Christie's who done it's, Chandlers noir, Leonards banter and observational style, and a slew of contemporary artists. You can tell that Dolan LOVES mysteries. And if you love mysteries also, you will not be disappointed here.

Bad Things has its faults. I did not appreciate how it followed so many characters point of view. I think that it started off perfectly balanced for about half of the book, but upon reflection, some of the carefully crafted characters from earlier were left to fall apart as the plot shifted. Too much cleverness was added at the expense of a clean perfection that could have occurred.

Basically, the plot follows David Loogan, a man on the run from an unknown past. The women all seem to fall head over heals for this silent mysterious man. He is acutely intelligent. His mind works at a pace always one step ahead of the reader. David has found himself in a college town living in a rented flat, and working for a mystery magazine publication. The husband and wife owners of the publication are expertly drawn out and you get a real feel for them as people.

Soon though, David's past starts catching up, an unfortunate murder takes place, and the ball is rolling. As I said, the plot is good, not as great as the earlier character studies, the second half suffers just a little. But all in all this is just about as good as it gets. So five stars from me and I cant wait to get the next work by Dolan.

In Harry Dolan's "Bad Things Happen," David Loogan is trying to stay under the radar because of something that happened in the past. He rents a house in Ann Arbor and takes a job as an editor for "Gray Streets," a mystery magazine. We do not know much about Loogan, except that he is nervous, afraid of the dark, and has a habit of looking over his shoulder. One day, a colleague asks him to commit a shocking crime and, for some reason, he complies. The plot thickens when the murdered bodies of people connected with "Gray Streets" start to pile up, and Loogan, among others, is a suspect. Yet, he goes ahead and makes another questionable decision--to solve the crimes himself, rather than rely on the police to identify the guilty party.

"Bad Things Happen" is at its best when Dolan goes for laughs. For instance, Tom Kristoll, the publisher of "Gray Streets," wryly states, "No one sets out to be an editor. It's something that happens to you, like jaundice or falling down a well." A woman named Bridget makes fun of the contrivances that writers rely on to move their stories along: "It's a cliché...a murder staged to look like a suicide. Every mystery writer uses it sooner or later. I used it in my second book." More of this tongue-in-cheek bantering would have been invigorating.

The author presents a baffling series of events that leave us almost completely in the dark. A sharp detective named Elizabeth Waishkey attempts to find out who committed the aforementioned murders. Liz empathizes with David but is extremely irritated when he starts his own investigation, putting himself at risk and interfering with her efforts. David's personality is not well delineated; his behavior runs the gamut from shrewd to incredibly stupid. In fact, with a few exceptions, the large cast of characters consists of self-centered and grating individuals. The second half of the book goes straight downhill; the plot becomes so convoluted that we need a scorecard to keep track of the proceedings. Although the author is obviously satirizing ridiculous works of fiction in which authors throw in everything but the kitchen sink, the twists and turns are more annoying than amusing. First, Dolan tries to convince us that Scenario A is true; later, he substitutes Scenario B for Scenario A. Just when you think that everything has been explained, along comes Scenario C. By the time the good guys are sorted out from the bad guys and the deep dark secrets are revealed, readers will be more exhausted than exhilarated. "Bad Things Happen" would have been much better had it been less heavy-handed and more cohesive.

Plans change. Bad things happen. People die...

..."Listen, David, you can go if you want. I shouldn't have called you. I'll deal with this. You don't need to get involved."
"I'm already involved," Loogan said.
"It's too much to ask."
"You already asked."
"There's still time to come to your senses."
"That's what I've been trying to tell you," Loogan said.

The man who calls himself David Loogan has recently moved to Ann Arbor, set himself up in a small apartment, and started writing short stories. But Loogan has a past that is murky, secret and nearly untraceable. He also has an enviable bravado not often found, yet he is afraid of the dark. Some consequence from an earlier life? Few people who know him have any idea of who Loogan really is. In fact, few people know Loogan at all. He tends to keep a low profile.

