Customer Reviews

Red Rain

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

There are fewer more tiresome kinds of hubris than the "trained professional" who decides to show us Philistines how it should be done. The opera star who pumps her lung capacity into "really singing" folk songs and Beatles' tunes, for example, or the Shakespearean actor who recites nursery rhymes as if they were soliloquies. Having "a prizewinning, critically acclaimed literary novelist" write an action-packed thriller is the same sort of embarrassing schtick.

With the exception of mouth-breathing adolescents like James Ellroy, most writers of mystery fiction know that their work must have a moral foundation of some sort. Even someone as noir as Andrew Vachss operates in a moral world, and James Lee Burke's Dave Robicheaux is just as damaged as Luther Ewing but a lot more interesting. Ewing is no better than his adversaries, and he doesn't mind.

This novel is contemptuous of its audience. That attitude may work in the alleys on 42nd Street, but I suspect most of the book's potential readers will spot it and walk away, wary of Murphy lit. Even children can usually tell when they are being patronized, and many readers of genre lit, surprising though this may be to "literary novelists," are not children.

The novel is full of bonehead problems. We are supposed to believe that Luther managed to hide a big and important chunk of his career from his employers at Baltimore PD. Ok. That he could connect up with an old friend who's now a drug runner, and the guy would never "notice" that he was a cop. Sure. That all women under 25--at least all the goodlooking ones--can't keep their hands off his aging bod. Well, of course.

There are good writers of mystery fiction out there who could teach "Michael Crow" that good grape juice is better than bad champagne. Whoever he is, he needs to throw away his Shooter's Bible and study some real writers.

There is nobody like Luther Ewing AKA Five-Oh on the Baltimore County Police Department. He's a narcotics detective whose heritage of a black father and a Vietnamese mother makes him look like the suspects he busts. He served in the Army's Special Forces in the Gulf War. After he left the service, the CIA hired him to work as a mercenary in Bosnia.

He saw and did a lot of things that changed him and he came home wearing a metal plate in his head and has to take medication so he won't go into seizures. He thinks the past is behind him but when pure heroine starts showing up on the streets and a Russian gun is killing cops, he knows his old friend Vasilly is in town.. Vasilly is a former Soviet Special Forces soldier who served with him in Bosnia. Five-oh knows that the Russian must be taken out but he also believes he must go outside the law to do it.

This is Michael Crow's first crime thriller and it is simply sensational. The protagonist is an anti-hero who believes justice and the law are not always compatible and is not afraid of being a maverick to make sure the scales tip towards justice. RED RAIN starts out at supersonic speed and just keeps moving faster towards the shocking finale.

Harriet Klausner

I recently decided to read a paperback I've had kicking around for awhile... Red Rain by Michael Crow. This is a crime thriller with a very gritty edge to it. Good in some ways, not so hot in others...

The basic plot is this... Luther Ewing, a cop, ends up running across a Russian mobster who he apparently fought next to in some war action. The Russian is pushing drugs into his area, and Ewing decides to run undercover to get close to him and shut down the ring. The problem is that he has to do this outside the bounds of normal law enforcement to protect a number of cops from getting killed by the ex-Spetnaz employed by the Russian. Plenty of people in the drug world and law enforcement circles start getting assasinated, and Ewing has to kill or be killed. There are a few side stories too, but I'll leave it at that.

Now, the book is written in a first person style. The main character is half-Vietnamese, half-black, and takes medication to control brain damage from a bullet wound he suffered. He's a trained killer, so his emotional side is less than touchy-feely. There's a darkness and edge to the writing that matches the character and makes it a compelling read. What I don't like is that much of the background of the different characters is only alluded to during the story. If this were a second or third novel with the main character, I could understand it. But this is the first one, and I would have expected a bit more character development along the way. I wasn't always sure where the story was going or why certain things were happening.

So... Stylistically, it's an interesting read. From just a pure story viewpoint, it was average.

With his novel Red Rain, author Michael Crow has created a nifty, gritty little thriller that pushes the boundaries of crime to its bleakest state. Although there is a lot of dark humour to be found in his novel, the storyline is so dark and the characters so conflicted that the read itself ends up being very, very dark. Not since Michael Connelly has an author tackled the grittiest side of today's world in such a realistic and affecting way.

