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Tower: A Novel
 
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Tower: A Novel [Paperback]

Ken Bruen (Author), Reed Farrel Coleman (Author)
4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)

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Book Description

September 7, 2009
Born into a rough Brooklyn neighborhood, outsiders in their own families, Nick and Todd forge a lifelong bond that persists in the face of crushing loss, blood, and betrayal. Low-level wiseguys with little ambition and even less of a future, the friends become major players in the potential destruction of an international crime syndicate that stretches from the cargo area at Kennedy Airport to the streets of New York, Belfast, and Boston to the alleyways of Mexican border towns. Their paths are littered with the bodies of undercover cops, snitches, lovers, and stone-cold killers. In the tradition of The Long Goodbye, Mystic River, and The Departed, Tower is a powerful meditation on friendship, fate, and fatality. A twice-told tale done in the unique format of parallel narratives that intersect at deadly crossroads, Tower is like a beautifully crafted knife to the heart. Imagine a Brooklyn rabbi/poet -- Reed Farrel Coleman -- collaborating with a mad Celt from the West of Ireland -- Ken Bruen -- to produce a novel unlike anything you've ever encountered. A ferocious blast of gut-wrenching passion that blends the fierce granite of Galway and the streetwise rap of Brooklyn. Fasten your seat belts, this is an experience that is as incendiary as it is heart shriven.

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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Divided into two halves, this short, brutally poetic tour of the underside of Brooklyn, Boston and Philadelphia marks the first collaboration between noir masters Bruen (The Guards) and Coleman (The James Deans). Drawing on the classic theme of childhood friends pulled toward different sides of the law, the coauthors tell the story of Nick and Todd in quick concise scenes, sketching backstories and love lives, flipping time and incidents like Tarantino's Pulp Fiction. Running errands under the cold eyes of an enforcer, Griffin, for the Bible-quoting gangster Boyle, the heroes learn fast enough that you live in the rain forest, you get wet. And looming symbolically over their narrow, violent world is the north tower of the World Trade Center. Bruen and Coleman shine, dropping in-jokes, experimenting and displaying all the literary chops that have made their novels such cult favorites among mystery fans. (Sept.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review

"Taking up the storied themes of crime fiction -- loyalty and betrayal, temptation and treachery -- Tower lifts and elevates them, forging a tale both barbaric and baleful, swaggering and broken-hearted. Brutal, soaring street poetry to take your breath away." --Megan Abbott, Edgar Award-winning author of Queenpin

"Tower goes off like a slo-mo explosion, a raging blast of white-heat light. It's a compelling study of pathologies, and style, and friendship and fate. Fuelled by tenderness and murderous hate, it's as tender as it is brutal, tender as a savage wound, ragged and raw. Here be monsters, crippled monsters: Nicky and Todd are the truest angels and demons of our mean streets I've read for some time. Be afraid." --Declan Burke, author of The Big O

"Tower is spare, powerful, surprisingly tender. And as seamless a piece of two-author writing as you'll ever find." --S. J. Rozan, Edgar Award-winning author of The Shanghai Moon

Product Details

  • Paperback: 172 pages
  • Publisher: Busted Flush Press, LLC (September 7, 2009)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 1935415077
  • ISBN-13: 978-1935415077
  • Product Dimensions: 8 x 5 x 0.5 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 3.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #413,455 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Called a hard-boiled poet by NPR's Maureen Corrigan, Reed Farrel Coleman is the former executive vice president of Mystery Writers of America. He has published twelve novels in three series, and one stand-alone with award-winning Irish author Ken Bruen. His books have been translated into seven languages, and the Moe Prager character in his current series is one of the most engaging in crime fiction. "His bone-deep world weariness and mordant sense of humor should enthrall lovers of old-school, tough-talking, loner private eyes," says Booklist.

Reed is a three-time winner of the Shamus Award for Best Detective Novel of the Year. He has also received the Barry and Anthony Awards, and has been twice nominated for the Edgar® Award. He was the editor of the anthology Hard Boiled Brooklyn, and his short fiction and essays have appeared in Wall Street Noir, The Darker Mask, These Guns For Hire, Brooklyn Noir 3, Damn Near Dead, and other publications.

Reed is an adjunct professor at Hofstra University, teaching writing classes in mystery fiction and the novel.

