Customer Reviews

Deadlines

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Sometimes a book comes along that answers a question forming in your mind for a long time. Deadlines did this for me. Why is it that the respected profession of journalism seems at an end, with papers crashing left and right, rehashed stories, and only NPR willing to offer explanations.

McHugh's book takes you into the ICU of big city papers dying, showing you the forces that modern journalists must contend with. And he does it in a damn fine tale.

by PETER PORCO, Anchorage, AK

DEADLINES is an engaging mystery yarn that puts a journalist in the role of the shamus. The novel, by former newsman Paul McHugh, is a page-turner that champions the investigative reporter and the urge to "afflict the comfortable" as timeless necessities regardless of whatever technology is used to get the news out. The multi-layered "Deadlines," McHugh's second novel, also is a story of personal redemption--that of a hard-drinking, self-pitying, all but washed-up ink-stained wretch who rediscovers the core mission of his craft and the joy he once got from fulfilling it. McHugh's flawed hero becomes his stand-in for the entire news industry, making "Deadlines" a book about the survival of investigative reporting as much as about anything else.

In 2007, McHugh, a feature writer and outdoor editor at the San Francisco Chronicle, was let go in that paper's severe downsizing--another victim of the techno-economic bust that struck the entire newspaper industry. McHugh took a buyout and in a farewell column urged readers to ride herd on all their news outlets so reporters and editors would always "delve a level deeper and ask the disturbing questions." He was speaking from experience. McHugh had played a major role on Chronicle investigative teams that probed the workings of California state parks authorities. He and his colleagues helped to send some people to prison for screwing the public. Most famously, in the 1990s, McHugh et al exposed a corrupt arrangement whereby private entities were under contract to manage public lands--the Asilomar Conference Center near Monterrey, Calif.--and were making millions doing so but returning zilch to the state parks system.

The mystery at the heart of "Deadlines" is an echo of the Asilomar case. In the novel, Cornu Point, a hunk of land along the exquisite California coast near Half Moon Bay, south of San Francisco, was given to the state decades ago by its private owner under the stipulation that it would forever remain a public park. However, California State Parks, its budget withered by the crisis in public funding, has contracted with a private company to manage Cornu Point. The corporate suits intend to exploit the choice coastal forest, scrublands and trails, and their plans have nothing to do with public benefit--or even with keeping Cornu Point open to all.

An elderly woman, daughter of the man who gave Cornu Point to the state, is outraged at the subversion of her father's wishes. She protests loud enough that, in a chilling scene, she is brutally murdered--but not before she calls a rookie reporter for the fictional San Francisco Post-Dispatch, a man young enough to be ablaze with journalistic idealism even in an age of print-news retrenchment. That phone call, her death, and the young reporter's fearless quest to know the truth and establish his rep set the plot on. Soon Colm MacCay, a weary alcoholic ex-columnist, is willy-nilly sucked in. Inspired by the youngster, MacCay finds that his old reporter's bones are creaky but surprisingly hot for another go at the old game. After all, loving the fight, the chess match, the duel, belongs as much to journalism at its best as getting the facts right.

To tell his story, McHugh shows some scorn for narrative reliability. In the early going, he breaks point-of-view rules, but never really to distraction, and anyway--who cares? McHugh allows himself lots of infectious fun. In 243 highly readable pages, the "Deadlines" banquet serves up sumptuous action; the still seductive, iconic crime setting of San Francisco and the coastal lands to its south; precisely etched characters, including a lesbian gym trainer and cop wannabe who could almost step out of Stieg Larson's "The Girl Who..." novels; the invigorating portrait of a newsroom in full uproar as it pursues a big story; and a solution to the Cornu Point crime that, while satisfying in itself, is not the end of the story. In fact, in a "Postlude" dessert, McHugh offers the answer to a second mystery, which resides in MacCay's heart. This new puzzle introduces the reader to a different crime, one predating MacCay's birth, occurring on another continent. It feels like an add-on, and the novelist admits as much by calling it a "Postlude." On the other hand, along the way McHugh has dropped intimations of this other mystery, which involves a family.

Ah, families! Hate 'em, love 'em, you can't ignore 'em. Nor should "Deadlines" be ignored by anyone who loves a good mystery and a good news story both.

Maybe it's a sign of the times that some of the best crime reporting being done right now is being done by former reporters. Connelly. Larsson (sadly not writing anymore). And now Paul McHugh. All reminding us what is best about investigative reporting - and what we're increasingly missing in journalism as retrenchment in the industry continues. Deadlines is a raised shot glass to that industry. It's also testimony to the fact that great reporters are first-and-foremost great storytellers - no matter what kind of paper those stories are printed on. And this is a great story!

