Life Goes Sleeping [Paperback]

Reed Farrel Coleman (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Billed as a hard-boiled detective novel, this mystery debut ambitiously attempts to recall pulp fiction of the '30s and '40s. Coleman shows skill in creating the salty, quick-witted dialogue that readers expect from this genre, giving the best lines to a wisecracking bush-league insurance investigator, Dylan Klein. We're introduced to Klein at his mother's funeral, which he leaves in disgust in order to take a sentimental trip back to his old neighborhood of Brighton Beach in Brooklyn, N.Y. There he meets Alexander Korin, a small, elusive Russian. With little explanation, Korin hires Klein to track down a man named Mikhail Brodsky, whose life he supposedly saved during WW II. Coleman hooks the reader immediately with the surprise shooting of Korin, during which Klein is knocked out by a gun butt. When he awakens to find a headless corpse, Klein becomes embroiled in an extremely complicated plot involving a threatening mystery man who uses the phone to orchestrate Klein's treacherous endeavor to find Brodsky. Coleman gets in over his head by throwing in too many plot twists regarding German-Russian relations, and the cliched introduction of a seductive woman posing as Korin's daughter typifies a tendency toward sensationalism that undermines an otherwise compelling story.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Kirkus Reviews

Coleman's somewhat awkward, frequently overwritten first mystery has a hero whose appeal almost overcomes its highly improbable plot. Whether he is worrying about his beloved New York Mets or commenting perceptively on matters as mundane as pancakes (``your memory of them is always better than your bloated belly's reality''), hapless insurance-investigator Dylan Klein seems closer to reality than most tough-guy protagonists. Klein is asked by an old Russian ‚migr‚ to track down a man in a faded WW II photograph. Thereafter, he is immediately knocked unconscious, awakening to a headless corpse and threatening telephone calls from an enemy who seems always to be in the right place to fire a bullet through the window or to know everything Klein does. But why does this seeming killer want Klein to find the same man his apparently dead client did? And is the beautiful woman who claims to be the client's daughter for real? Our hero and his ex-NYPD police detective friend Johnny MacClough try to figure it all out, exposing an unlikely political tangle involving the National Security Agency and Russian and Israeli agents. It all ends with a real surprise. -- Copyright ©1991, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 271 pages
• Publisher: Permanent Press (June 12, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1579621929
• ISBN-13: 978-1579621926
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.5 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,778,313 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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.