Dangerous Games: A Jack Liffey Mystery (Jack Liffey Mysteries) [Hardcover]

John Shannon (Author)

Book Description

Series: Jack Liffey Mysteries | Publication Date: May 10, 2005

Jack Liffey's new girlfriend, Gloria Martinez, a police sergeant of Paiute-Latino heritage, talks him into looking into the disappearance of her beautiful 18-year-old niece, Luisa, from a tiny reservation in the Owens Valley. To escape abuse, the girl had threatened to run away to L.A.'s porn industry, and in fact does become caught up in the phone sex business, then hostessing, and finally the trashy business of videotaping the homeless engaged in wildly dangerous stunts. Luisa is fought over by a motley band of lowlifes and would-be rescuers, including the Jamaican Trevor "Terror" Pennycooke, whom Jack knows from an earlier case. The hunt for Luisa comes together in the Malibu Hills, where a bumbling army of suitors and rescuers touch off a gun battle and dangerous firestorm that sweeps Jack and everyone else ahead of it down the Malibu Hills toward the ocean.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

When an aimless shot from a car full of teens strikes Jack Liffey's 16-year-old daughter, Maeve, the professional child finder has no intention of allowing justice to follow its aimless course in Shannon's lively eighth series mystery (after 2004's Terminal Island). Gloria Ramirez, the policewoman with whom Liffey lives in East Los Angeles's Boyle Heights, tries to distract him by arranging to have him hired to look for her hopelessly naïve niece, Luisa Wilson, who's disappeared and believed headed for L.A.'s porn factories. Shannon nails bizarre characters like two shady filmmakers, Kenyon Styles and Rod Whipple, who dream of hitting the big money by filming contrived disasters. Gloria's neighborhood has its share of dangers but also its share of charms. Though seedy characters abound, Liffey prefers to look on the bright side: "I'd like to believe everybody's just an inch from okay.... A little less this, a little more that." The world Liffey inhabits is far from okay, but watching him struggle to make a small difference is big entertainment.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

*Starred Review* In the newest Jack Liffey novel (following Terminal Island [BKL MY 1 04]), the amiable, introspective detective becomes the target of a drive-by shooting--but the bullet finds his beloved teenage daughter, Maeve. She survives, and Jack's novia, a cop named Gloria Ramirez, tries to take his mind off revenge by setting him up with a missing-kid case. The kid is Luisa Wilson, an Owens Valley Paiute Indian fleeing a bad home situation only to fall prey to even worse abusers in Los Angeles. Ethnicity and ethics always play a large role in the Liffey books, and Dangerous Games' extremely diverse cast lends richness both to Jack's attempt to mentor a troubled youth and to a reality-video story line that plays off the controversial bumfights videos. After eight excellent Liffeys, why isn't Shannon a household name? Perhaps it's because his stories make readers examine their own attitudes and beliefs as much as the crimes on the page. But while this isn't simple escapism, Shannon has mastered the most essential element of the genre, giving us a guy we want to stand shoulder to shoulder with while we try to make sense out of a senseless universe. Keir Graff
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Carroll & Graf (May 10, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 078671543X
• ISBN-13: 978-0786715435
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 5.9 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,579,601 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Dangerous Ride Through L.A.'s Dark Side, April 27, 2005

By 

Daniel Olivas (West Hills, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Dangerous Games: A Jack Liffey Mystery (Jack Liffey Mysteries) (Hardcover)

When we last saw Jack Liffey, he had found the perpetrator of various crimes of vengeance arising from the racist history of Terminal Island, been dumped by his new girlfriend, survived a collapsed lung and renewed his relationship with his teenage daughter, Maeve. Liffey also fell for a police officer named Gloria Ramirez, a Native American who was raised by Latino parents who taught her to hate her own heritage. "Dangerous Games" begins with Liffey living in East L.A. with Ramirez; his moody daughter is delighted with Ramirez and hopes her father won't mess this one up. But Liffey's relationship leads inexorably to a new search for a lost child: Ramirez's beautiful 18-year-old niece has disappeared from her tiny reservation in the Owens Valley leaving enough clues to make everyone suspect that she's been swallowed up by L.A.'s porn scene. Liffey feels up to the task.

If it were left at that, our hero would have more than enough to occupy him. But during one clear day while Liffey waters his girlfriend's lawn and Maeve lounges alongside chatting with her father, a gangbanger loses control and shoots indiscriminately in Liffey's direction leaving Maeve severely wounded. As Maeve recuperates, Liffey adds a new mission to his list: revenge. His subsequent confrontation of the perpetrator and eventual solution is one of the most surprising and fulfilling aspects of the narrative.

But there is still a lost child to find. And this is where things get ugly as we're thrown into the world of phone sex, porn films, dangerous reality videos, AIDS and very violent men who truly believe that women are meant to be controlled and used in any way imaginable. Throughout, we're treated to Shannon's smart dialogue, complex characters and a thrill ride of action. The denouement takes place in the Malibu Hills, set ablaze by reality "filmmakers" as their ultimate get-rich-quick venture. As Liffey and others try to outrun the flames, Liffey muses on all the failures in his life and wonders about the meaning of it all. There are wonderful things in life to be certain: the love of both his girlfriend and his resilient, brilliant daughter. But all the mistakes are there too: failed relationships, a battle with alcohol, physical scars too many to count. In Shannon's sure hands, we see the world through the eyes of a man who struggles to reconcile life's joy and pain shaped in large part by Los Angeles itself. Shannon offers more questions than answers. But that's okay. Finely-crafted novels do that. And this is certainly one of Shannon's best.

[The full version of this review first appeared in The Elegant Variation.]

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars end of the line, May 7, 2010

By 

michael saitta (Laguna Beach, CA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Dangerous Games: A Jack Liffey Mystery (Jack Liffey Mysteries) (Hardcover)

Okay, Shannon is a great writer ...BUT...his Jack Liffey character has become unreal. So politically correct that he is only overshadowed by his daughter who makes Shirley Temple look like the wicked witch from the west. For every stone unturned to reveal a snake this duo finds a butterfly waiting to be set free -by kindness and most of all - understanding. Apparently there is no evil, only non-understanding types (ie white, Christian and usually male). I got lost in DANGEROUS GAMES when Liffey meets up with the gang banger who shot his daughter and ends up wanting to teach him how to write an essay! All in the same few paragraphs. One can overcome plot problems if the writing keeps you entertained but when the characters become so unreal that you start laughing at them, then it's time to put the book aside. Sorry.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Strong addition to excellent Jack Liffey series, November 19, 2005

By 

booksforabuck "BooksForABuck" (Long Beach, CA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Dangerous Games: A Jack Liffey Mystery (Jack Liffey Mysteries) (Hardcover)

It startd out as just another run-away investigation. A pretty Paiute girl, sick of her life on the reservation, heads to Hollywood hoping to make it rich in the sex trade. Private detective Jack Lifey won't make her go home to the abuse she faced there, but he does want to talk to her, make sure she's following her own plans.

The invetigation is only one of Jack's problems. His daughter is shot in a drive-by shooting, his girlfriend police detective Gloria Ramirez is havin problems with their relationship and Jack can't seem to get away with his impossible wish to save everyone, even if they don't want to be saved.

Author John Shannon writes a moving tale that goes far beyond a simple mystery. Jack Lifey is a perfect everyman, but also a man who maintains his hope no matter what. The Los Angeles setting comes to life, whether Jack is patrolling the lowest sewers of the porn business or visiting the homes of the elite in Malibu or nearby Rancho Mirage. Fans of Jack Lifey will want to grab DANGEROUS GAME fast. If you're new to John Shannon, you're in for a treat