Customer Reviews

The Concrete River: A Jack Liffey Mystery (John Brown Books)

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There are writers in various genres (mystery, romance, westerns, etc.) and then there are Writers; they're the gifted people whose genre is scarcely relevant because their work always rises above the territory upon which they've staked their claim. John Shannon is a Writer.

This first of Shannon's Jack Liffey series is a work of lean, effective prose, spiced with startling dashes of outrageous humor (as was The Orange Curtain, my introduction to Shannon's work). Los Angeles, as portrayed through Liffey's eyes, is a series on ongoing atrocities and carnage that are so everyday as to be normal. Add to this mix a character with a tired, yet invincible, spirit who observes and accepts (but doesn't like) what he sees, and you have a hero unlike any other.

Liffy is the essential American of a certain age, (and a Viet Nam vet) possessed of heart and conscience, trying very hard to be honorable while he searches for missing children (in itself a profound metaphor for the lost innocence not only of the city, but of our entire society.)

It is a sad fact that talent is not its own reward; it does not guarantee success. But if anyone writing today deserves recognition on a large scale, it is John Shannon. His work is both insightful social commentary and an unflinching, wrenching look at the human heart. If you want to be entertained and informed, get this book! Go to out-of-print booksites if you must, or search your local library, but this is a writer who very much deserves to be widely read.

Captures Los Angeles perfectly. Protagonist is believable, story is absorbing - I couldn't wait for the second of this series and bought it immediately when it came out (this is the first). Looking forward to the author's next book. If you like Michael Connelly, Abigail Padgett, and find Andrew Vacchs compelling (if not always palatable), give this author a try. You won't be disappointed.

This was my first experience with a Jack Liffey novel and it won't be the last. Rather than start with his later work, I ordered "The Concrete River" as this is the first in the series and I wanted to be in on the beginning. John Shannon is clearly an underated talent and I am pleased to see that there will be reissues of more of his earlier work. Shannon's writing is Chandleresque and Liffey is a great world-weary private eye. The descriptions of the underbelly of Los Angeles are spot on and remind me of Hammett, Mosely and Michael Connelly. Avid mystery readers owe it to themselves to check out Shannon. You won't be disappointed. My next Liffey novel is on pre-order!

Jack Liffey finds missing kids in L.A. There are a lot of things he is no good at. He got laid off long ago from his white collar job of writing technical manuals. When that paycheck flew out the window; so did a nice car, his wife, and his beloved daughter Maeve. Now Jack bumps along the bottom rung of L.A. society cruising for missing persons in his 16 year old AMC Concord. He is comfortable in the barrios and among building skeletons of long abandoned industrial neighborhoods. Consuela Beltran, a low-income housing advocate, has gone missing. Jack had found her kid Tony when he went missing a few years ago. Now Tony is a gang-banger in training. Tony and his vatos ride shotgun for Jack as he cruises the barrio looking to tag bad guys and find the missing Connie. My first Shannon read was PALOS VERDE BLUE . The series and Liffey were tired and it was a bad intro to J.S. In fairness to J.S. I went back to early Liffey.THE CONCRETE RIVER is poetry in a pot boiler. The writing is lyrical, sensitive, and portrays the seamy under belly of L.A. with a taut, haunting , beauty. The characters are finely drawn. So much so that you can taste the salt in J.L.'s date when Jack goes down on her pulsing fig; and feel the sexual tension in the ex-nun whose puss is too tight for Liffey's throbbing member. The action is heated with an evil and violent cowboy enforcer; and mob money pulling the strings behind shady real estate dealings. Shannon is a master. This is a good read.

This book begins John Shannon's Jack Liffey series about a character who becomes an unintended and unlicensed detective tracing lost children. Liffey fits right into the tradition of other Los Angeles offbeat detective-protagonists. The random comments about the weirdness of L.A. are especially amusing. Recommend reading the series in order to appreciate the development of the characters.

In 1961 the author and I were freshmen together at Pomona College, more or less dorm neighbors. We drifted apart in subsequent years and have had no contact since graduation. A while back the alumni magazine had a feature on John, which moved me to read this novel, of whose existence I was regrettably unaware. I am happy to recommend it without reservation.

Other reviewers, including professionals, have compared John to the great master of Los Angeles private eye fiction, Raymond Chandler. I wouldn't take the comparison too seriously, but there are similarities of mood. If you don't expect Marlowe reincarnated, you will not be disappointed. This writer has a voice that is very much his own and that deserves to be taken seriously. I say this as a reader who considers Chandler to be one of the 20th Century's greatest writers in English.

John: if you should happen to read this, congratulations on a singular accomplishment. I will now proceed to read everything else of yours I can get my hands on.

This is my first John Shannon Jack Liffey novel. I came across Shannon's name in a magazine article and decided to start at the beginning of this series with The Concrete River. I don't know why John Shannon isn't better known. This writer deserves much more attention by mystery readers--his writing is that good. His protagonist--Liffey--is a well-educated, down-on-his-luck child finder, a modern-day philosopher, whose sense of honor is the driving force of his actions and interactions. Los Angeles is a major character in the story, a sense of place--the bleak and the bizarre-- established by a writer who knows the city well. While the mystery is compelling and well told, it is the careful construction of Liffey by the author that brings this tale to life. I am already on the fourth book in the series and have not been disappointed yet.