His standalone novel, GUN CHURCH, is exclusive to Audible.com, and his seventh Moe Prager novel (HURT MACHINE) has been winning accolades from the likes of Publishers Weekly, Kirkus, and others.

 

Customer Reviews

10 Reviews
5 star:
 (6)
4 star:
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3 star:    (0)
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Average Customer Review
4.6 out of 5 stars (10 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars A Masterpiece in the Crime Fiction Genre, November 16, 2009
By 
Bookreporter (New York, New York) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Tower: A Novel (Paperback)
TOWER is the book I had been waiting for all year. Ken Bruen is the Irish dark angel who, for the past several years, has carved a new and distinctive niche into the crime fiction genre. And Reed Farrel Coleman is a writer's writer, a master of noir crime fiction whose name is on the must-read list of all who have cracked the binding of one of his books. The news of a collaboration between the two men meant that the end result could be nothing less than an unforgettable, nightmarish journey to the dark end of a dangerous street. And that is precisely what it is.

TOWER is roughly divided into two sections covering the same period of time from the points of view of two childhood friends whose paths memorably and irrevocably cross and join as adults. Todd is a small-change hood working for Boyle, a mid-level Irish mobster with tentacles of influence throughout the East Coast to Ireland and beyond. Nick is the son of an Irish cop forced into an early retirement and working as a security guard. He doesn't fall under the sway of the evil of bad companions so much as he rushes to embrace them. Indeed, as his mother says, "he's got the bad drop."

When Todd brings Nick into Murphy's sphere of influence, Nick begins to thrive. But neither Todd nor Nick is entirely what the other believes him to be. Todd, especially, is holding a secret that will change the lives and relationship of both men when Murphy discovers it and forces Todd to make an untenable and impossible choice.

Matters are further complicated by the women with whom each of the men are involved. Nick meets Shannon by happenstance, a love at first sight circumstance that develops slowly and ends abruptly when his life gets in the way. Todd is thrown together with a woman named Leeza. Their attraction develops slowly; each of them knows exactly who and what the other is, and it is this knowledge that leads to both the consummation and termination of their relationship.

At the same time, federal law enforcement is ready to destroy Murphy's syndicate, with Nick and Todd being caught between the mob and the law. As the point of view of each man is presented, an apparent contradiction is resolved, and it appears that both men will ultimately escape intact with a promise of happiness or something like it. The conclusion is somewhat enigmatic, at least at first blush. When the full impact of what has occurred sets in, however, the climax is as chilling as anything you will read this year (or any year).

TOWER fulfills every promise made by the concept of this dream collaboration. Bruen and Coleman collaborate like twin sides of the same brain, making the difficult look easy --- and unforgettable, to boot. Dark, violent, frightening and touching, TOWER stands as a masterpiece in the crime fiction genre.

--- Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent collaboration, May 21, 2010
This review is from: Tower: A Novel (Paperback)
Ken Bruen is one of my favorite authors, and though I don't know anything about his collaborator, I knew I had to read this book because of my prior experience with Mr. Bruen's work. I am very happy that I did, as this book is simply excellent!

The plot concerns two friends, one Jewish and the other Irish. Mr. Bruen writes the part of the book about the Irish fellow and his co-author does the same for the Jewish gentleman. The different parts of the story intermesh very well, and you get one perspective on what is happening, and then the other.

There's a lot of foul language and gory violence, as usual, but they only move the plot forward. I don't like to talk abouit plot details bercause that would only spoil the fun of reading for others. One thing I will say, though: at the end I finally realized the significance of the book's title, because it was a puzzle to me almost all the way through. Read this book for yourself and enjoy some of the best gritty crime fiction being written today!
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3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Brutally Beautiful, November 1, 2009
By 
This review is from: Tower: A Novel (Paperback)
TOWER stands in a class of its own. This is a short novel with a break-neck speed, so hang on tight because it will grab you by the soul. Coleman and Bruen managed to blend their styles flawlessly, but still enable the reader to hear echos of each individual.

TOWER is filled with dark humor, poetic language, dimensional characters, and not least of all, a plot that lights the book on fire. It's gritty and it stays with you. TOWER will without a doubt make my top 10 list of 2009.

Stunning! If you haven't yet, get your hands on this book now.
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