Customer Reviews

Broken Wing

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(0)
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1 star:		(1)

 

 

In New Orleans the FBI assigns forty-something Special Agent Mike Yeager to go undercover as a rogue operative in order to gain insider access to the growing Barca mob. Mike thinks it is a small world as he once dated the chieftain's daughter Sofia, who he deserted two decades ago to turn in her dad. Mike's current task is to help the mobster expedite the sale of kidnapped Amrita Burke, whose husband was murdered during the abduction.

His actual task is to stealthily investigate who brutalized and killed British citizen Simon Burke and has offered up his wife Amrita up for bid. Mike meets with chieftain Emelio Barca and his half-son Grady, who agree to his working with them on the Amrita sale. However, his efforts to find her spouse's killer and ultimately rescue Amrita take a personal spin when he realizes Sofia needs his help too.

The still devastated parts of the post Katrina city steals the show in this superb police procedural as neighborhoods have become urban wastelands. The hero quickly learns to trust no one, especially those who are supposedly his FBI support group, if he is to accomplish his mission and leave New Orleans alive. There is plenty of explosive action and double and triple crosses on all sides including the law as avarice and corruption greet Yeager everywhere he goes. He already has enough of a burden with remorse, guilt and psychological defense mechanisms loading him down before he arrives (see The Shadow Catchers), but the BROKEN WING undercover operative will quickly understand he is in the eye of the hurricane.

Harriet Klausner

Lakeman's eagerly anticipated third novel turns out to be his best yet! Mike Yeager has lost so much, yet there is so much more he could lose with one wrong step. And you're right there with him, riding the ragged edge of disaster, through all the twists and turns, with all the vivid characters. And all the while you never lose sight of the recovering city of New Orleans, like a beloved eccentric uncle--endearing, infuriating, and heartbreaking.

I think I stopped reading just long enough to eat a meal, but I read it straight through on the day it arrived. This novel is intense!

There are authors who can genuinely write - it's not so much about the stories that they tell, but in the way that they tell them. These are the guys who can give you a description of an empty restaurant and make it one of the most compelling things you've ever read. You might not be that wrapped up in the actual story, but the telling of it? Well, that's got you hooked.

Then there are them what can plot out a tale - a fabulous complex twisty tale that keeps you on the edge of your seat; who keep you up past your bedtime because you just can't stand the thought of not knowing what happens next. These guys often seem to be writing to a 3rd grade comprehension level (Grisham? Patterson? I mean you!) but you forgive that fact because the story itself just will not let you go...

And then, if you're lucky - if you're really really lucky? You stumble across someone like Thomas Lakeman. Lakeman can not only write like a house on fire (man, oh man does this guy have a stunning way with language!) but he can plot out a tale that is absolutely impossible to put down. He did it in "Chillwater Cove" and he's done it again here...

"Broken Wing" is a force with which to be reckoned - as is its protagonist, Mike Yaeger. There are a number of "wow! didn't see that one coming..." plot twists - some of which are really out there, coming just thisclose to the line of implausibility, but always, ALWAYS staying on the right side of it. (This, I believe, must be much trickier than it seems - so many novels of suspense tromp all over that line. I imagine it's done to make the narrative fresh and unexpected - but I always feel cheated when something is too far out there in terms of believability...)

My hat is off to Mr. Lakeman - and I eagerly look forward to what he writes next..

Intelligent, witty-- Truly, Deeply, witty-- dialog. Compelling and memorable characters questioning morality at every heart-stopping minute. Events changing fast enough to make your neck snap. Thank you, Mr. Lakeman, for bringing me along on your hair-raising, 300-page tour between Scylla and Charybdis.
Broken Wing avoids the sentimental Sorghum so cloying in most Southern lit. A delicate, Believable touch illuminates the contrast between the boulevards and peculiarities of vieux New Orleans dwellers and those who live there now. Man-in-the Street snapshots of our years since Hurricane Katrina tell the stories of souls who endured that fiasco in an unwavering, un-sensational voice that I trust.
This is a modern novel. It regales those who live near the River in this century while it elucidates those who are curious. Like Pat Conroy's works- (are all Southerners verbose?) there is fodder enough for many more episodes crammed between the bindings of Any of Lakeman's books. And thank goodness- because I Must know what Al and Della are up to.....
If only someone would snap up this stuff up for a television series!! It would be so satisfying to get weekly installments of Agents Yeager, Weaver, and that smart alec Presbyterian- Special Agent Hiraka. Lakeman's prose looms larger than exciting spy stuff- or I couldn't read it. It is well-written literature and it has legs.

