Customer Reviews

Redemption Street (Moe Prager Series)

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I just recently started reading the Moe Prager series (in order) and am delighted with the depth and emotion that Mr. Coleman conveys in his writing. I also like the fact that the cases that he writes about are plausible.

I will warn you that there is some character development that takes place in this book that I think will be necessary for the subsequent books (which might make the story seem to lag a bit at times if viewed as a stand-alone book). I would also recommend reading 'Walking the Perfect Square' first to understand the groundwork for some of the family dynamics.

Overall, I found the book to be enjoyable and interesting and would highly recommend it.

I have read many, many detective, adventure, spy novels in my 68 years. Very simply, this one is right at the top of my list of great ones. In my opinion, even better than the James Deans by he same author. If I could give it 6 stars, I would.

Redemption Street by Reed Farrel Coleman
My Review

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It had a "comfy" feel to it, like the narrator was a friend. The retired detective (Moe) turned wine-store owner in the 1970's New York City takes his first P.I. case, not because someone asks him to do it; but because someone offers him money to not take it. Right away I knew that I would like this character and he didn't disappoint anytime. As he investigates an old fire in a Catskills hotel that killed 17 people in the 60's; one a girl he'd had a crush on in high school; he explores his feelings about being a Jew especially as he meets other Jews who are quite visually advertising their beliefs like the Hassids and the Yellow Stars. These emotional threads colour and influence his findings about the fire and the people involved, the small resort town police, politicians and former members of the destroyed hotel. All the characters are well rounded out and quite believable. The twists and turns sometimes come as a surprise which I like in a mystery, who likes to know the ending before getting there? The author has included personal scenes in the development of the character which helps Moe come alive and makes the story something that is happening to the character right now. I give 5 stars.

Moe Prager is a hard-boiled ex-cop with a nose for trouble and a nose for the guilty. This is an excellent read from beginning to end and Reed Farrell Coleman kept me on the edge of my seat from the first page. This is loaded with suspense, culminating in an unspeakable terror that happened long ago. The murderer is revealed at just the right time. I highly recommend this to anyone who likes Edgar Award winning novels.

I read the Moe Prager books out of order--third one first, then back to the first and second--but it didn't hurt a bit. The writing here is so good--Moe's such an appealing character--and the stories are so interwoven from book to book that it was almost MORE fun to experience them backwards, as it were. I can't wait for the next one!

In order, I read: James Deans, Walking the Perfect Square, Redemption Street, James Deans again and Soul Patch (in process). Liked Redemption Street the best.

I'm really hooked on Coleman's writing. Rich characters and suspense all wrapped into one.

Coleman is an excellent writer and Moe is a wonderful, fully-dimensional character who, while a tough ex-cop, is human with a family he loves and secrets he carries. His descriptions are well done and his style has a wonderful flow, but a poignancy that leaves you knowing you'll be waiting for his next book. There is good suspense and twists along the way. Highly recommended.

As this sequel to "Walking The Perfect Square" where Moses "Moe" Prager was first introduced opens, it has been three years since the events depicted in that book. Moe is married and has a baby girl as well as a ton of guilt over not telling his wife everything about her father and the truth about her brother's disappearance. His knee still aches and while he may be the only Jewish licensed P.I. in New York City, he hasn't used his license once since that case. Instead, the wine shop in which he is a partner with his brother has opened and he spends his days advising customers and trying to reconcile his past.

That is until, by all appearances, a homeless man appears in the shop. He carries with him some of Moe Prager's press clippings as a result of a missing child case covered in the first book as well as the missing person case of three years ago. Moe repeatedly tells the man that he can't help him and the man begs for help anyway. The man explains he is Arthur Rosen, and he wants help for his sister, Karen Rosen, who Moe allegedly went to school with years ago.

The name doesn't ring any bells and still doesn't when R. B. Carter shows up in his limo and tries to convince Moe to stay uninvolved. She, along with many others, allegedly died in a famous fire at a resort up in the Catskills years ago and R. B. Carter doesn't want the case looked into by Moe for any reason. He paints a picture of Arthur being insane with grief and delusional and then gets out his checkbook and tries to buy Moe off. Insulted and bored with his working life, Moe begins to dig into the case. Before long, he is further motivated to keep digging by guilt over the sudden suicide of her brother as well as the fact that he finally remembers how he loved her from afar those years ago. Getting free from his wine shop obligations as Christmas approaches in 1981, he makes a pilgrimage deep into the Catskill Mountains to see for himself where she died. Once there, guilt won't let him leave and he begin to realize the sheer depravity of some outcasts from society. As Moe works the case and realizes who the killer was, he finds new evidence that makes him wonder if Karen Rosen is really dead or just living a lie as he is?

As in the first book, the theme of guilt and religious atonement waves heavily on the work. But unlike the first book, in this case, the read is almost crushed from it. Both themes are dealt with all the subtly of a sledgehammer and as such comes across as extremely heavy handed. This is a very slow moving book and much of it has a feel of cathartic release of some type.

At the same time, the author continues to develop the Moe Prager character and the actual case and its ramifications are well worth the read and interesting. While the probable killer is obvious fairly early on, not everything is apparent and there are several twists and turns and turns to keep the reader involved in this slow moving book. Those who are interested could read this book as a stand alone, as virtually everything that happened in the first book is covered heavily in this book as well.


Book Facts:

Redemption Street (A Moe Prager Mystery)
By Reed Farrel Coleman
Viking
2004
ISBN # 0-670-03291-3
Hardback

Moe Prager, former cop, current wine merchant and a guy with a P.I. license is approached by an apparent looney tune who wants Moe to investigate a decades old fire in New York's "borscht belt" that killed several people.

Inclined to dismiss the man at first, Moe is pushed by his memory of one of the victims: a girl he had a crush on in high school.

Moe is pulled deeper into things and then deeper and deeper.

The characters are rich: a callous Manhattan real estate developer; a former comedian who missed his big-chance and runs a decaying hotel. A neo-Nazi and his hangers-on.

Moe runs the gauntlet, always pining for his wife and child, always nudged by his brother and fellow wine-merchant. But once Moe gets involved, he doesn't let go - and the reward is an exceptionally fine read.(...)

Jerry