The novel gives us Luther Ewing, a half-vietnamese, half-black Baltimore detective who also used to be in the army. His nickname? Shooter, a name Luther does live up to; his army training has left him so indifferent to death and violence that he has no problem pulling the trigger whenever he feels the need.

This time, Ewing is faced with a drug cartel that is slowly gaining ground in Baltimore. And the cartel's leader just happens to be a Russian man by the name of Vassily, with whom Ewing spent some time during the war. He now has to go undercover and head-to-head against a man that he once considered to be a friend.

Filled with colorful but realistic characters, and a very truthful storyline, Red Rain is the kind of novel that makes no apologies for its violence of subject matter. As a matter of fact, the book's title might not be apporpriate enough; it is not a rain a blood that keeps falling through these pages, but a real downpoor. As the body counts keeps getting higher and higher, Luther finds himself sinking deeper and deeper into a remorseless, dark world.

Michael Crow is the pen name for an award-winning novelist. I would love to know who that is, because Red Rain is one of the best crime novel to have been published in quite some time. You will admire Ewing, a character you will both love and hate (never try to understand his actions, he's impossible to figure out!), and you will admire the extremely witty dialogue and sharp, quick writing style.

There isn't much to hate in this brilliant little novel. I can't wait to see what Crow will bring us next!

... This is not a "sensational" thriller - but it is awfully good.

I am more intrigued as to who "Michael Crow" is, - he obviously knows the craft of writing and I wish there was I way I could find out who he is...nonetheless, if this is his first effort into this genre, then I say, "Michael, job well done".

The plot is simple enough - but I do agree with the other reviewer - how could Vassily not know Luther was a cop? At the end of the day, the relationship between Vassily and Luther is what will keep you going, and all the gun play is mighty entertaining...

I found the end to come quickly, and thought that could've been deveoped more...also, I was hoping they would explore more about the little girl found in the woods that opened the book.

Either way, Mr. Crow leaves the door WIDE open for many more sequels. It is a very entertaining read - great for a coast-to-coast flight.

If you tell us who you are Mr. Crow, I will support your other books. Cheers !

The hero seems to be a [copy] of Joe Pike. Not a bad choice,
really. In my opinion, it's going to take Publishing Muscle
to turn this into a successful series. None of the characters
are fully developed and the story suffers for it. It could
have been a 4 star novel but the author probably feels that
'crime fiction' is beneath him. Well, if the author is who
that Baltimore web site said he is--then crime fiction is
actually a step up, IMO. Just google Michael Crow+pseudonym
and click on the Baltimore 'city paper' and see who this author
may be. May be, as it's only a guess.
I read the entire book so it offers some of what I need from
a crime novel. If publishers would just spend some dough on
good editors they could get the money back many fold, IMO...

I have to say I was a little disappointed with this book. I had to work very hard to locate a copy (maybe that should have been my first hint) but I was very much looking forward to it for some reason. I had seen some blurb here on AMazon that made me go track it down, but I can't remember what it was now. I think most of the reviews here are on target; in general this book is very formulaic and there is a disappointing lack of character development. Over all nothing within it will make it memorable for me so I gets my "OK" three starts rating.

Since it was so formulaic, I found the coyness of the author's pseudonym extremely irritating; understandable but irritating. Mr. Crow is billed as being a prize-winning novelist on the dust cover, and having made that claim I can see why another reviewer has decided that the author is contemptuous of the audience. He is billed as being so capable, yet he delivers a product that is very average. Ergo irritating, but understandable why he doesn't want his own name on it. So this feels like simply another hack writing job someone had to do to make a mortgage payment. I don't sense a true attachment bewteen the author and the characters and the world he has created within these pages.

All that being said though, I did read the whole thing, and read the two sequels, mostly because I was having a week where a little gratuitous violence sounded cathartic and I didn't have anything else to hand. So if you want a standard story of tough guys whupping up on other tough guys and don't have any Robicheaux or Repairman Jack novels available then this might fit the bill.

