Customer Reviews

Speak of the Devil: A Novel

5 star:		(21)
4 star:		(15)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Richard Hawke's first Fritz Malone novel is an outstanding debut. If you're looking for a detective with a heart of gold, the smart-mouthed, witty type such as Archie Goodwin or Spenser, you'll love Fritz.

Fritz casually stops to watch the Thanksgiving Parade in Manhattan, but nothing else about his day is casual. When he tries to stop a sniper from shooting at a float, he witnesses a mass killing, chases and shoots the gunman, and then he's whisked away to keep his story under wraps. Because of his connections, Fritz is included in the police department and Mayoral cover-up, but he's suspicious that blackmail threats, bombs and dirty cops are somehow linked. The police department may use Fritz to run all over Manhattan, but he maintains his autonomy. No self-respecting detective would allow the police and the Mayor to run his business. This is a fast-paced, suspenseful debut.

Fritz Malone and his associates (a marvelous girlfriend, Margo; her father, a former detective) are wonderful additions to the detective world. I'm already waiting for the next Fritz Malone novel.

I really wanted to like this book, but I was very disappointed. While the main character seemed likable enough, the book was far too Spenserish - big, tough wise-cracking yet sensitive PI, colorful sidekick, intellectual girl-friend. The plot was (literally) unbelievable, with a messy ending that made no sense. The book could have benefited from a better editor, who could have pointed out the obvious police procedural errors and who could have pointed out to the author that he really, really, really, needed to come up with a better ending.

No, this is not a review of Shakespeare's play. Having read the very positive reviews of Speak of the Devil by Richard Hawke (actually Tim Cockey), I was expecting to read an exciting, suspenseful mystery written in the style of some of my favorite authors in this genre (e.g., Harlan Coben, Nelson DeMille, Joseph Finder, David Rosenfelt, etc.). Unfortunately, to me, these favorable reviews were much ado about nothing. While the first third of the book was effective in fulfilling my high expectations, the remainder was disappointing. The plot was interesting enough and moved along at a brisk pace, although you really have to stretch your imagination for it to be plausible. My main problem is that I found Hawke's ability to develop credible characters and dialogue to be sub-par, especially relative to the authors to which he is compared in some of the other reviews posted on Amazon. The dialogue Hawke creates for his characters is much too glib to be credible and the characters themselves are too loosely developed and somewhat 'stick-like" to make them memorable and believable. Hawke works much too hard to make his main NYC characters appear "with it" and sophisticated in the "ways of the world." I've lived in and around NYC my whole life and have yet to meet anyone who comes close to the characters portrayed in this book. Further, I found the more secondary characters to be so thinly developed -- and especially the "bad guys, about whom I felt I never really got a clear picture of in my mind about what they looked like or what there motivations were -- that I couldn't care less about what happened to them. Perhaps if I read Speak of the Devil without having first read all of the high praise it received, I might not have felt as let down. Be that as it may, Speak of the Devil is good enough to finish, but not good enough to recommend highly. I hope this review is helpful to you in deciding on whether or not to read the book.

I really wanted to like this book. I read so many glowing comments about it in various on-line mystery groups that I bought a copy and settled in for a great read. Is it only me or does every reader get supremely disappointed when a writer doesn't do his research? Did Mr. Hawke even talk to a NYC police officer before he wrote this story? The most amatuerish mistake a mystery writer can include in a story is putting safeties on revolvers. The author does this numerous times. His information about obtaining a NYS PI license is totally inaccurate. And I'm only through the first thirty pages. A big let down. Shall I continue? Cops refer to their badges as shields, it's a given from day one in the academy. And I would ask why with the most sophisticated PD in the world the mayor of NY would hire one lone PI to protect his girlfirend who was the intended target of a terroristic type murder plot? More? We're expected to believe that two experienced cops wouldn't search for and find a gun secreted in an ankle holster on the perpertrator of one of the most horrendous killing sprees in NYC history. The just "overlooked" it, which they had to do to move the plot along. More? With a possible group of terrorists roaming the streets of NYC why is the police commissioner and mayor of the biggest city in the world looking at a young PI to bring the city back from the brink of a possible disaster? Where's the task force that would have been formed miliseconds after the attack? Where's the FBI? Why does the mayor knuckle under to an extortion plot by agreeing to pay the killer to keep him from killling again? He dosn't even make a half-hearted attempt at finding the killer before he agrees to fork over $1M. It goes on. The "terrorist" dresses up as a nun to avoid detection from surveillance video cameras in a grocery store when he drops off a message for the mayor. Why not put the damn letter somewhere where there aren't any cameras? Duh? The author even has the police commissioner conducting field interrogations of supermarket employees. Ridiculous. More. Police Officers from the NYPD haven't been called Patrolmen since the early 70s.

