Customer Reviews

The Manipulated (Joe Portugal Mysteries)

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I was recently introduced to Joe Portugal in One Last Hit by a coworker and found it to be a fun and an enticing read, but The Manipulated thrusts Joe and his adventures to a whole new level. The Manipulated is sexier, darker, funnier and all around more explosive. Mr. Walpow's ability to express the relationships and ties between his characters is so powerful and insightful it makes this chapter in Joe's life an impossible one to put down, and leaves you thirsty for more. I'm a fan!

Walpow has an easy and inviting style that once I began reading The Manipulated, I couldn't stop. I have read a couple of the Joe Portugal novels in the past, but past knowledge is definitely NOT necessary when reading this latest adventure. In fact, this is a great one to jump in on. Joe is reaching a turning point and I get the feeling things in the future are going to be different for him, equally engaging, but different.

If you like a good mystery, if you like to laugh, if you enjoy a wholly real and inviting main character, read The Manipulated.

The Manipulated is a ton of fun. Nathan Walpow really knows how to pull you in, and once you're there, you don't want to leave. Right from the first chapter, he had me. As others have said, though Joe Portugal has appeared in other novels, you could easily just jump right in here and join the fun! This is one of those books where you suddenly find you've been reading for hours and it doesn't even seem like it.

Can't wait for the next one!

"The Manipulated" was the first of the Joe Portugal series (and my first Nathan Walpow book) that I have read (purchased from Amazon, I might add). It is in a genre best described as mystery light---comedy and well conceived mystery plot combined. There is a certain line of descent in this genre, so echoes of Roger L. Simon's Moses Wine lend a certain familiarity to the plot and the character. Joe P. is a middle-aged veteran of the drug-filled 1960s currently embedded in the fringes of Hollywood/TV acting (he does commercials), and most of the characters are drawn from this milieu. The plot is familiar--the client's wife disappeared 4+ years ago on a trip to Mainland China to buy tea, and is presumed to be dead, but may have been seen by the still grieving husband in the crowd at a King's hockey game a few days ago. Joe is asked to check whether she is alive or dead. The characters are cute, if largely stereotypical, Joe is an engaging character with more than his shares of flaws (a pivotal incident of pot-induced blackout among them), and the plot is kept moving at a brisk pace. This is a fun read and highly recommended for an entertaining weekend with no important message to be delivered. I look forward to reading more books in this series.