Potshot [Hardcover]

Gerry Boyle (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover
• Publisher: Putnam; First Edition edition (1996)
• ASIN: B000GLNFSW
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #7,419,138 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Like many crime novelists I began my writing career in newspapers--the best training ground ever. After Colby College, I knocked around, including stints as a roofer, a postman, and a manuscript reader at a big New York publisher (thumbs up for the roofer gig, thumbs down on the publishing job).

My first reporting job was with a weekly in the paper mill town of Rumford, Maine. It was there that I left my sweaty mark on high-school wrestling coverage. But there was lots of small-town crime in Rumford. I would later mine my Rumford time for my first novel, DEADLINE.

After a few months it was on to the daily Waterville, Maine Morning Sentinel, where editors gave me a thrice-weekly column and I wrote about stuff I saw in police stations, courtrooms, in the towns and cities of Maine.

And all the while I was making up stories on the side, typing away on a Smith-Corona electric typewriter.

DEADLINE came out in 1993and the books came steadily after that. McMorrow and I grew up together, though at different rates.. I continue to live in a small village in central Maine, making regular trips for book research. My deal with Jack: I'll send him into some pretty dangerous places, but I'll scout them out first. I walk point; Jack has my back. Brandon Blake and I are still feeling each other out.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An overlooked author, January 23, 2001

By 

"moreland98" (Vacaville, CA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Potshot (Paperback)

I originally started reading Gerry Boyle during an all too long lull between Robert B. Parker Spenser books (and during Parker's "slump" of Double Deuce, Playmates, etc.). Expecting to find a major rip-off of Parker, I was very pleasantly surprised to find tightly written, well-plotted stories with plenty of dry humor. I found Potshot to be one of the best of the series.

Boyle has a wonderful sense of style, particularly with characters that could easily veer off into stereotypes or just plain silliness. The legalized pot movement is just so ripe for satire, but even through the haze, each character is used to further the plot rather than just comic relief.

Bottom line: read this book, and his others. You don't need to be a huge Parker fan to appreciate this book.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Best I've read in the series., July 18, 2002

By 

Tom Tracy (Philadelphia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Potshot (Paperback)

Admittedly the only other book I've read in the McMorrow series was Borderline, and that was good enough to get me to try "Potshot". The basic premise at the beginning, Jack is hired to write an article reagarding the legalization of pot, is interesting enough to keep you reading and it just builds from there. The introduction of the hard to figure characters Bobby and Coyote, and the very surprising characters of Melanie and Steven helped make this a real page turner. I thought the story was fun to read and when it came down to the last 75 pages or so, I couldn't put it down. So much for the "noble" (depending on your viewpoint), idea of legalizing pot. A real surprise ending!