Customer Reviews

Manuel Muldoon

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Peary Perry's name will be added to the top of Texas Authors. The characters are brought to life in a way that only Perry can do. Manuel Muldoon is a want-to-be mystery writer who finds himself the prime suspect in an intriguing murder. Maybe it is because he is the "only" person on the property of the wealthy local banker where a body is found!This is a murder "set in concrete" in a sleepy Texas town, three hundred miles from Mexico. You will enjoy the twists as young Manny does his best investigative work trying to clear his name and help bring justice and peace back to Marshlake, Texas.

Manuel Muldoon captured my interest from the first page on through to the end. Excellent character development and a believable story. Author did an excellent job of describing the locations in Texas and Colorado and captured the realistic views of small town life and politics. Hurry up and write your second book!

Peary Perry's Marshlake is a little bit like a Peyton Place with babes with great shapes who can't walk straight and selfish/foolish guys. How smart can a guy be who marries one of those babes and then signs over the huge family tru$t to her? It's just that she doesn't realize what she's got and then a galpal from her past shows up and plasters her inside the wall of a swimming pool. This galpal knew too much and tried to cash in on the way too not legal business of the folks at Marshlake. Violent exit for the galpal.

Now let's get cynical. Manny (Manuel Muldoon) is from the wrong side of the tracks. Not a stellar student in school but maybe he can do better with his writing. Too bad he likes to write mysteries about ice pick murders. Too bad he works for the rich spoiled of Marshlake who have two bodies to hang around someone's neck.Thank God for truckers who can size things up over just a cup of coffee. The chapters at the last come fast. Finally along came Vicky.

It is seldom that a man with the life experiences of the author is blessed with the ability putting it into words and have a sense of humor that comes with age. Reading the author's background you are not at all surprised that he understands how law enforcement works, how bankers work, how cheating spouses operate, how dirty cops and politicians manipulate our world. He has been there and seen it. If you read much fiction involving murders, you will finally understand that most of those are really "fiction" while this book smacks of real life from the first page on. As an author I find it exciting to read this first novel because it gives you a glimpse of what will follow .So I urge you to read it so that one day you may boast that you have spotted the beginning of an incredible career at the start.

Mr. Perry has hit the bullseye on his first outing as a novelist. His Manuel Muldoon is interesting from the first few pages, but really gets going when the murder and following action starts.. I had a hard time putting it down. Great.. Looking forward to more from Mr. Perry.. I hear he has a second novel in the works. I sure hope so.. He's great!!

Brent Moseley
Houston, TX

Reviewed by Tammy Petty Conrad for Reader Views (9/06)

Only eighteen, Manny, or "Mann-uuu-well" as his boss's wife calls him, wants to be a writer. The only problem is that he graduated "...summa cum barely..." from high school. So instead he works for his small town's local hotshot banker, Robert Sturmwell, as a houseboy/errand-runner/anything-you-want employee.

We quickly learn to feel sorry for him, trapped with this dysfunctional family. Nancy Sturmwell loves to lecture on any topic she can think of and doesn't even begin to be politically correct with her Hispanic help. She is the type of woman that Manny imagines would "...ask for a hairdresser and someone to come in and do her nails..." just prior to her execution on Death Row. There are plenty of other annoying characters that inhabit Marshlake, Texas, and Manny seems to run into them all. Edward Ruiz plays the over-eager cop who can't let a traffic violation pass by. I am happy to say that he gets what he deserves in the end. As do all the bad guys.

It isn't too long before the dead body appears, but we know from the start who did it and why. The only mystery left is how long it will take the police and the victim's husband to figure it out. And of course how many other family secrets will come out in the end.

Unfortunately, the point of view switches back and forth constantly, which slowed me down as I read, forcing me to decide whose head I was supposed to be in. I also wish that the author had allowed me to figure some things out on my own rather than telling me everything. Peary Perry can turn a phrase, such as "...these people were slick enough to steal the radio and leave the music". But even though I'm from Texas myself, I wondered at times if there wasn't too much Texas detail included. I did like the story idea and I wanted to know how it ended, but despite the plot thickening, it wasn't a book that I couldn't put down at night.

In the end, we finally discover if Manny will be a writer. We are reminded that he thought his life was too boring and he had nothing to write about. Throw in a few dead bodies and some blackmail and suddenly he's got a story!

Received book free of charge.