Customer Reviews

Way Past Legal

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

 

 

Manny Williams enjoyed his vocation of master thief, but his last job left him wealthy though concerned. He and Rosario hit a small Brooklyn brokerage house expecting a small "fee", which is better than too much, but got the mother lode instead. Though they escape to Coney Island, he knows the Russian mob will be looking for him. In retirement, Manny thinks the time is right to snatch his five-year-old son Nicky out of a lousy foster care family and start over just the two of them.

The abduction goes smooth until Manny and Nicky reach Eastport, Maine, where he has car trouble. The townsfolk treat the two Williams males as if they have been long time residents as he waits for his vehicle to be repaired. However, his previous life comes to New England as his Brooklyn based enemies have a score to settle and arrive with guns firing at anyone who stand between them and Manny. Surprising even himself Manny refuses to let those angels who have come to the aid of he and Nicky get hurt even if it means his life for this small town as taught the cynic the meaning of life.

This is a refreshing character study wrapped inside a delightful thriller. The story line is a bright look at the trials and tribulations of a single father, raising (and running) with a kindergarten age child. The cast is top rate, but Manny is the focus as he learns the importance of caring for others in this small out of the way Maine town though the lesson may cost him his life.

Harriet Klausner

This was my introduction to Norman Green and it passed all my tests for a 5-star novel: After reading it I want to (1) read all of Green's prior work, while waiting for his next; (2) tell my friends about Norman Green and give them this book; and (3) "eyeball" rather than "merely" listen to Green's novels.

Norman Green has a knack for dialogue and character development. I enjoyed all the characters of Northern Maine that comprise this novel and it's antihero Manny, but I found the plot a bit flimsy. You've got a big heist, redneck cops , Russian Mafia, and Oxycotin drug trafficking, but you put them all together and they kind of fizzle out. Yes, as I've already said the characters are great and the dialogue sharp but the plot is threadbare. I'd give Norman Green another try. He is truly talented, but this is a book that could have been a lot better had it been fleshed out.

Corny. It's an old word but an apt description of this book. It starts well enough, but melts into bathos as the protagonist goes from the cruel city to the countryside, where he meets one soap-opera saint after another. There's the old lady who needs an operation she can't afford, the sensitive adolescent who's afraid to leave home for college, the wise Indian matron, the hulking retarded kid who just needs a little attention, and his dad, the tough but fair sherriff. And the hero, another of those armed robbers with a heart of gold you meet so often, manages to save every one of them.

It's like starting out in a caper movie and ending up on the Andy Griffith Show. Jeez, when did America go all corny? How did the country that produced Scorsese and Hunter S. Thompson turn chicken so fast?

I rate "thrillers" and mysteries on the basis of "would I like to hang out with these people?" Plot and writing are important but secondary. I will stop in the middle, no matter how exciting or well crafted if the characters are just not the kind of people I want to spend time with.

This one passes with no question at all. Lots of great people I would want to know better. The plot and the writing hold up as well.

When I started this book, I was sooo disappointed at first. It's certainly not the type of mystery I normally read & was about to chuck it. I'm glad I gave it a few more pages beause it really grows on you. Who would think some low-life could have you rooting for him? Give it a try- some characters stretch the imagination, I agree, but in the long run, it was worth my time & then some. Hard to put down once all the plot pulled together.

I loved this book because the characters are so real.
They are not the cartoonish types you read so often
from lesser writers. Norman Green is an author with
the talent to write his characters with all their
complexity and not just some cardboard cutouts that
are so often written about. Manny,Nicky,Rosario
and all the folks in Maine are real, live humans with
all the facets of human strength and frailty. The story
of how Manny gets from NY to Maine is equally complex and
compelling. Norman Green can write and I truly hope
he never stops. I am going out to get his previous
two books just to get my fix...and you should, too!

Not a bad book overall. There were some slow parts, especially when the narrator talks about his bird watching hobby. The story eventually picks up towards the end. I'm not sure this book got me interested enough to go back and read his other two novels.