Prodigal Son: A Novel (Mike Garrity Mystery) [Hardcover]

Thomas B. Cavanagh (Author)

Book Description

Series: Mike Garrity Mystery | Publication Date: July 8, 2008

Three months after he's undergone surgery to remove a brain tumor, retired police detective Mike Garrity's cancer is in remission. It's great news, but when you've been planning to only live for a few months, you don't normally worry about savings. A return to health also means a return to the workforce, and whether he likes it or not, Mike's going to have to adjust to the role of private investigator.
He's also bounced back into a romance with a member of his cancer support group, Debbie Watson. But while Mike may be celebrating his victory over cancer, Debbie's just been handed a grim prognosis. Desperate, she asks him for help with what might be her last request: tracking down the son she put up for adoption twenty years ago. 
            Debbie's son is not the only lost child Mike has been asked to trace. A high school friend of his daughter has died of an overdose. The boy's father is convinced that the death was not a suicide and, though the case is officially closed, the officer in charge has his own doubts about its conclusion.
            Back at work and stumbling headlong into a new relationship, Mike should have a lot to look forward to. But all is not as it seems, and he's about to find out that cancer isn't the only thing trying to kill him.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

The protagonist of a hard-boiled detective series must have a shtick. John D. MacDonald’s Travis McGee lived on a houseboat and drove a 1930s Rolls-Royce made over into a pickup truck called Miss Agnes. Cavanagh’s Mike Garrity has a brain tumor named Bob. Garrity’s tumor focuses the reader’s attention on the inevitability of a visit from the grim reaper, whose robed presence adds a real-life dimension rarely found in genre fiction. This time, though, Garrity’s tumor has been successfully excised, but Bob remains central to the story, as Garrity has a fling with Debbie, an attractive but hopeless cancer victim whose doctor has just taken her off all medication. She tasks Garrity with finding her suddenly-gone-missing, let-out-for-adoption-at-birth son. Another prodigal whose mystery he must unravel is that of a supposed suicide whose body was found pumped full of Xanax in a Super Target parking lot. With the clarity of Robert B. Parker and the complexity of Michael Connolly, Prodigal Son disturbs and charms at the same time. --Steve Glassman

Review

"Irresistible . . . Cavanagh is definitely a writer to keep your eyes on."---Florida Today

"Carl Hiaasen and Donald Westlake readers will enjoy Cavanagh's debut."---Booklist

"Cavanagh infuses the classic private-eye novel with a bit of dark humor, realistic dialogue, and a clear vision of central Florida."---South Florida Sun Sentinel

"Fans of the classic PI novel will hope to see more of this wonderfully crotchety protagonist."---Publishers Weekly

"Mixing sardonic humor with fast-paced action, Cavanagh's emotionally charged, entertaining tale is great fun, leaving the satisfied reader with the hope of a compelling sequel."---Lansing State Journal

"Cavanagh's ambitious debut has a terrific premise and many appealing touches, including an unbeatable cliffhanger."---Kirkus Reviews

"This debut novel has everything: dark humor, great suspense when the bad guys mark Garrity for pain and death, and heart in its poignant portrait of a terminally ill man trying to understand his teenage daughter."---Library Journal (starred review)

"An Orlando, Florida, thriller that reads like a high-speed theme park ride. Cavanagh's writing is tough and lean, with dark humor so sharp it'll make you bleed."
---Brian Freeman, author of Stripped and Immoral

 

"Carl Hiaasen fans will be thrilled to know there's a new kid on the block. If you liked Basket Case, you'll flip over Thomas B. Cavanagh's sardonically and outrageously funny lead character, who will rope you in on page one and take you on a wild ride. Truly, the best book I've read in a long time. Cavanagh has a new and devoted fan in me."
---Charlotte Hughes, New York Times bestselling coauthor of Full Tilt and Full House
 
"Head Games is a sharp and convincing new take on the private-eye novel, underscored with the sobering tang of mortality."
---Wallace Stroby, author of The Heartbreak Lounge and The Barbed-Wire Kiss
 
"Thomas B. Cavanagh is a great new talent in crime fiction. His voice is tough and tender, sad and funny, a writer equally adept at creating fast-paced action, believable dialogue, and a story with more twists than the latest dance routine of your favorite boy band. The make-believe city of Orlando deserves a crime writer with guts, imagination, and a sense of humor; Cavanagh has all three in spades."
---Lee Irby, author of 7,000 Clams and The Up and Up
 
"Relentless pacing, local color, mystery, and action---and folks you will root for as they crash against evil. The action and the mystery will keep you reading, but the characters will make you want a whole other book. Please tell us this is a series, with more to come."
---Claire Matturro, author of Wildcat Wine
 
"Head Games is a next generation hard-boiled detective novel with a Travis McGee--styled hero whose sidekick is a brain-tumor named Bob. Flat-out funny, smart, and refreshingly humane, this Florida thriller is set in the whacked-out pre-fab world of Orlando, between Sea World and Disney, where money talks, boy bands rule, and asking too many questions could get a dying man killed. This is a nail-biter with a heart."
---N. M. Kelby, author of Whale Season

