Manhattan Is My Beat (Rune Trilogy) [Paperback]

Jeffery Deaver (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 1, 2001 | Series: Rune Trilogy

Back in 1988, a young author emerged onto the crime scene with a fresh and inspiring New York crime series starring a young aspiring film-maker - Rune. The series quickly established their author as one to watch. In this opener, Rune becomes the obsessed with the murder of one of the customers at her video store. Mr Kelly had been renting the classic noir movie - MANHATTAN IS MY BEAT - over and over again and she swiftly becomes convinced that the secret to his brutal death is hidden in its black-and-white frames. But what she doesn't realise is that her interest is going to bring her far close to the killer than she ever could have wanted.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Jeffrey Deaver knows how to hook readers and keep them guessing with suspenseful, twisty plots. This early Deaver effort, originally published in 1988, will not disappoint fans dazzled by his subsequent, high-profile Lincoln Rhyme series (The Bone Collector, The Coffin Dancer, The Empty Chair.)

Manhattan Is My Beat takes its name from the (invented) 1947 film noir watched obsessively by murder victim Robert Kelly. Our heroine, Rune, (a punk with a heart of gold) works for Washington Square Video. On a routine pickup to retrieve Manhattan Is My Beat, she discovers Kelly just shot dead, the target of a professional hit. Rune and a woman jogger glimpse the presumed killer as he speeds off in a green car. While cops drag their heels in solving the mystery, Rune takes matters into her own hands, convinced that the motive for the murder is a missing suitcase stuffed with one million dollars--the subject, not coincidentally, of the film that Kelly and Rune both admired. An avid fan of fantasy novels and prone to see life through the prism of magic and quests, Rune takes up the challenge of finding the lost money and catching Kelly's killers. But the formidable hit team is intent upon destroying both possible witnesses to the murder, and their nimble crosses and double-crosses--some of which the reader sees, some of which are revealed at the end--make for fun reading.

Plotting moves briskly in this novel, except for a slowdown in the story--Rune's ambiguous romance with downtown poseur Richard has little to do with catching killers. The conclusion, while neatly wrapped, is marred by the sudden appearance of a crucial detail that Deaver produces like a fancy dish under the waiter's silver dome. But the gimmick to offset the conclusion's predictability feels like a cheat rather than a revelation. All in all, however, the novel is excellent mind candy, a thrilling romp lead by an agile, street-smart heroine. --Kathi Inman Berens --This text refers to the Mass Market Paperback edition.

Review

'Highly original and very entertaining' -- Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine 'Deaver writes with clarity, compassion, and intelligence, and with a decidedly human and contemporary slant' -- -- Publishers Weekly 'Deaver is a master of ticking-bomb suspense!' -- People Magazine

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Product Details

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: Coronet (February 1, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0340793112
• ISBN-13: 978-0340793114
• Product Dimensions: 6.9 x 4.2 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (42 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,910,043 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Jeffery Deaver was born outside of Chicago in 1950. His father was an advertising copywriter and his mother was a homemaker. He has one younger sister who writes novels for teenagers ' Julie Reece Deaver.

Deaver wrote his first book ' which consisted of two entire chapters ' when he was eleven, and he's been writing ever since. An award-winning poet and journalist, he has also written and performed his own songs around the country. After receiving a Bachelor of Journalism degree from the University of Missouri, Deaver worked as a magazine writer, then, to gain the background needed to become a legal correspondent for The New York Times or Wall Street Journal, he enrolled at Fordham Law School. After graduation he decided to practice law for a time and worked for several years as an attorney for a large Wall Street firm. It was during his long commute to and from the office that he began writing the type of fiction he enjoyed reading: suspense novels. In 1990 he started to write full time.