All this and more during the first third of the book. There are too many errors to list. Part of the enjoyment of reading a good book, particularly a good thriller or mystery, is knowing that the author knows what he's talking aobut and has enough respect for the reader not to walk him through a mess of a story.

The author can write, nothing lacking in that department, but his slip shod research and silly premise detract from what could have been a real nail biter.

Move over guys, there's a new thriller writer on the block, and he's very, very good.

"If she had known she would be dead in another five minutes maybe she wouldn't have swatted her son so hard...."

How's that for an opening line grabber? That's what Hawke does, he pulls you in from the first sentence, and doesn't let go until he's good and ready.

Everyone loves a parade, especially the crazy shooter at New York City's annual Thanksgiving Day Parade. Why shouldn't he love it, it's just like a shooting gallery, as Hawke notes. The maniac can pop off Mother Goose on her float, shoot a young girl marching with her band, drop a kid in a Macy's T-shirt, and do in a harried mother who has just reprimanded her son. All this until there's blood and carnage all over the place.

Fritz Malone, a private investigator, is the first to spot trouble. He catches sight of a shiny black Beretta across the street. He can see clearly through a gap in the crowd - the shooter wears a green windbreaker, and Fritz sees him pull the gun from his belt. Unfortunately, Fritz's gun is at home. So, he quickly grabs the service revolver of a dead policeman and takes off after the killer. Not a very good idea.

Before he knows it, police who haven't been far behind are manhandling Fritz and carting him off to the Commissioner's office. Once there he learns that someone calling himself "Nightmare" has been threatening an attack on innocent people, and now it has happened - a parade of terror it's called.

However, according to "Nightmare" that's only the beginning - there's much worse to come unless demands are met. Officials feel they need an outsider to track this nutcase and Fritz is nominated for the job. Now, the race is on, and it's a race to the finish.

Stage, screen and television actor Paul Michael gives a high voltage reading to this tale of mayhem in Manhattan. He sustains suspense with an intense yet highly listenable narrative voice that perfectly captures the chaos and the chase.

- Gail Cooke

While I wasn't impressed with this novel, I have to admit that Mr. Hawke has some very tough competition in this genre. The bar is certainly very high. Robert Crais, James Lee Burke, Michael Connolly, John Connelly, John D. MacDonald just to name a few.

Mr. Hawke, in my opinion, needs to practice on his character development. This is a first novel and there were just too many unanswered questions about some of the characters. His old partner is in a wheelchair having been shot. Shot by whom? Was Malone with him when he was shot? Jiggs Dugan? How does Malone know this guy well enough to leave him in a car with a million dollars of New York City's money? What is Malone's background. Several references to his having been a cop, or at least that was the way I read it, but no explanation as to why he isn't any longer. Margo is another character that needs to be developed. Daughter of his ex partner is pretty much all of the depth of character offered.

Maybe lacking in the research department, as well. I believe New York has a statute of limitations on rape, five years. An arrest for rape, after 16 years, seems to be a bit over New York's limit.

Having said all of this, I will read one more of Hawke's novels. Maybe some of the issues will be addressed in the newest novel.

I will be honest, I really liked Richard Hawke's book 'Speak of the Devil.' It kept me up reading and enjoying the story. The lead character, Fritz Malone, is interesting and engaging. The story focuses on a mass shooting at a New York City Thanksgiving parade. A Private Investigator, Fritz Malone, was there and was the one that ended up catching the suspect. The story focuses on what happens after that and a city that was thrown into more deaths and more internal police and government struggles.

It is fast paced and interesting. But, and this is the reason that it only gets 3 stars, the story seems to lose some focus s it goes on and on. It actually ends up spiraling into a mess of police intrigue, conspiracies and a hunt for the mastermind behind it all. Parts of that worked and other parts were just too much and led to a disjointed finale. As I said before, I liked it quite a bit until the final 75 pages. This review would have been a definite 4 stars but the ending dropped it.