I just can't believe that this beautifully-crafted detective series has not yet been turned into a movie or television series. The talented Thomas Lakeman is poised to become the next James Lee Burke.

Normally, not my genre of choice, I read BROKEN WING after meeting the author at a conference, impressed with his instruction and curious about the book and his techniques. This novel took me on a ride. The characters were multilayered. It was gritty and real. New Orleans after Katrina--wow, what a mileau to explore! Lakeman is a fine writer and craftsman. Dialogue crackled and the images he evoked linger long after the last page.

I'm one of those people who never walks out on movies will finish a book even though I might not be enjoying it. Counter to the other reviews posted here, I stopped reading about half way through. Actually after about a third of the way through the book I stopped being interested. The writing was OK and the dialogue was average at best. Sometimes trying to be a bit too clever by half.

Ultimately I stopped reading for 2 main reasons. Both reasons were based on the absurd story lines the author introduced. The main character is a smart ass FBI agent who is assigned with the task of infiltrating a Mafia Don's family in New Orleans. The Don's family was smashed by the FBI some 20 years earlier and the lead agent who caused this to happen was our smart ass hero. Yet, when he shows up in New Orleans again (on assignment from the FBI) after supposedly being drummed out of the FBI, the Don, who has been rebuilding his organization, quickly takes him in and he becomes one of the Don's closest advisors. All this in a period of about 2 weeks! I guess they don't make Don's like the used to because this guy's really stupid. At this point I'm having doubts about the book.

The capper comes when another character is introduced who is a hot shot, up and coming FBI agent who has the old guard salivating about his future. He seems to be a mirror image of our hero when he was a young agent. This new agent is working on some very important cases one of them being a connection to the New Orleans office. In this role he is the liaison between the FBI and the New Orleans Police Department and heading up a task force on drugs, the mafia and all the crime after Katrina. Pretty big responsibility for a relatively inexperienced agent. Now comes the part that killed this book for me. The young agent is about 20 years old and conned his way into the FBI by lying about his age, education and just about everything about himself. Can you imagine any circumstance where anyone can lie themselves into becoming an FBI agent, let alone a 20 year old kid. To compound this lunacy, the kid is the grandson of the New Orleans Don the AND son of our smart ass hero!! After a couple more chapters I just couldn't find any of the story believable and stopped reading.

This is the type of book where you say to yourself, how the devil did this book get published? What editor thought the story lines were any thing but absurd? I've read about 60 books this year and certainly not all of them were winners, but this is the ONLY book I didn't finish.

In the interest of full disclosure, I worked with Thomas Lakeman about 20 years ago when we were both toiling in the motion picture trade. I knew him then for his comprehensive knowledge of literature (especially American theater) and politics, as well as his exceptionally sharp wit. I imagined he would stay in the biz and become the next Stephen Bochco, J.J. Abrams, or David Chase. I never would have guessed that, when we crossed paths again, he would be penning taut American thrillers (although I wouldn't put it past him to knock off an exceptional English murder mystery when no one is looking). Being surprised by the versatility of Thomas' talent is not the same as underestimating him. I knew going in to his series that he was a damned fine writer. I just didn't know until I dug in to his three novels that he would master the genre so naturally and with such authority and authenticity. I read a lot of mysteries, and I expect the authors who wish to retain my loyalty to know their procedural P's and Qs, to surprise me, to avoid smug schtick in the dialogue, and to please, please, please stop trying to contrive the next Hannibal Lecter. Thomas Lakeman avoids all the pitfalls of the genre, but he delivers everything that matters: tight and credible plotting, historically detailed Deep South settings that he knows as well as he knows his own heart, verisimilitude in his narrative that ties directly into the development of his characters, genuinely creepy chills, startling reversals in fortune, gruesome villains, and not one, but two broken protagonists--FBI Agents Mike Yeager and Peggy Weaver--driven by commitment, conscience, tortured childhoods, and unflinching decency. I stick with a series because I want to know more about the characters and see what happens next in their saga. Thomas Lakeman has created all-too-human heroes for his readers to wonder and care about, and he places them in heart-stopping situations so that we can marvel at their quick thinking, wince at their foibles, and hope that they will endure to keep a light going against the darkness. And a big bonus: his wit remains as keen and biting as ever. Read and rejoice, fans of the genre: Thomas Lakeman is a keeper!