The Cracked Earth: A Jack Liffey Mystery (Jack Liffey Mysteries) [Paperback]

John Shannon (Author)

Book Description

Series: Jack Liffey Mysteries | Publication Date: December 1, 2008

"A remarkable update on the Chandler knight-errant. Shannon matches the master."—Dick Lochte, Los Angeles Times

Her name is Lori Bright. You might remember seeing her in A Week in Palm Springs, lounging enticingly in the bathtub while an aging and flustered Cary Grant tries to find her a suitably revealing towel. Jack Liffey remembers, and even now he can't help but fall for her just a little. The problem is that she's paying him good money to locate her missing daughter—a case that is about to get Jack stuck between the seedy violence of the old City of Angels and the new gleaming bloodlust of contemporary Los Angeles.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Shannon may be one of the best L.A. mystery writers you've never heard of. -- Josh Getlin, Los Angeles Times

About the Author

John Shannon is one of America's most highly acclaimed writers of neo-noir. He has written ten novels in the Jack Liffey mystery series. John lives in Los Angeles.

Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Pegasus; Reprint edition (December 1, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1605980048
• ISBN-13: 978-1605980041
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.5 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #652,561 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3.0 out of 5 stars Not enough darling-cide, March 11, 2009

By 

James Tetreault (North Grafton, MA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Cracked Earth: A Jack Liffey Mystery (Jack Liffey Mysteries) (Paperback)

The line from Faulkner, about writing was that you have to "kill all your darlings". I thought of it after reading this book. It wasn't bad. I read all the way through. Parts were interesting. The character of Lee Borowsky, the girl that Jack Liffey's trying to find for most of the book, is very memorable. But there's just a bit too much implicit cheering for everyone the author likes. There's a bit of political correctness at times and the plot stretches credulity at times such as a huge japanese corporation going after a computer graphics company with a guy who firebombs them. Then the computer graphics company hacks the corporation's computers and takes $12 million of their money and gives it away to charities. But we're supposed to believe that the corporation just says, 'Aw shucks, you guys are so tough. We give up.' I suspect things would get rougher and/or litigation to bankrupt the computer graphics company would quickly ensue.

The writing is fine just not good enough to make up for the slightly insular feeling world created with it.