Hurt Machine (Moe Prager) [Kindle Edition]

Reed Farrel Coleman (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Amazon Exclusive Essay: Quintessential Moe by Reed Farrel Coleman

The Moe Prager Mystery series stands on two fundemental building blocks. One of those blocks comes courtesy of the great William Faulkner who said, "The past is never dead. It isn't even past." The other comes from Joseph Wambaugh, the man who, in the 1970s, changed crime fiction forever and for better. He said, "It's not how the detective works on the case, but how the case works on the detective."

In each book in the series, these are the two forces supplying the fuel to power the engine of the story. This is never more evident than in Hurt Machine, the seventh installment in the series. Moe, now in his mid-sixties, is faced with the best and worst life has to offer. His daughter Sarah, Moe's only child with his late wife Katy, is on the verge of marriage. Yet two weeks before the wedding, he discovers that there's a cancer growing in his stomach that will probably kill him. Add to this the arrival--after a painful divorce and a ten-year absence--of Moe's second wife and former PI partner, Carmella Melendez, asking him to take on a controversial and wildly unpopular case. If ever there was a setup to explore the past and to see how a case works on the detective, this is it.

Moe is forced to battle two antagonists in Hurt Machine: the person or persons trying to prevent him from discovering the truth about the case and the cancer. All the time, Moe can hear the clock ticking away the remaining minutes of his life. When the end is near, the past comes alive in a way it never has before. So it is for Moe.

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Review

"Razor-edged contemporary whodunits don't get much better than Shamus-winner Coleman's seventh Moe Prager mystery." --Publisher's Weekly, starred review

"Moe Prager's . . . first love will always be Brooklyn. Reed Farrel Coleman's latest book in a series heavily saturated with local color. Prager . . . travels the length and breadth of the city talking to cops, firemen, gangsters and restaurateurs in their picturesque natural habitats. For someone who reads people by the places they eat, drink and make merry, that's good enough to make Prager postpone his death until he solves this case." --New York Times Book Review

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Product Details

• Format: Kindle Edition
• File Size: 1951 KB
• Publisher: Tyrus Books (November 18, 2011)
• Sold by: Amazon Digital Services
• Language: English
• ASIN: B0069ZH5E4
• Text-to-Speech: Enabled
• Lending: Enabled
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #9,205 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)

More About the Author

Called a hard-boiled poet by NPR's Maureen Corrigan, Reed Farrel Coleman is the former executive vice president of Mystery Writers of America. He has published twelve novels in three series, and one stand-alone with award-winning Irish author Ken Bruen. His books have been translated into seven languages, and the Moe Prager character in his current series is one of the most engaging in crime fiction. "His bone-deep world weariness and mordant sense of humor should enthrall lovers of old-school, tough-talking, loner private eyes," says Booklist.

Reed is a three-time winner of the Shamus Award for Best Detective Novel of the Year. He has also received the Barry and Anthony Awards, and has been twice nominated for the Edgar® Award. He was the editor of the anthology Hard Boiled Brooklyn, and his short fiction and essays have appeared in Wall Street Noir, The Darker Mask, These Guns For Hire, Brooklyn Noir 3, Damn Near Dead, and other publications.

Reed is an adjunct professor at Hofstra University, teaching writing classes in mystery fiction and the novel.

His standalone novel, GUN CHURCH, is exclusive to Audible.com, and his seventh Moe Prager novel (HURT MACHINE) has been winning accolades from the likes of Publishers Weekly, Kirkus, and others.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Hurt Machine is a twisted mystery..., December 7, 2011

By 

Kathryn E. Etier "Miss Bob" (Beautiful Maggie Valley) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Hurt Machine (Moe Prager) (Paperback)

What is the Hurt Machine? People? God? Life? Private investigator Moe (Moses) Prager ruminates on the nature of hurt--of human pain, both emotional and physical--as he delves into a case he didn't want, the murder of his ex-sister-in-law, Alta Conseco.

Prager didn't want the case for several reasons; one is his unresolved feelings for his ex-wife, and another is that the murder seems the victim didn't deserve his help. Alta Conseco was a paramedic in New York City, reviled because she and her partner were in a restaurant when an employee collapsed and subsequently died of a stroke. Although Alta was asked to assist the man, she stated that she and partner Maya were on their lunch break and couldn't do anything, and advised that someone call 911.

Moe takes the case, not because it's the right thing to do, but because he's just been diagnosed with cancer, which is ever-present on his mind. Believing that he has little time left, he wants to spend it doing something that will distract him from his fate. The investigation takes Moe to posh restaurants, pizza parlors, seedy dives, Irish bars, and throughout Brooklyn, where he grew up.

Complicating Moe's life is his daughter's wedding a few weeks away, a girlfriend a state or two away, and the lies he has to tell all the time to everyone. Moe is a man with a conscience strong enough to bother him, but not strong enough to prevent some of the sins he commits. Haunted by the memory of cops he once worked with and an ex-wife who was murdered, Moe plods through his investigation each day suffering new indignities from the cancer eating away his stomach.

In addition to reminding displaced New Yorkers of the ecstasy of Nathan's fries, author Reed Farrel Coleman infuses his story with enough suspects and motives to keep the reader guessing as Moe discovers more and more seediness in his ironic quest for the truth about both Alta's murder and the reason the two EMT's refused to help the dying man. Neither he nor the reader is prepared for how the two events are related, who was involved, how little we know about those closest to us. Hurt Machine is a satisfying, gritty mystery that keeps the reader inventing new theories.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the best in this series, December 20, 2011

By 

sue kelso (des moines, iowa USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Hurt Machine (Moe Prager) (Paperback)

If you haven't read Reed Farrel Coleman, buy Walking The Perfect Square and start there. This series improves with each book culminating in what is his strongest book yet. Mr. Coleman has won multiple awards for his writing, all richly deserved.

The mysteries in all of them are excellent but his character Moe Prager and the supporting cast are what makes these books so wonderful. Following the arc of his life: his marriages, his partnerships, his daughter and his sense of self are all so richly felt and so alive to the reader.

When Moe is diagnosed with cancer (not a spoiler), he sets out to solve what he believes will be his last case. His former wife/partner returns to ask him to look into the death of her sister. As he proceeds, his past reenters his life. What is real, what is the truth?

Discover Mr. Coleman and enjoy some wonderful writing. You won't be disappointed.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Aptly titled book, January 28, 2012

By 

A. Cole (Kingston, Jamaica) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Hurt Machine (Moe Prager) (Kindle Edition)

I enjoyed this book. It was my first time reading this author, and intend to read the other books in the Moe Prager series. The writing style of Coleman is easy to follow, and descriptive enough to hold my attention. Coleman doesn't fall into the trappings of using too many words to fill the void, and I love that.

Prager is real - he's dying, and this book gives an honest portrayal of a man coming to terms with his life and mortality. "Page turner" is such a cliche, but it describes how I felt while reading this book - I always needed to know what Moe was going to tell me next. So many mysteries try to be elaborate and only end up confusing or boring readers, the plot was simple with enough twists to keep me guessing who the killer was.

Kudos to the author on keeping my very short attention span engaged for all 309 pages!