Paul was a hell of a reporter, and now he's a hell of a novel writer. And even better, by weaving truths of the newspaper craft into the body of a fun suspense yarn, Paul has made his book a plea for real journalism.

Take this nugget he puts into the mouth of Sally, one of his characters: "May sound pompous, but without media providing that level of insight, America's voters will go blind. Most folks don't even get it, that's what's happening now. Brights on Britney and Miley and Brangelina get shoved up their noses, they think they've just snorted some news. Then, for so-called hard reporting, they inundate you with sensational street crime. Don't even notice that you're not hearing much about local white-collar crime. But which class of criminals steals more?"

Or for an insider chuckle, there's this typical newsroom conversation between an editor and a reporter pitching a story: "Cop shot in San Francisco," the reporter said. "Sure, why not?" the editor replied. "How many inches?" "Two. Unless he's dead. Then three."

This kind of stuff can only come from the typing fingers of a man who's lived the newspaper life. And that's Paul. It's a great life. And gallows humor aside, it's a great profession with true value to society, even though many people seem to have little clue how true that value really is. So spread the word - read this book!

I absolutely agree w/ Dr. Dasein's review. I learned a ton about the world and inner workings of newspapers while reading a fabulous murder mystery that I just could not put down. If you live in the San Francisco Bay Area, or visit this area, you will love this storybecause it takes place in the Bay Area. My favorite form of leisure reading is mysteries and I think Paul McHugh is as good as...NO, better than Tony Hillerman, Steig Larson, Ken Follett, James Patterson, Clive Cussler and Lee Child, among others. I will buy any and every book Paul McHugh writes. I hope he is working on another mystery now!

Every journalist loves a good story and some will put their lives on the line for one. There is no question that the main characters in Paul McHugh's Deadlines go for it with courage and heroism. But the most significant character in this environmental thriller is Truth. Does it get revealed or will it be buried under a blanket of lies and hypocrisy? Big money interests conspire to overwhelm the needs of the many and of the planet by means of murder, kidnapping and manipulation. It's our headlines writ large, and the race for salvation comes down to the wire. McHugh is at his best when he's making a case for the dedication it takes to track down the real story. Deadlines is a great one.

Truly engaging characters... authentic setting... clever, relevant storyline... Deadlines is an absolute joy to read; especially for someone like me who is touched by both people immersed in the world of journalism and a love of the San Francisco Bay Area.

I read the entire book in an afternoon. It's well-written, fast-paced, with several colorful characters, especially Colm MacCray, a crusty, old-school reporter, who has his own internal demons to wrestle. It doesn't matter that we learn about the murder right up front, and know who's behind it. I still found myself wanting to find out what would happen next, and there are plenty of unforeseen twists. The really interesting part is seeing how MacCray hangs in there like a bulldog, unraveling the mystery in the interest of getting the truth out there for the world to see.

We also get a glimpse into the fast-disappearing world of news reporting and the importance of maintaining rigorous journalism at its best. This is a great real and I highly recommend it.

Paul McHugh writes what he knows -- newspapers and the bright and at times irksome people who produce them -- but "Deadlines" does more than cover that familiar terrian. This novel is a fine study in character development, particularly that of the grumpy sidelined columnist Colm MacCay, who finds he still has gas in the tank no matter a particularly unappreciative twit on the masthead and MacCay's own failings. There are very well crafted, seamless turns in the development, and we come to know MacCay and the rest of the "Deadlines" gang like family and enjoy the 243-page ride with them. This is good storytelling.

In sharp, moving, elegant prose, McHugh -- a former outdoor-adventure reporter for the San Francisco Chronicle -- tells the story of a middle-aged burned-out news hack at a big S.F. daily who gets a chance at redemption when a potentially juicy story falls into his lap. It's a tale of murder and theft of valuable public coastland. The culprit: an out-of-state conglomorate -- fronted by a cheesy actor with a sordid past -- that sees $$$ and is ready to screw the public trust in order to get it. When a cub reporter is beaten near to death, the newspaper puts its best hotshot news team on the case. But our hero, an alcoholic on the outs with the newspaper's bean-counter management, pulls his dormant news instincts out of the cobwebs to beat his rivals to the punch. "Deadlines" benefits both from McHugh's ability to capture the louche flavor of a newsroom and his expertise about -- and obvious love for -- the rough, ragged, beautiful Northern California coast.