Customer Reviews

The Bone Orchard

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

An impressive first effort by Mr. Judson. There is action right from the start, and the pace never let's up. Just when I thought that I had figured out who was behind the bizarre single-car wreck (murder) witnessed by the protagonist, Mac, the author threw me another curve and I was back to square one. It was a fun trip to the end.

The other thing I enjoyed was the depth of Judson's main character, Mac. He was a three dimensional man, not just another super hero accomplishing the seemingly impossible. Such depth should lend itself well to the series which author Judson promises.

This is an excellent first-up novel by D. Daniel Judson. It's dark, brooding and introspective, often violent with a loner protagonist who seems to be taking on the world. Essentially, it contains all the elements of noir at its best.

It's important to note that although this is his first book, it's actually the sequel to THE POISONED ROSE and will probably be more fully appreciated if it's read second. At least that's the order that I read them and was thankful that I did due to the numerous references to events from THE POISONED ROSE.

To quickly summarise the story, Declan (call me Mac) MacManus is just scraping by with a minimum wage job and a police chief who is out to get him. Supposedly to help Mac out, private investigator Frank Gannon offers him a surveillance job that he is to take with his long-time friend, Augie. Mac knows better than to get involved with Frank Gannon, but takes the job against his better instincts, reasoning that he is helping Augie out.

While on the surveillance job they witness a car accident that looks suspiciously as though it was no accident and quickly involve themselves but cannot save the driver of the car. Augie watches the police investigate the accident but isn't convinced that they did anything more than clean up the mess, so he starts to investigate himself.

It's as a direct result of this extra involvement that all hell breaks loose for Mac and Augie. They are each ambushed by unknown assailants in separate incidents; the result for Augie sees him charged with manslaughter as he was a little too proficient in defending himself. As for Mac, apart from being ambushed, he's set-up, hunted and almost killed (a number of times) while firstly trying to find out why the car accident happened and then as he tried to gather evidence to help Augie beat the manslaughter charge.

There is a strong sense that Mac is simply surviving from one encounter to the next and only managing that through sheer willpower. This is a dark thriller in which you've got to grit your teeth and hope that the right people manage to survive. As a lover of noir fiction I enjoyed this story immensely.

"The Bone Orchard" by D. Daniel Judson is a classic hard-boiled PI novel.

Declan MacManus is a sometime PI, full time boozer and guilt ridden by his past. He is on unfriendly terms with the local cops and trouble seems to gravitate toward him.

Reluctantly accepting an assignment from big time PI Frank Gannon, Declan witnesses a single car accident while on stakeout. He is convinced the "accident" was staged and is murder. Was he set up as a witness to insure a speedy inquest?

Declan cannot let it go and upsets powerful people as he and his partner (ex DEA) Augie investigate.

When Augie gets ambushed Declan puts himself in harm's way to save his friend. While moody, boozy, reclusive and paranoid---Declan is a renegade with a powerful sense of justice, a true anti-hero.

The dark and mysterious plot moves in nonstop fashion, full of vivid scenes, with sufficient murder and turmoil. Uncovering the manipulator of the conspiracy is the whodunit and the twists and turns are impossible to predict.

"The Bone Orchard" is an excellent debut novel and worthy Shamus nominee. Mr. Judson gets the maximum from a minimum number of characters and spare prose. A bright star on the mystery horizon

Although the setting was intriguing and characters believeable, I felt the story was cumbersome and didn't really start to flow until the later chapters. Mac is a very likeable dectective and well drawn out but the story does not move forward easily and did get frustrating because it wasn't moving forward fast enougth. The author did live in the area which made me want to finish the book because the setting and economic climate was on point. I do think the second book will have a better flow, but this book is not an easy read, particularly if you like to read crime books like Patterson and Cornwall.

Judson has created a strong portrait of a new, guilt-ridden hero in Declan MacManus; a young man with too many secrets, a deep well of personal pain, and unshakable loyalty to the few friends he has. It is to Judson's credit that the character never steps into stock territory but remains an interesting and driven soul to the end.

The book has great narrative drive that doesn't let up for a moment, with fully conceived, viable characters and so much action that the reader (never mind Mac) scarcely has time to breathe. There is murder, threatened harm, and mayhem; and no one is entirely what she or he appears to be.

My one problem with The Bone Orchard is the many references to past events for which the reader has no information; a technical mechanism to create an historical pattern of behavior for his hero. Unfortunately there are just too many of these references and they become somewhat confusing. I found myself flipping back to try to find the origins, but they weren't there. One has to fill in the blanks in some instances. This doesn't slow down the pacing of the book and given that this is the author's first published work, he'll probably be more assured in the forthcoming The Poisoned Rose (the second in the series.) I will certainly buy it. Judson is someone to watch. He's very talented and displays impressive control of his material.

In Southampton, Long Island, private investigator Frank Gannon hires Declan MacManus to tail a client's son-in-law who might be cheating. Declan wants to say no, but cannot allow his best friend Augie, still recovering from severe injuries, to go on the case alone.

