Customer Reviews

Deadline: A Jack McMorrow Mystery

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I was initially attracted to this book because the setting is my own home town of Rumford (known as Androscoggin in the book). What a surprise! As a mystery, it kept me baffled until its demise (which, by the way, was almost Mr. McMorrow's!). Mr. Boyle does such an excellent job of developing his main character, I almost know where he lives; somewhere on Falmouth or Cumberland Street would be my guess. Although there is a special, chill-up-your-spine feeling when murder takes place in your own home town, fiction or non, I would have enjoyed this book if it had been set in OshKosh, Wisconsin. I'm holding my breath until the next Jack Mcmorrow mystery based in Maine is released (of course, an added advantage is that I don't have to breathe the odiferous emulations created by our resident mill mentioned in this book!)

Good characterizations, particularly the average hardworking (and not so hardworking) citizens. Jack McMurrow just can't leave things be. Waiting for book #6. I'm a little prejudiced because I'm the author's brother. :)

Boyle's career as a journalist is evident in his novels. The Jack McMorrow tales are as gripping as any crime thrillers and Boyle's work on the streets ensures that his books are authentic and gritty. Read one, you'll want to read them all.
-- Mark LaFlamme, author of "The Pink Room."

Good atmosphere, good characters, pretty believable story. The only thing is, when the murderer decides to kill McMorrow, it's not quite believable that McMorrow falls for his trap so readily, carelessly going out to the canal all alone. And wouldn't McMorrow's murder really only draw more scrutiny into the whole affair? From the book's point of view, the story had to end like this, but logically, in life, it would have made more sense for the murderer to have just moved out of town.

Boyle's Deadline is fast-moving and descriptive. He lets the novel build to a point of suspense, almost unbearably, before coming to a conclusion that is both intriguing and thought-provoking.

Mr. Boyle has written a good, solid mystery. Jack McMorrow is a wisecracking journalist who left the New York Times to run a rinky-dink newspaper weekly located in a remote Maine paper mill town. Speaking as a person who grew up in a very similar environment, the author's description of living in such a community (a poorly disguised Rumford, Maine) rings very true. It contains just the right amount of colorful characters, wisecracking banter, mystery and suspense to keep the reader's attention until the very end. Mr. Boyle has a wonderful, sparse writing style which fits this genre well. I look forward to reading the second Jack McMorrow installment, "Bloodline." I fun summer read.

Slow moving mystery set in the mountain town of Androscoggin, Maine. The photographer for the weekly newspaper is found dead in a remote area of town and nobody seems to think it is suspicious, except the local editor, Jack McMurrow. The story moves very slowly and only picks up speed as it approaches the conclusion, and the conclusion leaves many honest questions about the plausibility of how the mystery is finally solved. Gerry Boyle started his career as a police beat reporter, and it shows. His writing style is that of a reporter and not a novelist. His novel is filled with 'filler' that fails to contribute to the story line and only succeeds in adding to the page count of the novel. If you pass on this novel you won't miss anything.