Customer Reviews

The Strangler

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William Landay's sophomore effort is a somewhat different work --- both structurally and topically --- from MISSION FLATS. But his stellar craftsmanship shines through; if anything, THE STRANGLER surpasses its predecessor.

Though a work of fiction, THE STRANGLER is set in the real world of 1963. The nation is reeling from the assassination of President John F. Kennedy; for Boston, it is a devastating blow, as the city is already traumatized by a series of rapes and murders committed by a fiend whom the press has dubbed "The Boston Strangler." Landay's novel, however, does not concern itself primarily with those horrific crimes. Rather, the story belongs to the Daley brothers, three different siblings who will touch and be touched by the investigation directly and indirectly.

Michael is an assistant with the Attorney General's office --- content with handling eminent domain cases that are beneath him intellectually --- when he is assigned to a special task force investigating the killings. Joe, following in the footsteps of his late father, is a policeman, but his corruption is such that he cannot appreciate fully the irony of the situation into which he is inexorably sliding. Ricky is an unapologetic burglar, yet it is he who is perhaps the most honest, caring and consistently upright of the brothers.

Surprisingly, it is Ricky who holds the key not only to their father's mysterious death in the line of duty but also to the identity of the Boston Strangler. Yet it is Joe, ethically and morally compromised as the result of his own actions, who is closest to the corruption within Boston and to the crime that haunts the brothers most deeply. Michael --- plagued by migraine headaches and an ambiguous sexuality --- is perhaps the most enigmatic, the weakest of the three, and yet fate will leave it to him to execute a rough and final justice for the offenses visited against the family and the city where they live.

Landay's narrative is at once compelling and propelling. His story moves not so much as a streamlined dialogue but as a series of extended vignettes alternating back and forth among the brothers, highlighting their strengths and weaknesses. Early in the book, a basketball game involving the three of them is a metaphor not only of their lives but also for what will occur later. Landay's eerie coda to the events brings the subtle uneasiness of the narrative into sharp focus; what resolution the Daleys brought is at best temporary and at worst illusory.

The result is a brilliantly told story, haunting in its totality. It is difficult to escape the conclusion that THE STRANGLER may well be the crime novel of the year. Highly recommended.

--- Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub

If you're a lover of quality crime fiction, if the names Connelly, Pelecanos, Burke or Lehane get you excited, then this novel is for you. I was wowed by Landay's first novel (Mission Flats) and am even more impressed now. The title and the cover do not do justice to the riches contained within, this is a marvelous book.

Some reviewers have complained about the lack of twists, or that the bad guy was revealed early on. This is not a "mystery" book where the object is to keep guessing until the end. This is a crime novel that is as much about the human condition as it is about the crimes, much in the vein of Mystic River, and is guaranteed to move you and make you think about your own life and family.

It's a dark tale, bleak and brutal. But if you want more from your thrillers than a puzzle, if a literate story with depth is what you seek, you will be delighted - sometimes horrified, but thoroughly delighted - with this exemplary novel. It truly represents the best in crime fiction.

In 1962 Boston, someone shoots and kills Irish-American police officer Joe Daley, Sr. in an alley while he is on duty. His three sons, Joe the cop, Ricky the thief, and Michael the lawyer grieve the loss of the family patriarch while the widow, their mother Margaret, did her grieving gig for a year and now lives with the late cop's partner, Brendan Conroy.

Her offspring detest Brendan and are angry with their mother for sleeping with the person they hold culpable in their dad's death as they wonder if he set up Joe to walk point into an ambush and why a cop killer has not been caught. However the three sons have their own issues to contend with. To pay off his enormous gambling debt to the mob Joe Jr., works for Vinny "The Animal" Gargano. Gangster Capobianco wants Rickey beaten to a pulp for stealing diamonds from someone who pays the hooligan for protection. Michael, who works in Eminent Domain Division of the Attorney General's Office insists that Albert DeSalvo is not the Strangler, but instead just a lunatic seeking fifteen minutes of fame. When Ricky's girlfriend Amy is murdered with the Strangler' MO while DeSalvo is a guest of the state, the Attorney General claims he did the crime anyway; Michael with the help of his siblings investigates the latest homicide.