When his friend, Tom Kristoll, asks him a favor, a doozy of a favor, really --- to help bury a body --- Loogan's quiet new life is quite understandably turned upside down. He never should have agreed to Kristoll's harebrained idea. Of course, he never should have slept with Kristoll's wife either. And it's possible he never should have changed his name and come to Ann Arbor.

Not a man who is generally prone to poor judgment, Loogan certainly should have known better, but this time he stacks one bad decision on top of another. Maybe if he hadn't, so many people wouldn't have died. How could burying one ex-con with a penchant for burglary (that's what Kristoll told Loogan about the dead guy) cause a chain reaction of such huge proportions?

It's not long after Loogan and his friend have planted the body in the woods that another victim turns up. Followed by another. And then another. Where will it stop? Ann Arbor has never seen so many bodies with questionable causes of death. And the list of possible killers just keeps growing.

Very slowly, Loogan starts to figure out what's going on --- or, at least, he has a pretty workable theory. If he is right, he could be the next to die. Solving the puzzle of whodunit becomes a race for his life.

Fortunately, the cop on the cases, Detective Elizabeth Waishkey, has a good head on her shoulders. Even when an abundance of evidence and the general police sentiment point at Loogan as the prime suspect, Elizabeth maintains her doubt. If not for her, the outcome might have been far different for Loogan. And because of Loogan, the outcome might have been far different for her too.

Caustically witty and hair-raisingly scary, BAD THINGS HAPPEN bursts onto the literary scene with a story teeming with new twists on nearly every page and action that will leave its readers breathless. David Loogan is a great new character, as is Detective Waishkey, a pair readers will want to see a lot more of --- if they survive. If ever there were a tale of one's past coming back to haunt, this is it.

--- Reviewed by Kate Ayers

Bad Things Happen offers both good news and bad news for its author, Harry Dolan. The good news is that Dolan's debut novel is both excellent and a joy to read; the bad news is that he just set the bar so high for himself that it will be difficult to jump that high again his next time out (not a bad tradeoff of good and bad, as I feel certain Mr. Dolan would agree).

As the novel opens, David Loogan is in search of a special shovel, one that will work well in tight quarters. Loogan, a man already hiding from his past, has made the ill-fated decision to help his friend (and boss), Tom Kristoll hide evidence about what happened at Kristoll's home earlier in the evening. Loogan is no fool, and he knows that what Kristoll wants him to believe about the incident is, on the one hand, too neat, and on the other, full of holes. Loogan, though, is loyal to the man who gave him his new start as an editor at Gray Streets, a mystery magazine, and perhaps because he is sleeping with Kristoll's wife, he feels compelled to do whatever Kristoll asks of him.

Things go well enough that night but when people associated with the magazine start turning up dead, Loogan begins to realize the danger in which his misplaced sense of loyalty has placed him. Not only is he suspected by the Ann Arbor police of being a murderer, the real murderer is determined to add him to the growing list of formerly-breathing Gray Streets employees.

Clearly, author Harry Dolan is a man who appreciates classic American noir crime fiction. Bad Things Happen is a combination parody/tribute to the crime writing school made famous by the likes of Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler, James Cain, and others, and one can visualize many of the book's scenes as part of the old black and white movies of that era. One has only to read a list of the names of the book's main characters to get a feel for the atmosphere Dolan wants to create for his mystery. We have: David Loogan, Bridget Shellcross, Rex Chatterjee, Nathan Hideaway, and Casmir Hifflyn, for starters. It is almost enough to make the reader yearn for a quick game of Clue between chapters.

Bad Things Happen, though, has more than nostalgia to offer its readers. Its finely-crafted plot, filled with unexpected twists and turns, will keep readers guessing the murderer's identify all the way to the end - wondering even to the last page if they have it figured out this time. David Loogan, Ann Arbor detective Elizabeth Waishkey, and Waishkey's daughter, Rachel, are memorable characters and, at some point, they deserve a chance to live again in a sequel to Bad Things Happen.

