In his Shamus Award-winning first novel, The Innocents, Richard Barre introduced audiences to Wil Hardesty, a private eye with a deep, dark past--and an uncertain future. In The Ghosts of Morning, Barre plunges further into Wil's history, to a far off place where murder and friendship collide.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com Review
In Richard Barre's The Ghosts of Morning, a homicide that exploded the glorious sun, surf, and beach-party youth of two teenage surfers in still-golden Southern California reemerges to haunt the lives of the survivors.
Wil Hardesty, Vietnam vet, ex-surfer and ex-husband (introduced in Barre's Shamus-winning The Innocents) is sucked into the intrigues of a wealthy and powerful family, the Van Zants. Denny Van Zant, Wil's mentor and friend in the Southern California surfing fraternity, enlisted in the Vietnam-era Marines to escape allegations of a homicide cover-up and died in the bloody assault on Hue. Now, however, his mother has received an anonymous letter. Denny is alive, and for a large sum of money, he can be found. She needs an investigator. Hardesty, pulled into the investigation by gratitude for past kindnesses, finds himself ensnared and finally endangered by the opposing claims of loyalty, love, and, finally, the truth.
Barre's well-crafted narrative propels a believably human Hardesty into the worlds of news reporting, police investigations, body builders, dingy seaside motels, and a haunted post-Vietnam bivvy for burnouts outside Hilo, Hawaii. Amid escalating violence, each puzzle Hardesty solves raises new questions. He moves inexorably toward a final confrontation in the penthouse of an L.A. office tower, looking down on the glittering lights and dark shadows of his city and his past. --Barbara Schlieper
From Kirkus Reviews
As in both previous outings (The Innocents, 1995; Bearing Secrets,1996), Wil Hardesty, passionate surfer, professional sleuth, plunges into the past to solve a modern-day mystery. This time, though, its his own past to which attention must be paid. Way back when, the teenaged Wil and Van Zant kids were inextricably connected. Start with Denny Van Zant, exciting, courageous, knowing, everything a 17-year-old best friend should be. Its Denny, after all, who teaches Wil to surf. And while Denny is doing that, his kid sister, Trina, is offering instruction of another sort to Wil. These prove to be satisfactory arrangements all around until the day young Carmen Marquez is found murdered, a knife in her chest. Pregnant Carmen. Carmen from the wrong side of the tracks. The Van Zants, of course, are very definitely from the privileged side, and as the murdered girls boyfriend, Denny inevitably heads the suspect list. With the case against him still in its formative stage, however, the Van Zants hustle him off to join the Marines. But you dont outwit Fate that easily. In Vietnam, Denny is killed in action. Or is he? There are those who dont think so. Among them is Dennys mother, who hires Wil to prove her right. And while hes at it, she wants him to clear her son of Carmens long-ago murder. From there on, the plot twists and turns ferociously, though not always persuasively. The ubiquitous drug lord makes a wearisome entrance, for instance, paving the way for an overly familiar Grand Guignol climax. Trying for noir, Barre too readily crosses into melodrama. Writers who do that pay a price: Its hard to take them seriously. -- Copyright ©1998, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Please welcome warmly, a new entry, Wil Hardesty,
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This review is from: The Ghosts of Morning (Mass Market Paperback)
Listen to this. "[H]e let his eyes drift out onto green grass meticulously trimmed and maintained, an island of order in a sea of chaos." Or, "[H]e took the bridge over to the old Van Zant house, structurally unchanged . . . living room and dining room facing the water. But the color scheme was different. Either that or . . . "
Get it? Richard Barre paints a canvas, sometime very detailed, sometimes impressionistic, and only when he's finished with it does he introduce you to his characters. Others do that as well. James Lee Burke comes to mind. They are poets who tell stories. Reread James Dickey's "Deliverance" and you'll see what I mean. Another point I enjoy about Barre is his respect for the Vietnam vet. I served in Vietnam so I am sometimes drawn to that genre. It's never as heroic or slash and dash as many authors make it; but Barry and a few others (Eisler, DeMille, Crais, Burke) speak to the fear, the lonlieness and the inability, ever, to distance oneself from it. Read Dick Winters' "Beyond Band of Brothers" to get a picture of the vets of Easy Company at Normandy, now in their 80's, able to recollect painful events in 'living color.' Here Wil Hardesty is asked after an 8 year hiatus of his best friend's funeral, to see if he can find Denny Van Zant. Van Zant was killed in Vietnam, possibly murdered, and his body decomposed over a decade. What was returned wasn't much. Now Maeve Van Zant was contacted by someone who claims to know where Van Zant is. Hardesty strongly urges her to forget it, and then relents and embarks on a mission of double cross, revenge, conspiracy, unexpected twists and retribution. Well written, highly recommended. 5 stars. Larry Scantlebury
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Fast And Furious,
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This review is from: The Ghosts of Morning (Hardcover)
I wouldn't compare Richard Barre to Ross Macdonald or for that matter Raymond Chandler. Macdonald's writing was more subdued and touching, Chandler more witty and crackling, while Barre's is more 'wham bam'..'lets go'.The Ghosts Of Morning is like that, fast, and twisting, it reminded me of a good action flick. Around page seventy the story really kicks into gear. I didn't find the plot confusing, Barre held it together nicely, injecting little tidbits of information to keep the reader guessing. The flashbacks scenes are written very well as our hero Will Hardesty, attempts to find some meaning from his past as well as how it connects to his future. Hardesty is a part-time P.I. hired by his best friends mother to find her son, who everyone has presumed dead for years. Hardesty takes the job as a favor, not realising the depth of the secret's his former friends family has buried. I agree with some of the other reviews that, some of the charecter's are sketcy and typical, BUT the story moves along so nicely that i just ignored these shortcomings. A very nice read...enjoy.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Part of a great series,
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This review is from: The Ghosts of Morning (Mass Market Paperback)
Richard Barre is, quite simply, a splendid writer. His gift for plotting is way beyond average, and his creation of Wil Hardesty--aging surfer with an aching heart--is pure inspiration. Barre never takes his narrative in expected directions but allows the plot to twist in on itself in elaborate coils so that his stories are never predictable. Each of his books is a treasure in itself.
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