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: Minotaur Books; First Edition edition (July 8, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 031237707X
• ISBN-13: 978-0312377076
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.4 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,796,966 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Thomas B. Cavanagh has written award-winning children's television shows for Nickelodeon, the Walt Disney Company, and many others. His most recent book is "Prodigal Son," featuring detective Mike Garrity. He is also author of the novel "Murderland" as well as the first Mike Garrity novel, "Head Games," which won the Florida Book Awards Gold Medal for Popular Fiction, was a Best Novel nominee for a Shamus Award, received a starred review in Library Journal, and was named a "Killer Book" Selection by the Independent Mystery Bookseller's Association. He lives in Central Florida with his family. For more information, please visit his Web site at www.thomasbcavanagh.com.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Another first rate page-turner from Cavanagh, August 26, 2008

By 

Gregg Eldred (Avon Lake, OH USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Prodigal Son: A Novel (Mike Garrity Mystery) (Hardcover)

I have a problem with novels written by Thomas B. Cavanagh. The first is that I can't seem to put them down. Every novel of his, I find that I need to finish them as quickly as I can. They interfere with sleep, lunch, and anything else that I may be doing. Once started, I discover that I keep turning them over in my mind. The second problem is that he writes about characters that you actually like, using dialog that is appropriate for the time and the character. As soon as I was notified that Cavanagh had released a new novel, I knew that I had to read it.

The latest novel by Thomas B. Cavanagh is Prodigal Son. Like his previous novel, Head Games, which introduced the Michael Garrity character, this book picks up shortly after Head Games ends. However, you do not need to read Head Games to enjoy this novel. The main character, Michael Garrity, ex-cop, twice divorced, and the father of a teenage daughter, returns to the streets of Orlando, Florida, looking for a job. Since his cancer is in remission, he now finds that he needs money to keep living as he was planning on dying. As an ex-cop, a job as a private investigator seems to be a natural for him. On the surface, the two cases that he lands don't seem like much; find a child, given up for adoption years ago and investigate the apparent suicide of a popular high school student. But Mike finds himself at the wrong place at the wrong time, charged as a "person of interest" in a particularly grisly murder. If having the police breathing down your neck isn't enough, Cavanagh adds some family issues, a relationship with a cancer survivor with a bad prognosis, and a hurricane. It all adds up to fast paced, well written Florida mystery.

Cavanagh's Garrity character is one of the finest in fiction. He is a beautifully written character, with realistic flaws. The fact that he is a cancer survivor adds an interesting twist, but it also allows for a good, continuing subplot. Death is never far from Mike, and it lends a sense of urgency to everything that he does. As he did in Head Games, Cavanagh keeps the action tight and believable, infuses some excellent plot twists, and introduces a cast of very good supporting characters. He has created a world that I want to visit again, and the ending leaves that option open.

This book is a "must read."

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars fast-paced investigative tale, July 12, 2008

By 

Harriet Klausner - See all my reviews
(#1 Hall OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Prodigal Son: A Novel (Mike Garrity Mystery) (Hardcover)

Former police officer Mike Garrity plans to recover from surgery to remove a brain tumor (see HEAD GAMES). However, he considers the advice of his friend Jimmy Hungerford of A-Plus Investigators to become a private investigator as the cases are simple yet will keep him occupied.

Before he can decide whether he feels ready, Mile attends the funeral of teenage suicide Victor Madrigas, a classmate of his daughter Jennifer; the late teen's grieving father Ben believes his son was murdered and after pleading with Mike that he will pay him to investigate, Mike agrees. Mike and fellow cancer survivor support group participant Debbie Watson are attracted to one another. They spend a night together. Her prognosis is very serious so in the morning she begs Mike to find her son she gave up years ago for adoption. Mike agrees. Finally his former wife Cam informs him she is carrying his child. Meanwhile after absorbing the shocker of being a father again, Mike finds Debbie's son, Jonathan Dennis, but his roommate Steven Schumacher keeps Mike from meeting him. When Mike breaks into their apartment, he is greeted by Jonathan's corpse and soon afterward jailed on suspicion of murder. Out on bail, Mike is shocked as Debbie is missing.

Mike has enough on his plate with the cancer, but in some ways he agrees with Jimmy to get back to work soonest so as to avoid a self pity party; all those who care about him will drown him enough with their misguided sympathy. Thus by taking on the two cases, he becomes a role model while the audience obtains a hectic incredibly fast-paced investigative tale as Mike not so gaily and readers quite happily wonder what's going on.

Harriet Klausner

5.0 out of 5 stars Full of surprises, September 15, 2008

By 

Thomas Baird (Tallahassee, FL USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Prodigal Son: A Novel (Mike Garrity Mystery) (Hardcover)

Tom Cavanagh has hit his stride with Prodigal Son. With an engaging lead character, this book has many plot surprises that kept me engaged. So many mystery novels these days have plots in which you guess the ending in the first one or two chapters. Not this one. And the personal back story elements are just as good as the mystery. I hated to put the book down and couldn't wait to get back to it. Can't wait for a follow-up.