Customer Reviews

Red Chaser

5 star:		(36)
4 star:		(32)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Red Chaser, a 1950's noir follows Jake McHenry, chaser turned PI through blackmail, commies, sex, murder and espionage - all while keeping track of the Dodgers progress as they try to make their way to the World Series.

I felt this book had an interesting story line which suffered due to bad dialogue. There were times when sexy and noir felt more like goofy and uncomfortable. For instance the meeting with the Ice Queen. The word play was downright laughable. Unfortunately I don't think that was the authors intention. What should have been a slick femme fatale scene came off as ridiculous and awkward. That along with typos, grammatical errors, missing words and repetitions made it difficult to stay in the mood the author is trying to create.

That being said, I do think all these things could easily be fixed with the help of a professional editor. I felt as though I were reading a manuscript that had a lot of potential. I was shocked to read the author thank an editor at the end of the novel. The fact that this did have an editor and it still came out with such flaws is deplorable. If it were me I wouldn't be thanking him, I'd be firing him!

The best written part of the book comes from the baseball sections. The authors passion for the sport as well as it's history shines through and makes it exciting, never awkward to read. It also shows the authors capabilities as a writer. I just wish the noir scenes were written with such enthusiasm.

I gave this 3 stars for the interesting plot line and fantastic baseball history lesson. Give this to a real editor, spruce up the dialogue and I'd love to give it another read.

WOW, actually that was fun. Imagine espionage, intrigue, historical fiction and the Brooklyn Dodgers in one book. Hat's off to Jon for writing a truly smart and engaging book. I love the protagonist Jake, so I kept reading until the finish line. i was not disappointed. If you are a history buff, love baseball, and love suspense thrillers this book will make you as excited as it made me. Read this book it's excellent.

(edit)

Red Chaser is a novel about a private detective. But it's really a novel about spies. But it's really a novel about sex and blackmail. But it's really a novel about baseball.

I don't know Brooklyn, particularly in the Fifties. I met some pieces and parts of it through this book. The narrator is the kind of guy you might want to have in your corner when you're in a jam, but is not necessarily the guy you want to hang out with on a regular basis, just being friendly. That's okay, he'd probably feel the same way about you, particularly if you're trying to get in the way of his enjoyment of baseball and beer.

I'm used to mystery novels being composed of a more terse prose than Jon Spoelstra offers here. His style is engaging and conversational, and carries you along through the main character's reveries about baseball and killing Nazis.

Red Chaser is fun, exciting, and most importantly, never gets boring.

I spent a lot of time on planes and when I read Red Chaser, I noticed a lot of people looking at me and trying to read my computer. Suspense, wars, sex, murder, beer and baseball. It's about the best combination for a fiction book you could ever have. It will keep your attention throughout and turning the electronic pages. Nixon, McCarthy and a surprise ending. Looking forward to what's next.

I had read Spoelstra's marketing books and thought them insightful and entertaining. Now, wow, his novel. Red Chaser is insightful--the 1950s and the beginnings of the Cold War--and it is highly entertaining with Brooklyn and one luscious spy. I'm hoping that there will be a sequel.

This book is a zinger, right from the first chapter where we meet Joe McCarthy. While you'll be surprised throughout the book, you'll never guess the last surprise in the last few paragraphs in the last chapter. Not a book you put down easily or read and forget!

I was transported to Brooklyn in 1951. Beautiful, tough, unflinching, scary Brooklyn. This was like a James Ellroy world. I met some scary guys--Joe McCarthy and even Richard Nixon--and some cool guys like Jake McHenry. Best of all, I met the most evil seductress spy ever in fiction. Totally enjoyable!!! I highly recommend.

In 1951, Jake McHenry is invited to a bar by an old childhood friend. Jake works as a Private Investigator doing divorce cases, mainly just to cover up his riches he improperly gained when working as a CIA operative uncovering Soviet Russian spy networks. His old friend introduces him to chief Commie hater Senator Joe McCarthy who has a job for him...

