Lifeline [Hardcover]

Gerry Boyle (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 16, 1996

Working as a court reporter for the local paper, Jack McMorrow witnesses the appeal of a woman for protection from her abusive boyfriend and embarks on a search for her murderer when the woman turns up dead in her apartment. By the author of Bloodline.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

After a grueling career as a New York City journalist rendered him cynical and sick of newspapers, Jack McMorrow thinks he's found a proper place to recharge--Kennebec, Maine. But what he finds is a small town with big problems. The bars are populated with the long-term unemployed, the river is polluted, and the downtown is crumbling. If that's not enough, as a reporter covering the courthouse, he is thrust into a messy situation in which a shoddy assistant prosecutor causes the death of a woman Jack has come to know. Though his intent was to escape such unseemly altercations, Jack jumps into the fray with a fervor, emerging with unexpected results.

From Publishers Weekly

Jack McMorrow, seen before in Bloodline and Deadline, is a former New York Times reporter now working for a small paper in Maine. Covering the courthouse, he senses a good story in Donna Marchant, a young woman complaining of domestic abuse but ignored by the autocratic assistant district attorney, Linda Tate. McMorrow writes about Donna's plight, arousing the wrath of her loutish boyfriend, Jeff Tanner. When Donna is murdered, suspicion falls not only on Tanner but also on McMorrow, whom police suspect of having become too close to his subject. Looking for answers, McMorrow gets puzzlingly little cooperation from Donna's sister, who cares only about taking over as mother to Donna's little daughter, Adrianna. Then some local toughs, perhaps Tanner and his friends, rough up the reporter and torch his home. During his investigation, McMorrow is dealing with the absence of his true love, Roxanne Masterson, who is offered a new job in Portland. Boyle, a Maine newspaper writer himself, makes McMorrow a credible crusader, equally comfortable in the quiet woods and small-town courthouses. The narrative moves briskly as McMorrow eliminates several suspects on his way to a surprise solution.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 272 pages
• Publisher: Putnam Adult (July 16, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0399141502
• ISBN-13: 978-0399141508
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.7 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,694,660 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Like many crime novelists I began my writing career in newspapers--the best training ground ever. After Colby College, I knocked around, including stints as a roofer, a postman, and a manuscript reader at a big New York publisher (thumbs up for the roofer gig, thumbs down on the publishing job).

My first reporting job was with a weekly in the paper mill town of Rumford, Maine. It was there that I left my sweaty mark on high-school wrestling coverage. But there was lots of small-town crime in Rumford. I would later mine my Rumford time for my first novel, DEADLINE.

After a few months it was on to the daily Waterville, Maine Morning Sentinel, where editors gave me a thrice-weekly column and I wrote about stuff I saw in police stations, courtrooms, in the towns and cities of Maine.

And all the while I was making up stories on the side, typing away on a Smith-Corona electric typewriter.

DEADLINE came out in 1993and the books came steadily after that. McMorrow and I grew up together, though at different rates.. I continue to live in a small village in central Maine, making regular trips for book research. My deal with Jack: I'll send him into some pretty dangerous places, but I'll scout them out first. I walk point; Jack has my back. Brandon Blake and I are still feeling each other out.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Great central character and excellent sense of place, but .., May 3, 2001

By 

Erik R. Gloor "The Pixel Pilot" (Chicago, IL United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Lifeline (Paperback)

Once again I was drawn into the world of Jack McMorrow, journalist-turned-detective. And once again, I was struck by how I could so much come to care about a character enmired in a plot for which I cared so little. In this latest whodunnit, McMorrow again has us trudging around Maine in search of justice in a sea of lowlifes at times so two-dimensional as to be almost laughable. One cannot help but like the McMorrow character, though, whose love for nature, plain truth, good beer, dependable friends, and the written word is exceeded only, perhaps, by his taste for confrontation. The plot, however, is like a joke with a long-winded set-up and a punchline that does not pay off. It was a page-turner and I was going nuts in my attempt to solve the mystery as I read. But all of the chapters that precede the last are but a distraction and in no way drive the story. It was like searching all over the house for your keys and then realizing you had them in your hand. It doesn't all come together the way, I think, mysteries of more calibur do. Our author sets us up in the beginning and releases us in the end but uses all the intervening pages to follow his stream of thought on the subject of birds, romantic relationships, and rednecks. Maybe he thinks we won't mind because he's thrown in a house-fire and a kidnapping here and there. And by the way, I'm pretty sure this is the 3rd time our hero is abducted in as many novels. It's enough already with the abductions. Plus, the end had me, at least, a little disappointed with McMorrow's zeal for the truth because he basically winds up perpetuating a lie at the expense of another man's freedom. And even though this was done with the intention to protect another, I found it morally questionable and disagree that it was necessary. Lastly, as our author ages, too, the McMorrow character seems increasingly conservative and dull. At the end of the first book we were left expecting an end to his relationship with the redoubtable Roxanne. I was hoping for a new woman per story a la Mike Hammer. Would I read another McMorrow mystery? Will my girlfriend once again mock me for my loyalty to the series that so often disappoints me? 'Maybe' to the former question and an undeniably 'yes' to the latter.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Boyle's Jack McMorrow seeks Justice with Sensitivity., August 15, 1996

By A Customer

This review is from: Lifeline (Hardcover)

Boyle's evocative writing style draws the reader into the desperate lives of the denizens of small town Maine. In this, his third Jack McMorrow mystery, the dispirited former NY Times reporter, becomes intrigued by a domestic abuse victim after she shocks the district court by baring her scars before the judge. McMorrow's search for the woman behind the news story brings him in conflict with a powerful and manipulative district attorney. The intriguing young victim is found dead and McMorrow is tormented by the fear that his attention led to her death. As in his earlier novels, Jack McMorrow tangles with local thugs, who torch his house and beat him mercilessly. His faithful girlfriend, Roxanne, returns but is shaken by McMorrow's apparent attraction to the hapless people of the Maine the tourists never see. Gerry Boyle's masterful prose and insightful depiction of his characters make this Jack McMorrow series a must read for mystery fans

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Hilarious and attention getting, October 3, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Lifeline (Paperback)

I think that this is a great book. I am from a big city and am used to sarcasm. McMorrow takes sarcasm to its limit. Sometimes I can't stop laughing at the things he says. The action in this books just does not stop, either. I couldn't put the book down. I had to know what was going t happen next.