The author (Vollman??) knows his guns, the technical side is accurate. Lots of bodies, as well as loose ends. Lots of shooting, perhaps a bit much lingering over Luther's mental state and "anomie". Not as well written as Lee Child's Reacher series, which has pretty much pooped out. Even M. Dibdin seems to be going thru the motions with the resurrected Aurelio Zen.
So----it was a fast read, and enough sex and family weirdness
to hold one's attention. But there's an awful lot of very cliche black/white stuff, the dialog between "DOG" and Luther is particularly lame, and the cop-buddy stuff is also tired. And poppa "Gunny" is a joke. You just KNOW the sidekick is going to...well, I won't give it away. Worth reading though. A solid "B-". Just don't expect too much logic and a tight plot. Above average thriller. As for hubris---too much "MAMMY" from the opera singer....

As per usual, I came into this series after the lead-in novel. I had my first Luther Ewing experience with Crow's second book, The Bite, and I was pretty underwhelmed. Ewing, an ex-special forces/ex-merc sharpshooter who was shipped back to the U.S. after getting half his skull blown apart by a Serb sniper - along with his entire supporting cast of Baltimore Police - well, the characterizations are as derivative as they come, and the uber-hardboiled writing of author Michael Crow (the nome de plume of a - ahem - prize winning, critically acclaimed novelist) is as cheesy as week-old Velveeta.

Read it, said, 'Huh'. Been there, done that. Tossed it.

Okay, fast-forward a year. Something in The Bite must've struck a nerve, 'cause now I'm bored, desperate with a need to read. Stalking the local mega-used book store like a heroin junkie looking for a street-corner dealer, I see a used hardcover copy of Crow's first Ewing thriller, Red Rain, and I think, 'Huh. The other one wasn't so bad... Was it?'

Maybe it wasn't. Red Rain opens with Ewing and his first assignment with the Baltimore Narcotics squad, and his soon-to-be partner, Ice Box (Seriously. Imagine a white, falsetto-voiced version of The Fridge...), as they help bust a pathetic ring of suburban white-boy dope dealers. Ewing's boss, Lt. Dugal, labels Ewing a wild gun ('natch, since Ewing throws down with a non-reg, Israeli made, .50AE Desert Eagle equipped with an Aimpoint attachment), and promptly hooks Ewing up with Ice Box as his senior partner, sort of reverse Lethal Weapon style. The fun begins when more and more drug busts come down, all suburban kids, the drugs getting heavier and heavier, and suddenly all the trails lead back to one of Luther's old merc buddies: a Russian mafioso, ex-Spetsnaz psycho called Vassily who's quickly taking over the Baltimore drug trade. The bodycount builds fast after 'The Big Bust' goes south; Vassily goes after Luthor and his homies. In the end, after Vassily almost drops Luthor's city detective buddy Dog, well - not to give anything away here, but Luthor goes Rambo on Vassily and his cronies, even going so far as to smear on the war-paint during the finale.

Okay, yeah, yeah, it's derivative of just about any other thriller out there. But there's something endearing about Luthor and his crew, and until the cheese factor ramps up a notch with the lipstick war-paint at the end, Crow barrels gleefully along, tossing in enough sex and spilling enough blood to satisfy any adolescent teenage boys' hormonally charged action fetish. Just read - don't think, 'cause Red Rain really is as big and bombastic and... well.. dumb as a Shane Black flick. Get past the silliness and into the adrenaline, and you might suddenly find yourself having a blast.

Well. I thought it was pretty good. Most reviewers sound like an ex . . . "How dare you?" and "We're supposed to be impressed by THAT!" and along the lines of "if you had any guts you would come out from behind that nom de plume."

I like Luther Ewing, don't care that he's half black-half vietnamese, has the usual arrogance for authority that . . . let's see, Joe Pike, Spenser, Robicheaux, Hawk, Lucas Davenport, Frank Corso and Sunny Randall have, likes to have sex (wow; what an anomaly), and knows his guns. The anti siezure drugs have me a little perplexed but, what's your point?

I think the guy behind Michael Crow wanted to test his limits. People get irritated that he does that and I suspect it was a little too heavy handed that crap about 'he's really an international author blah blah.' Sounds like one of those 'game show annoncers.'

But that's a publishing decision. The guy goes to his publisher and says "I want to do this, will you back me?" and Pub says "yeah but we want to make some dinero on it so we're going to do it this way." That's what went down. Viking didn't want to spend muy bucks on some author's whim. You guys are nuts.

So I give it 5 stars. Exciting dialogue. Good plot, and yes, the guy knows his street slang (I think only Pelecanos does it better) and his guns. Interesting character. I've read them all. I got no beef, dog. Larry Scantlebury