Using the Boston Strangler as a key link and reference point, William Landay provides a fascinating look at family bonds cemented by an odd form of honor and even stranger type of justice. The tale also implies that DeSalvo was not the Strangler, but Mr. Landay employs his theory more as an aside in support of his overall theme of unity during a crisis. Suspense thriller fans will appreciate this fine historical thriller.

Harriet Klausner

I enjoyed this book more for its atmosphere then its characters. The tale revolves around the three Daley brothers who I never completely warmed up to, but the story of the City of Boston and its renewal during the time of the Boston Strangler was what drew me in. Great plot, but the characters could have used something. Something not easy to describe, maybe a "warmth" they never achieved. Definately worth the time though.

My it's refreshing to find a new author in the so-called genre, who writes like an accomplished novelist. William Landay's The Strangler, his second novel (I somehow missed the first but have since acquired it) is a marvellous read. Written with the authority of one who knows the legal world from personal experience, Landay has crafted a story that involves the infamous Boston Strangler. But the book is much more than that. It's about Irish Boston cops; and family; and Boston, a city decaying in the early 1960s. A terrific read, satisfying at multiple levels. Highly recommended.The Strangler

The early 1960s were tumultuous times in this country - our President was assassinated and the City of Boston, often thought of as a cultural and historic mecca, was riddled with fear. Eleven women had been murdered, some of them also raped by a man who earned the sobriquet Boston Strangler. Police were stymied, and citizens in an uproar.

There was a man, Albert DeSalvo, who confessed to the murders. He had able defense - F. Lee Bailey. Following a few rounds of legal maneuvering DeSalvo was given life for the rapes. Later, he would be killed in prison. There were and are many who do not believe he was the Boston Strangler.

These events are the launching pad for William Landay's mesmerizing second novel, The Strangler. We meet the Daleys, an Irish cop family if there ever was one. Daley the elder was a policeman killed in the line of duty. His three sons are a complex trio. Joe, the eldest, is a cop with problems - $20,000 worth of them. He's an inveterate gambler and soon finds himself so far in debt to the mob that there seems no way out.

Middle son Michael is a lawyer via Harvard who works for an attorney general with aspirations. Michael who is assigned to the Strangler case is described by his mother as " ....her most finely calibrated son, the quickest to take offense and the slowest to forgive". Youngest son Ricky? He's very accomplished........at stealing jewels. There you have them save for their widowed mother who is being courted by their late father's best friend.

At this point in time DeSalvo is imprisoned but there are still many questions about the case. Then another woman, a friend of the Daley's, is murdered in the Strangler manner.

Landay's novel has it all - steam roller suspense, compelling dialogue, and a plot propelled by actual events. It's a sure winner!

Voice performer Stephen Hoye is another winner as his narration attests. His reading is controlled, compelling as he easily segues from character to character allowing the story, the words to take center stage.

- Gail Cooke

The problem with THE STRANGLER lies somewhere in the murky terrain of the docudrama mixed in with the tangled lives of a lower middle class Irish family, the Daleys, living in Boston at the time of JFK's assassination, when the so called "Boston Strangler" was making his mark. Somehow there's a lot of loose ends, just like when Upton Sinclair created his "Lanny Budd" novels in the 1940s, sending his fictional hero traipsing into world affairs from Hitler to Stalin to Churchill to Eisenhower; it's like oil and water ("Irish salad dressing," Landay quips here), and one or the other aspect of an interesting premise is always getting cheated. The family of boys, Joe, Ricky and Michael, is almost laughably stereotyped--except it's really the three brothers from THE GODFATHER, their personalities just switched around a little. Credit goes to Landay for attempting to make his female characters on a par with the men. Margaret, the Daley matriarch, makes for a sexy, self-assured older woman who does not quite realize that her new boyfriend might have had a little bit more to do with leaving her a widow than anybody has suspected.

In addition, Margaret finds herself a potential victim of the Strangler.

Like many journalists then and now, Landay argues that here must have been (at least) two Stranglers, for "he" is credited with two different sets of crimes, each with its own MO--a rapist who bizarrely targeted only older women, sometimes grandmas--and what you might call an "ordinary" rapist who went after the college girls. Albert DeSalvo, the man who confessed to all of these crimes, confessed as well to nine hundred other crimes. Did he just want to be famous? Could he have picked up all the details of the murders he confessed to from contemporary newspaper and TV reports, or perhaps from leading questions posed to him by detectives under pressure to come up with a suspect, any suspect?

