The new novel in the critically acclaimed Jack Liffey series - Private Investigator Jack Liffey has been confined to a wheelchair, unable to walk or speak, for more than a month, due to a freak accident that may have damaged his spine. So when an old friend calls asking for help in finding his missing sixteen-year-old son, Jack’s teenage daughter, Maeve, intercepts the call and decides to take on the case. But it’s not long before she finds herself in deep trouble, and soon many lives are hanging in the balance . . .
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From Publishers Weekly
Shannon's solid 12th Jack Liffey mystery finds Liffey, whose specialty is locating lost children, pretty lost himself. The accident he suffered in 2009's Palos Verdes Blue, the previous entry, has left him without the use of his legs or his vocal cords and dependent on teenage daughter Maeve and unofficial wife Gloria Ramirez, an LAPD sergeant. Maeve involves all three of them in a search for Conor Lewis, a16-year-old runaway, that begins in "the Nickel," L.A.'s skid row. The precariousness of skid row life collides with the greed and ambition of developers as a decrepit hotel becomes a battleground between three old tenants clinging to their rights and a pair of ruthless thugs determined to remove them. When Maeve winds up caught in the middle, Liffey tries desperately to overcome his handicaps to save her. Shannon's characters are often almost comically exaggerated, but it's easy to root for the Liffey family to succeed. An appendix lists the author's sources for life on the Nickel.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
From Booklist
Previous episodes in Shannon’s consistently engaging Jack Liffey series have moved about California, but this time the “finder of lost children” stays put—literally, at least in the beginning, as the trauma of being buried alived in a mudslide (Palos Verdes Blue, 2009) has left him without a voice and unable to use his legs (doctors feel the symptoms have a psychological basis). As in previous episodes, though, Jack’s high-school-age daughter, Maeve, steps in to help her dad (without telling him, of course). This time the case involves the disappearance of teenage boy, Conor. Maeve tracks him to a flophouse in downtown L.A.’s notorious skid row (the “Nickel”). Unfortunately, Conor picks a flophouse that is due for renovation once some curmudgeonly residents can be convinced to leave. The owner has hired two loose-cannon enforcers to handle the evictions, and Maeve and Conor wind up in the crossfire. Shannon again writes about society’s disenfranchised with great power, but he never slights human relationships in the onslaught of shocking sociological detail. A couple of plot developments on the way to setting up the final confrontation strain credulity, but the finale itself is an edge-of-the-chair corker. Another winner in an outstanding series. --Bill Ott
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
In for a nickel.,
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This review is from: On the Nickel (Jack Liffey Mysteries) (Hardcover)
Let me begin by saying I really enjoyed reading "Palos Verdes Blue." Not so much with "On the Nickel." Although I found the various facts about the homeless, skid row, etc. at the end of each chapter enlightening, I felt they broke up the continuity of the story. My second point has to do with the plausibility of the plot. In a town like L.A. that is teeming with cops, not one of the characters tries to get LAPD involved with the tenants' dispute. On the positive side, Jack Liffey is incapacitated for a good part of the story. I'd like to see more writers utilize disabled characters in their stories. That's the way of the real world. And finally, I thought Felice and Millie turned out to be throw-away characters. Instead of Jack Liffey waxing philosophical at the end, I would have rather he said: "Felice, now let's find your husband."I do want to work backwards and read the novel where Jack and Eleanor meet and fall in love for a short time.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The New Liffey,
By
This review is from: On the Nickel (Jack Liffey Mysteries) (Hardcover)
We have seen Meave become more involved in her fathers life and business. Now as Jack is parlized she compleatly takes over his business,in search for the 16 year old son of good friend Mike Lewis. Will she find him? will Jacks back heal so he can take over the investigation? Will Loco overcome his cancer? Read "On the Nickel" and find out.
4.0 out of 5 stars
On the Nickel,
By
This review is from: On the Nickel (Jack Liffey Mysteries) (Hardcover)
Jack Liffey is a p.i. whose business card states "I Find Missing Children." Not so much lately though, as Jack has for several weeks been confined to a wheelchair and unable to speak, although his doctors tell him there is nothing physiologically wrong. The loss of the use of his legs and voice occurred after his last case, when he was buried alive in a massive landslide after a dynamite blast, which in turn kick-started his latent claustrophobia.The usual characters populate the novel, including Loco, his elderly half-coyote pet; his teenage daughter, Maeve, and his girlfriend Gloria, an LAPD Sergeant with whom he and Maeve live. New in this book is Eleanor Ong, "formerly and once again Sister Mary Rose, by special dispensation," with whom Jack had had an affair ten years prior and had not seen since - she was one among several who suffered the fallout of Jack's work and went back to a convent as her way to deal with that. When Jack's old friend Mike Lewis calls to ask Jack to find his missing 16-year-old son, Maeve intercepts the call and, in an effort to ease Jack back into some semblance of a normal life and also as a way to bond with her adored father, takes on the task herself. Mike assumes his son has headed to LA to try to break into the music business, and Maeve's search takes her to Skid Row, "The Nickel," where SROs predominate. One of the SROs, in fact, is the target of a ruthless real estate owner/developer, and the fact that Conor Lewis is staying there at just this point in time makes him - and those searching for him - additional targets of a pair of psycho hired guns trying to empty the building so that it can be converted into luxury lofts. Much of this novel is not easy reading, portraying as it does the very real and depressing plight of the poor and the homeless, in particular those in LA, and it is punctuated by stats at each chapter's end that make the reader shudder [as I'm sure was the author's intent]. Nietzschean philosophy is invoked here, as is what I assume is the author's, e.g., "Why should the strong and ruthless always win?" It is a well-written series entry, and is recommended.
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