The Heartbreak Lounge [Mass Market Paperback]

Wallace Stroby (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 7, 2006

After a seven-year stretch inside a Florida penitentiary for attempted murder, Johnny Harrow knows exactly what he'll do when he gets out. He's going home to the shabby Jersey shore town where his girlfriend Nikki made the most selfless decision of her hard life: Giving up their newborn son for adoption. It's time for Johnny to claim what's his…

Nikki made one terrible mistake--she didn't tell Johnny her decision until the child was gone. She knows Johnny never forgets…or forgives. She also knows what he's capable of. It's up to her to protect the child once again…

Desperate to save the child from the seething menace that is Johnny Harrow, Nikki turns to former New Jersey state trooper Harry Rane for help. Now, an investigator, Rane must crawl through the darkest corners of the New Jersey underworld to find Johnny and stop him. But Johnny Harrow isn't a man who's often caught unaware…and so the game begins.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Payback and revenge drive Stroby's taut, violent second outing for former New Jersey State Trooper Harry Rane (after 2003's The Barbed-Wire Kiss). With his wife, Cristina, away in Seattle to think things through after a rough marital patch, Harry seizes the chance to keep a protective eye on Nikki Ennis, who used to work as a dancer at the Heartbreak Lounge in a seedy section of Asbury Park. Nikki's vicious, amoral ex-husband, Johnny Harrow, who's just finished serving a seven-year stretch in a Florida prison for attempted murder, wants to find his young son, whom Nikki gave up as an infant, and heads for the Heartbreak, where he first met his ex-wife. Johnny also has a few scores to settle with some nasty people in Jersey, his home state. The thug's ruthless campaign threatens everyone in his line of sight, and not even Harry escapes his wrath. In the end, Stroby's suspenseful tale of bleak lives in danger offers a few glimmers of hope for those with damaged hearts.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

Harry Rane's parade of murderous misery continues in this follow-up to The Barbed-Wire Kiss (2002). Working a dead-end security job, the former New Jersey state trooper washes pain pills down with wine while wondering if his girlfriend will return from a West Coast time-out. But even in the depths of depression, Rane's sense of chivalry hasn't died. So when a woman shows up seeking to protect the child she gave up for adoption from his ex-con dad, the taciturn investigator lends a steady if reluctant hand. But the felonious father, ominously named Johnny Harrow, nearly steals the novel with his menacing manner, keen talent for killing, and inclination to make unexpected choices at key moments. Meanwhile, Rane is fallibly human, struggling to make sense of his life, overreacting to threats, accidentally putting innocents in harm's way, and taking some mighty lumps throughout. If he is sometimes so maudlin readers will want to avert their eyes, at least he comes by the raw emotion honestly. Folks who like their protagonists more realistic than heroic will enjoy the refreshing Rane. Frank Sennett
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: St. Martin's Paperbacks; 1st edition (March 7, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312939124
• ISBN-13: 978-0312939120
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 4.2 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,354,100 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Wallace Stroby is an award-winning journalist and the author of the novels KINGS OF MIDNIGHT, COLD SHOT TO THE HEART, GONE 'TIL NOVEMBER, THE HEARTBREAK LOUNGE and THE BARBED-WIRE KISS, which was a finalist for the 2004 Barry Award for Best First Novel. A New Jersey native, he's a lifelong resident of the Jersey Shore. For 13 years, he was an editor at The Newark (N.J.) Star-Ledger, Tony Soprano's hometown newspaper. Visit him at www.wallacestroby.com.