Augie and Declan conduct a stakeout in a lonely back road when they notice a person in the nearby woods. Soon a car arrives followed by explosion with the vehicle falling into a pond. Declan pulls the driver out of the water, but is too late to save the teenage girl. Because of his poor relationship with the police chief, Declan leaves the area. Later, Augie informs Declan that the police destroyed the crime scene evidence. That night both men are separately attacked with Augie killing one of his assailants and Declan badly injuring his. The police arrest Augie for murder, forcing Declan to take his buddy's teenage daughter into his home while trying to prove his friend's innocence against a conspiracy that includes the police.

THE BONE ORCHARD is an exciting private detective mystery that belies the fact that this book is D. Daniel Judson's first novel. The story line is loaded with action as readers take a tour of the underbelly of the Hamptons. Declan adheres to what he believes is morally correct and is aided by the secondary characters providing depth so that readers fully grasp how much ethics mean to him and how much future appearances by him will mean to the audience.

Harriet Klausner

I seem to be going through a phase right now. The books I have been reading of late are drowning in atmosphere. The main characters are, at best, anti-heroes, at worst, miserable wretches pocking the landscapes of their respective environments. The writers of the novels...supremely talented at getting under the reader's skin with their words.

The Bone Orchard is the premiere novel from author D. Daniel Judson. It is as stark and bereft of goodness as a night during the coldest winter storm. Every character, from the central player, Declan "Mac" MacManus, to the friend in need, Eddie...EVERY CHARACTER, is deeply flawed in some way, either physically, mentally or spiritually. Every character impacts the others, every action creates an equal and opposite reaction.

The unforgiving weather, the frigid landscape, the isolated people are all intertwined in a complex story that ends up being a simple case of greed. Then again, with so many characters, nothing can ever be simple...and if you are looking for a happy ending, go elsewhere.

Judson's world is bleak. It is unhappy. It is inhabited by the ghosts of the dead AND the living.

MacManus is a "sometimes Private Investigator," who works for people he doesn't want to work for because he HAS to in order to pay rent, buy food and get around town. He hates getting involved in other people's affairs, but is already so deep into everything that there is little to no choice.

The Chief of Police HATES him and, from the earliest pages, Hudson tells you this...but not why...that detail gets milked and becomes part of the larger plot unfolding, metastasizing into a malignant horror show.

The plot begins to unfold when Mac and a good friend of his Augie, are hired by the town's master manipulator and private investigator Frank Gannon, to spy on someone suspected of cheating on his wife. While staked out, they witness a horrible accident that takes the life of a teen-aged girl. The accident, of course, is no accident...and sends the story spiraling uncontrollably to its violent and inevitable climax.

And yet, Hudson throws in twists in the plot, character revelations and, above all else, keeps up the tension. The weather is dire and only gets worse. Mac is injured, badly, several times throughout the story. In fact, very few of the characters get away scott-free.

The Bone Orchard is an excellent read. It is a study in noir and a throwback to the days of black and white...good and evil...a time when things looked impossibly bad...they wouldn't get better...until a very unlikely hero steps up and acts with honor and nobility...against every reason for him to do so.

This is not only an amazing first novel, but an amazing novel period. I look forward to reading more of Mr. Judson's work...when I'm feeling a little risky and want some old fashioned noir to drown in.

I ordered this earlier work by Judson because I enjoyed "The Darkest Place" and am glad I did. Judson's underbelly world of Long Island never looks like a fantasy and his characters are recognizable without being stereotypes. His action sequences are exceptional and the plot here has a few twists. I'm hooked.

Good first book (in places), but the writer made the protagonist such a loser that I found my self disappointed at the end. That's it? Mac has lots of life skills, but settles for a dismal end, waiting to die?

Also, I suggest more research for the next novel. No one who has several broken ribs could do the things that Mac did in the last 100 pages.

Let me preface this review by stating that I'm a huge fan of mystery and suspense thrillers, reading at least 25 or 30 a year. I sometimes come across one that doesn't strike my fancy or isn't as good as the reviews led me to believe it would be, but it's very rare for me to start a book without finishing it. That's why I was so surprised that I couldn't even get through the first 25 pages of The Bone Orchard.

Unfortunately, this novel is just plain bad in every sense of the word. Hopefully the author honed his craft with time, but this book is downright pitiful. I would rate the writing itself on the level of that found in a high school creative writing class; stumbling, fumbling and, at times, nearly impossible to read. The author's attempt to describe basic scenes is so ham-fisted and cluttered with unneccessary words that the reading experience becomes like driving a car down an uneven dirt road pitted with huge potholes. I constantly found myself wondering who the editor for this book had been because the book actually appears to be completely unedited. Life is too short to waste even a few hours on a book like this, so I'll move on for now and perhaps try one of Judson's later books in the future---because every author deserves a second chance, but not every book. The Bone Orchard is going to the used book store ASAP.