The author of twenty-two novels, Deaver has been nominated for six Edgar Awards from the Mystery Writers of America, an Anthony award, a Gumshoe Award, and is a three-time recipient of the Ellery Queen Reader's Award for Best Short Story of the Year. In 2001, he won the W.H. Smith Thumping Good Read Award for his Lincoln Rhyme novel The Empty Chair. In 2004, he was awarded the Crime Writers Association of Great Britain's Ian Fleming Steel Dagger Award for Garden Of Beasts and the Short Story Dagger for "The Weekender." Translated into 35 languages, his novels have appeared on a number of bestseller lists around the world, including the New York Times, the London Times and the Los Angeles Times. The Bone Collector was a feature release from Universal Pictures, starring Denzel Washington as Lincoln Rhyme. A Maiden's Grave was made into an HBO film retitled Dead Silence, starring James Garner and Marlee Matlin.

Jeff has also released two collections of his short stories, called Twisted and More Twisted.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

36 of 41 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good but not great., July 5, 2000

By 

"pnp2000" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Manhattan Is My Beat (Rune Trilogy) (Mass Market Paperback)

Manhattan is my beat is one of the early novels by Jeffery Deaver, and at times you can see the reflection of the brillance that you find in his latest novels. However at times the book is a wee bit slow for my taste and in particular for a Deaver novel.

Rune, the heroine in this novel is actually a great character and you will find her to be quite enjoyable. The main premise of a crime solved via an old movie is interesting and could have been better developed, but I feel Deaver just did an adequate job.

I do recommend that you read this novel because it is an enjoyable read and it contains the trademark Deaver twists, but you shuld be forewarned that this book will not enthrall you like Bone Collector, Coffin Dancer, Empty Chair, Maiden's Grave, or Devil's Teardrop. It is good but not great.

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Interesting but not Deaver's best., September 27, 2000

By 

Gerard T. McGuire - See all my reviews

This review is from: Manhattan Is My Beat (Rune Trilogy) (Mass Market Paperback)

Having read the Lincoln Rhyme novels, I was anxious to get my hands on anything Deaver. While some of his other work was 5 star material, MANHATTAN IS MY BEAT left me a little dissapointed.

Rune is a homeless girl squatting in a skyscraper and working in a vido store. She loves old movies and fairy tales. When picking up a tape, she finds a favorite customer dead. She believes that his killer and the location of a long lost million dollars is hidden in the film he rented so often. Her prying exposes her to a world of danger and she manages to bring her few friends into the mix with her.

As with any Deaver tale, there are twists and turns, and plot flips. The ending leaves you with literary whiplash. The main character Rune's obsession with fairy tales leads to forced analogies and the book can drag as a result. The ending is too tidy as to be somewhat unbelievable. I do wish that Deaver would have devoted more of the narrative to the villain(s) as he does with some of his more interesting works.

Overall, it is a quick read with a good amount of suspense and intrigue, but it falls short of Deaver's better novels.

10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Very enjoyable, July 22, 2000

By 

mellion108 (Michigan, USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Manhattan Is My Beat (Rune Trilogy) (Mass Market Paperback)

I've been hooked on Deaver since I read THE BONE COLLECTOR. I was pleasantly surprised by MANHATTAN... I found it to be an excellent example of some of the basics that make Deaver novels so much fun. He has created one of the most enjoyable lead characters here in Rune, a somewhat kooky, plucky 20-year-old with a vivid imagination and romantic ideals. She meets up with even more interesting characters in Mr. Kelly, Tony (her boss), Stephanie, Raoul Elliott, Sandra, Haart, Zane, Richard, etc. This is a classic in-the-wrong-place-at-the-wrong-time story as Rune accidentally interrupts the murderer of her friend, Mr. Kelly. Throw in some assumptions about the killing, some crime-solving techniques Rune has learned from movies, cops, bad guys and lusty roommates, and you have a formula for a light, fun mystery. And with most Deaver novels, you never really know who anyone actually is until the end.
I truly enjoyed reading this novel. As an earlier Deaver work, it's not as polished as some we've seen more recently. However, I liked that this one seems to be all about the joy of writing a good story rather than the chore of writing for the masses. I recommend this one; it's quick and it's fun. I, for one, vote for a series starring the very loveable Rune.