And this is just the first few pages of Jon Spoelstra's fast-paced hybrid of a P.I./espionage novel. It is a fun read accented by some ...more In 1951, Jake McHenry is invited to a bar by an old childhood friend. Jake works as a Private Investigator doing divorce cases, mainly just to cover up his riches he improperly gained when working as a CIA operative uncovering Soviet Russian spy networks. His old friend introduces him to chief Commie hater Senator Joe McCarthy who has a job for him...

And this is just the first few pages of Jon Spoelstra's fast-paced hybrid of a P.I./espionage novel. It is a fun read accented by some dark themes in a internationally dark time. Yet there are some great moves to this story that takes it from three star territory to four stars for me.

First, there is the uncanny sense of era. This is the 50s. It is a prosperous time for most Americans but a dangerous time for many. Some are being blacklisted or blackmailed for their mistakes when they were young. The Soviet Union is a real threat. The U.S. is again in a war, this time in Korea, and everyone is looking over their shoulders. Spoelstra does a really good job at catching the atmosphere and peppering his story with real people and real events. McCarthy is his drunk opportunistic self. His assistant Bobby Kennedy is waiting in the wings (Roy Cohn must have still been on the day shift in the Rosenberg gig), and the Brooklyn Dodgers are their glorious self. Throw in Wild Bill Donovan, Mickey Mantle, Richard Nixon and others and you get the idea. The author's research is quite impressive with only a few small gaffes that do not affect the story (The TV Series Death Valley Days didn't make to the TV screen until 1952 and Ronald Reagan did not become its host until 1965). Yet it is atmosphere that counts, and I can almost smell the beer and Nathan's hot dogs and hear the crowd at Ebbett's Field.

Which brings up smooth move number two. Baseball fans will love the play-by-play descriptions of the Brooklyn Dodgers' 1951 pennant race. The author weaves it expertly into the story. This is not just a sub-plot but an whole separate and essential personality to the entire tale.

Finally, Jake McHenry is a easy-to-root-for hero yet is realistically complex. There's enough darkness in him to make him real yet not enough to overshadow the true villains of the story who may not be who you expect them to be.

So overall this is a fun and unpredictable story that takes you into the not so distant past. Recommended to anyone who loves detective or espionage books and all 1950s history buffs.

....you will meet in this cracker-jack thriller: Wild Bill Donovan (founder of CIA forerunner, the OSS); those infamous redChasers, Tailgunner Joseph McCarthy and his chief henchmen Dick Nixon; and in an ironic twist, a very young Harvard graduate named Robert Kennedy. Then you have Walter Alston, the owner of the Brooklyn Dodgers, Mickey Mantle and Red Barber! If you are a fan of the Brooklyn Dodgers you will live and die all over again as the Dodgers chase the Giants for the 1951 pennant. If you are a fan of high-action espionage thrillers, like THE ODESSA FILE, you will eat this one up! Full of 1950's tough guys and dames, this mystery/thriller is, for the most part, set in the borough of Kings: Brooklyn! The author does a REMARKABLE job of making Brooklyn, the old Brooklyn-home of Ebbinger's bakery (makers of the BEST German chocolate crumb cake EVER!!), Ebbets Field and Coney Island come alive! And IT ONLY COST A DOLLAR (Kindle edition!) It is one of the BEST reads of the year! This is the second book I have read by Spoelstra, the first being SUCCESS IS JUST ONE WISH AWAY, a terrific self-help book written around the fading ambitions of a real-estate agent stuck in his career. If ever a book needed a sequel, this is it! C'mon Mr. Spoelstra, start writing! You now have a devoted, built-in Kindle audience awaiting the next Jake McHenry mystery set in Hawaii......

I got this on a whim for my Kindle. It's an enjoyable story with a conflicted hero (Jake), a love interest, a lust interest, baseball, spies and politics all linked together. At times, there are some contrived situations but all in all, an enjoyable read.