"Speak of the Devil", Richard Hawke's first novel, has all the mechanics down pat - interesting characters, snappy dialogue, a decent - if convoluted - plot. If you're a fan of Lawrence Block, you'll see shades of Matt Scudder here, but it would be doing Block a disservice to compare the visceral grit and passion of his mean streets of New York to Hawke's more pedestrian rendering of the Big Apple. And while it is definitely worth reading, it just misses that usually intangible hook that separates the average crime thriller from the truly memorable novels that linger in your memory long after you've put them back on the shelves.

This is the story of Fritz Malone, a private investigator with a Hell's Kitchen pedigree - the likeable bastard son of a former NYPD commissioner. Malone gets drawn into a spree of murders that point to a serial killer and extend to the most powerful of New York's power brokers, while the police are trying to suppress the facts and keep the public calm but ignorant. An unlikely cast of gang-bangers, stars, nuns, mayors, and cops get pulled into a climax that is neither predictable nor stunning. In short, a promising debut for Hawke - a fast and fun read that will not disappoint but will likely fade quickly from consciousness.

Here's an idea. Why not write a novel about a wisecracking PI? Sound fresh to you? I didn't think so. Maybe if we inaugurate a distinct writing style. Let's have the author. Write in. Short. Incomplete sentences. And let's wow the audience with some really snappy language. You and I get up in the morning, and put on our clothes, but PI Malone "worked my way into some fresh skins." These linguistic tics aside, RH writes a passable mystery story in which shoe leather investigation still rules. Forget the science fiction world of CSI, Malone hits the streets and digs up clues.

There's some good fun and suspense here as he tracks down a bad guy who shoots up parades, and demands some serious money from the city of New York. What do our tough police commissioner and our tough mayor do when he requests a million bucks? They say sure, no problem, and pack up the funds in a backpack (will 10,000 hundred dollar bills fit in a backpack?), and have our guy Malone bring it to a shopping mall.

About this time a believability alarm starts ringing in my head. Why would the city involve a PI to do all of their detective work for them? Why would the city immediately acquiesce to the demand for money? Why does the killer want the money to go to a group of nuns, one of whom is a lush? Why does he keep cutting of the fingers of the deputy mayor, and finally why does this tale have an unbelievable, outrageous ending? This book is a real wall bouncer, meaning that when you finish the thing you toss it against your living room wall.

On the plus side, it is reasonably well written, and some of the dialogue is funny.

Richard Hawke's initial novel "Speak of the Devil" was a memorable effort containing ample doses of suspense and intrigue with an array of heroic and depraved characters on both sides of the law. Hawke's fuzzy demarcation between good and evil in his characters helps establish the unpredictable nature of his storyline.

Hawke's sarcastic protagonist Fritz Malone a gumshoe and illegitimate son of the ex-NYC police commisssioner unwittingly gets drawn into drama while performing a typical morning ritual for Big Apple denizens, buying bagels. It happens to be Thanksgiving morning and Malone decides to espy the parade. Without provacation a crazed gunman takes aim at actress Rebecca Gelpin dressed as Mother Goose and begins firing. Malone miraculously manages to save the actress who happens to be superstud NYC mayor Martin Leavitt's girlfriend. Others are not so lucky as a trail of slain victims are left in the aftermath.

It turns out that the mayor and Malone confidante police commissioner Tommy Carroll had been forewarned about this gutless attack via a noted penned from a faceless villain known as Nightmare. Malone who single handedly apprehended the suspect named Diaz was brought in for questioning and stunningly learned that Diaz was killed while in police custody.

So begins a reign of terror orchestrated by Nightmare who increasingly ups his monetary demands to desist with the violence. Malone gets recruited by authorities to find this madman and soon finds that there are some curious connections to the 95th precinct based in Brooklyn's Fort Peterson. This group of cops was scandalized by massive amounts of graft and corruption. Malone is also steered to an order of nuns who recently were at the center of controversy themselves. One member, Sister Margaret was found to have committed suicide, her body found in Prospect Park.

Malone advised by his mentor and girlfriend Margo's dad Charlie is led through the seamy underbelly of Brooklyn looking for a notorious criminal prince of the streets Angel Ramos who is suspected of being Nightmare. While in pursuit he unveils a much more convoluted plot than he expects as he strives to thwart further mayhem conceived by the devious Nightmare.