If you know and love the American noir school of crime fiction, the updated version of the genre presented by Harry Dolan in Bad Things Happen is certain to make you smile.

Dolan dishes out a story that is crisp and riveting. Replete with all the twists, turns, and red herrings you yearn for in a good mystery, Dolan's characters jump out at you with their unexpected candor and quirky personalities. The ending had me so convoluted, I felt like I was on a roller coaster at Six Flags. I stumbled off the last page ready for an icy lemonade and a cool rag for my forehead. Whew! What a ride! I read this nearly straight through, with a few hours of sleep thrown in. I can't wait for the next book, featuring two of BTH's main characters.

Harry Dolan's "Bad Things Happen" is an absolutely delicious book. Full of twists and turns - there is a juicy surprise about every ten pages - it is also written for Readers. By this, I mean that Dolan includes tasty little literary references for people who think that Shakespeare, or Raymond Chandler, are more culturally relevant than, say, Britney Spears. (Example: a character is murdered by being whacked with a volume of Shakespeare. The killer attempts to disguise the murder as a suicide by opening the volume to an obscure passage in Hamlet that obliquely references suicide.)

David Loogan is the name our protagonist is using at the beginning of the tale. As the book opens he is buying a shovel that has to meet certain requirements. Not just any shovel is suitable for digging a grave. Loogan has been recently hired to edit a small literary journal in Michigan that specializes in murder mysteries. We are often reminded how our story would be progressing if it were one published in "Gray Streets," before the story turns in some completely different direction.

Graves are dug, and un-dug. Fatale Femmes tempt men prone to temptation. Bodies stack up like firewood. Slick-talking men convince others to do things they wouldn't otherwise. Shady characters murder and lie and have dialogue witty enough to remind us we're reading a darn good read rather than watching an episode of "Cops," all the while being pursued by diligent officers. (Some of my favorite passages and dialogue comes from the already worldly wise teenaged daughter of the lady protagonist detective.)

"Bad Things" was the runner-up of last year's inaugural Amazon break-through novel award. If you like a good mystery it is more than worthy of a few of your hours and dollars.

Good writin' Harry.

David Loogan lives and hides in Ann Arbor in hope of moving past a violent history that he knows he will never forget. He begins to write a short story for Gray Streets literary crime-fiction journal. Though he never finishes the project, the magazine publisher Tom Kristoll likes what he has seen. He offers David a position as an editor, which he accepts. David, Tom, and his wife Laura become friends.

Tom obtains David's help in dumping a corpse though the former does not believe the latter's explanation. Soon afterward Tom falls to his death from his office window. AAPD Homicide Detective Elizabeth Waishkey suspects David killed Tom especially when evidence surfaces that he slept with Laura. As other people associated with Gray Streets die, single mom Elizabeth focuses even more intensely on David, who conducts his own inquiry to uncover the killer before he is on trial.

The fun in this terrific twisting serial killer investigative tale is the writers who are intelligent and witty until they become the star of someone else's plot. The story line is fast-paced and the amateur sleuth prime suspect and the obstinate cop chasing him makes for an intriguing duel. Mindful of the movies' Theater of Blood and Murder by Death, but less hammy, fans will enjoy Harry Dolan's fine thriller that as Vincent Price said (in Theatre of Blood) is "much ado about murder".

Harriet Klausner

Harry Dolan's "Bad Things Happen" is a mystery fan's mystery. This book was written by an mystery afficianado; references to Raymond Chandler's works are sprinkled throughout the book and Dolan discusses the structure of mystery novels during the course of the story. I found the book to be engaging and the plot to be tightly wound. The main character, David Loogan, a man of mystery, held my interested and drew me into the story.

My quibbles: like some others, I found the dialogue to be too glib at times, but that didn't overwhelm me. The two protagonists were nicely drawn, but the suspects seemed a little too generic. The ending was a little weak.

Overall, this is a book you'll enjoy, especially if you're a hard core mystery fan.