NOTHING BUT TROUBLE: A Kevin Kerney Novel [Paperback]

Michael McGarrity (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: Dutton (2005)
• ASIN: B001BFMYCU
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (24 customer reviews)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Descriptive vs Active, January 29, 2006

By 

Charles J. Marr (Cambridge Springs, Pa USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Nothing But Trouble: A Kevin Kerney Novel (Kevin Kerney Novels) (Hardcover)

Mc Garrity seems to be moving in the direction of local description ala Hillerman or Burke as he moves his principal character out of Santa Fe to actions in the bootheel of New Mexico. As a consultant to a film company being funded by a questionable childhood friend, Kearny becomes involved in events which are at first unclear: is it drug smuggling, illegal aliens, something else? And who is doing it? And which government agancies are involved? Well it all gets worked out in the end - but I suspect there is another novel lurking about the friend and his murky doings. In addition, this novel could as honestly be subtitled a Kevin Kearny and Sara Brandon novel, for virtually a third of the novel deals with her efforts to resolve a mystery her husband Kearny uncovered in a previous work. The somewhat jumbled result of her success which implicates her superior's crony is a transfer to Iraq near the end of the novel, an event which leaves us hanging and begs for a sequel. So, although this is a well written and nicely plotted novel, with the main plot of the story resolved, it still leaves a bit too much hanging. By the way, early in the novel an odd, unconnected short vignette of a wealthy young woman shoplifing at art events which is very distracting. I must confess, the descriptions of the horse country and cattle ranches are gripping. Kearny's fathering touches anyone,, but I miss, I guess the outcome of the earlier novels, (Tularosa, Judas Judge, Big Gamble) just a smidge of that feeling of good triumphant at the end of a crime novel.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not much trouble -but total frustration, February 1, 2006

By 

E. Batchelder - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Nothing But Trouble: A Kevin Kerney Novel (Kevin Kerney Novels) (Hardcover)

McGarrity has solid strengths going for him as a crime novelist: he knows the stuff he writes about from personal experience (from the nitty-gritty of police work to off-the-beaten path New Mexico scenes) and best of all, he knows how to bring it all to life with a very likable hero enmeshed in gripping plots, with outstanding locales as backdrops.
Then, it is a mystery as to why in his last two books his plots and settings seem to be moving away from what used to work so successfully in the previous books (starting with Slow Kill, even the jacket art is changed to generic stuff -also missing from the recent books are those quaint hand drawn maps showing the area of action). In Slow Kill, the plot was diffused -as the story was split between NM and CA- and the California scenes were distracting and did not work very well, especially in contrast to the superb handling of settings and mood in the New Mexico part of the story. Does this have something to do with change of publisher, perhaps?
This shift in strategy is much more pronounced in Nothing but Trouble, his latest book. McGarrity has the action slowed further, and diffused over different geographic locations, from NM to Ireland, ending in Iraq. There is very little action that we care about involving Kerney (he is even contemplating retirement from being Police Chief of Santa Fe); but the good news is, about 1/3 of the way into the book we discover that there is another book burried in the middle: Kerney's wife, Lt. Col. Sara Brannon has her own adventure, with a totally separate storyline (one that got its start in Slow Kill as a Kerney case) that takes place mostly out of the country. The story involving Sara is quite interesting, with colorful and believable characters, flowing action, sustained suspense, and a gut wrenching ending with politically incorrect Sara exiled to duty in Iraq! In the meantime, back at the ranch...Kerney works as an advisor for a movie being filmed in the boothheal of NM. Very little happens to him and we don't have a satisfactory explanation for the things that do happen. The stunted descriptions of what's involved in shooting a movie on location are excruciatingly uninteresting. To top it off, the Kerney storyline is populated with borderline stereotypical characters (such as his bad boy childhood friend -as in the title of the book- and the friend's sister whose primary function in life seems to be coming on to any man -especially Kerney, of course- within shouting distance). While you read the Kerney sections, you want to scream, Who cares? But, you do feel for him when he is trying to adjust to life with their toddler son (who used to live with Sara) while Sara is away. This is not vintage Kerney territory, and we can tell that he is bewildered, and so are we. I wait for the day when Sara returns from Iraq safely and straightens all this out.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Not McGarrity's best, February 8, 2011

By 

wendy - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Nothing But Trouble (Paperback)

Mr. McGarrity seemed to have trouble focusing on a storyline in Nothing But Trouble. None of the plots were fully developed, and too many questions remained dangling at the end of the book. I have enjoyed all the other Kevin Kerney novels, but this one disappointed me.