The Mandeville Talent: A Crime Novel [Hardcover]

George V. Higgins (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1991

Joe Corey, a promising young Manhattan attorney, gets drawn into an unsolved murder that happened 23 years ago. It's against his better judgment, but this is no ordinary crime. The victim is his wife's grandfather, Jim Mandeville, once president of a small-town New England bank.

What was it that compelled Mandeville to go to the bank at 5:30 that cold December morning to be killed by his own 12-gauge shotgun? It's up to Corey and his flamboyant sidekick, Baldo Lanucci, retired intelligence agent, to reheat cold leads -- and when they do, things turn hotter than anyone ever expected!

"Flawless. Never a false word, phrase or rhythm." (The New Republic)

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

From Kirkus Reviews

A cheerful young lawyer chucks Manhattan to follow his wife to remotest Massachusetts, where she will teach and he will rattle the skeletons in her family's closet. Attorney Higgins (Victories, 1990, etc.), who lives in Massachusetts, knows all the worst about small-town politics. The action is now and not-so-long-ago, but the atmosphere is MGM's New England in the 1940's. Thoroughly modern husband and corporate-law whiz Joe Corey cheerfully hops off the fast track when Mrs. Corey answers an emergency call for tenure-track help at Mount Holyoke. It's not really that big a sacrifice for Joe since corporate law, at which he is very good, has turned out to be highly paid boredom. Far more interesting is the opportunity to clear up the alleged suicide of Mrs. Corey's grandfather, who 20 years earlier fell to a shotgun shell in the office of his small- town bank. Suicide didn't really make sense, but there were no obvious murderers. Joe's inquiries quickly suggest a likely motive for murder. The banker had borrowed half a million from persons unknown to buy a piece of property, which was soon worth much more than the loan. The mysterious mortgagers wanted the property for themselves. Forming a partnership with a local retiree, no-nonsense former Defense Department investigator Baldo Ianucci, Corey picks up trails that lead to fellow lawyers near and far and to those shy but very, very large loan sharks. Not in the least ambitious but very smooth. Intelligent, upmarket, comfort reading. -- Copyright ©1991, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

From the Publisher

7 1.5-hour cassettes --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 278 pages
• Publisher: Henry Holt & Co; 1st edition (September 1991)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0805014128
• ISBN-13: 978-0805014129
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6.1 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,075,422 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An excellent read for the mystery lover, April 7, 2010

By 

J. Robert Ewbank (Mobile, Alabama) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Mandeville Talent: A Crime Novel (Hardcover)

This is an excellent book with an excellent story.

As with many novels it involves an attorney. It also involves his wife's grandfather and his murder twenty three years ago.

It is amazing that such a cold case can involve the current time, but it does.

This is a story that will grab you and take you through it to find out what happens.

J. Robert Ewbank author "John Wesley, Natural Man, and the 'Isms'"