The Daleys' story involves the Strangler only peripherally, and instead centers on a complex plot of police corruption, mob violence, and urban renewal said to be the dawn of a "new Boston" but really just another scheme to make the rich richer and the poor poorer. This story has been told a million times before, and Landay leaves it threadbare. The "bad guy" in the story is exactly who you suspect from the very page he enters on. It's beyond belief he didn't even try to bring a twist to the storyline, and yet on the other hand, I hesitate to castigate him on coming up with such a strange and unwieldy story, and for fleshing it with some interesting turns of phrase. Strangler suspect Kurt Lindstrom, an amateur actor, has skin, for example, that is "unlined and pinguid."

The Strangler was a great book. It drew me in from the first page and kept me entertained until the end. What I liked most was that Landay developed each character in the book. It was not a typical formula mystery with the same shallow characters doing the same thing until 15 pages from the end and then it was done. This book had themes within themes and as the story unraveled - the reader learned more and more about the characters. The reader can tell that Landay takes his time with each word. He does not churn out novels that are like fast food and 2 chapters in you realize - hey I read this already. Each of his books are detailed and suspenseful. I really enjoyed Mission Flats as well.

I was really looking forward to this book since I'd previously read and enjoyed this author's first novel, Mission Flats. That book won Landay, a former Massachusetts prosecutor, the Creasey Memorial Dagger for Best First Crime Novel. Unfortunately, Landay's second novel fails to deliver the same impact.

The Strangler is a novel about three Irish brothers living in Boston in 1963; Joe Daley - the eldest - is a tough cop who gambles too much and ends up working off his debts by helping the mob. Soon, everything he holds dear is threatened. Michael, the middle son, is a lawyer who works in the Attorney General's Office. He toils away in the obscure Eminent Domain Division but is soon transferred to the Boston Strangler Task Force. Ricky is a thief who suffers the most when the Strangler comes calling on his girlfriend.

The novel weaves the story of these three brothers, their deceased father (a cop killed under questionable circumstances), their mother (who may be sleeping with her former husband's murderer), family secrets, a mob war and two people who may be the Boston Strangler. If it sounds like a lot, it is - too much it seems for the author who seems to lose focus on the important aspects of the novel.

The three brothers are so different that the first thing you wonder is how they can possibly be related. Their treatment is also uneven - Joe, arguably the least likeable, is given the greatest emphasis. I would have enjoyed a more thorough handling of the most colorful brother, Ricky.

Even the Boston Strangler is given short shrift. Albert DeSalvo confesses to being the Strangler but the police - or at least Michael - isn't so sure that DeSalvo is the killer. For someone unfamiliar with all the details of the murders, the various inconsistencies that point to why DeSalvo may not have been the Boston Strangler are never flushed out in the book. Despite the title of the book, the Boston Strangler is a bit player in this novel.

In short, this rambling novel lacked the focus and intensity of Landay's earlier work.

In his second crime novel, William Landay weaves together the story of three brothers, the death of their policeman father, Boston's urban renewal projects, and the Boston Strangler. It's Boston in 1963. Kennedy has just been assassinated. Real estate developers are bulldozing Boston's West End to put up shiny new towers. A mob war is being waged. The Boston Strangler is terrifying the city.

I thought it was great book. You see see the flow of violence and changes to the city of Boston through the eyes of the three brothers: Ricky, the burglar; Michael, the lawyer; and Joe, the cop. The story gets complicated as all you jump around through the eyes of the brothers and the backdrop of criminal activity.

The crime is not just in the background. Joe, the cop, is a bad gambler who gets behind on his debts and starts working for the bad guys. In the first chapter, Ricky steals some jewelry from a hotel room at the Copley Plaza Hotel.

The Boston underworld in the book is a brutal place. It may be too violent for some readers. Just as violent is the destruction of the physical city as 46 acres of homes and small businesses in the West End are bulldozed to make way for a handful of residential high rises.

I need to let you know that Bill (yeah, I know him as Bill) is a friend. Our sons went to the same preschool. We have been to each others' homes and countless kids' birthday parties.