The Night Men: A Jason Keltner Mystery (Jason Keltner Mysteries) (Hardcover)

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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Quirky, whimsical and musical, this fourth Jason Keltner mystery (after 2001's Trouble Comes Back) weaves past, present and passages from a fictitious book into more of a magical mystery tour than a mystery. The friendships forged in the fires of youth are often strongest, and those formed by Jason and Roberto and Martin, three California boys, have survived into adulthood. A call from a gay friend whose newly opened Brooklyn music store has been vandalized spurs Jason to action. And the likelihood that it was a hate crime calls to mind the events that caused three very different high schoolers to bond years ago. With an assist from Roberto, who flies in from the west coast, Jason embarks on a bizarre quest to find out who was behind the vandalism and determine the meaning of a strange Web site that uses the name of the music shop. The original adventure that brought the boys together and their current challenge are told in tandem with readings from a pulp novel of great importance to them. The resulting search for the mysterious Inscrutable Whom, the restoration of the Magic Music Shop and the resolution of the vandalism make for a "coming of maturity" tale that complements the coming-of-age story of their first meeting. Snyder's approach to the mystery is highly original, and both his characters and the setting he creates are engaging and effective. This is a title that needs help finding its audience, but it might win cult status when it does. Agent, Curtis Brown.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

Review

Frequently funny...surprisingly moving. -- Kirkus

The Night Men stands as one of the best of 2001. -- The Washington Post, March 31, 2002

Thumbs-up for snappy banter...fast, funny, ironic. -- Bookreporter.com

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 300 pages
• Publisher: Walker & Company; 2nd edition (January 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0802733700
• ISBN-13: 978-0802733702
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.8 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #2,093,820 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of my "Year's Best", December 23, 2001

By	"smweinman" (New York, NY) - See all my reviews

Reviews are a strange business. In the end, of course, it's just an opinion of a singular individual, but it's funny how a book or music--or anything, for that matter--can inspire such wildly divergent opinions.

For example, the negative review posted below is a substantially different one from my own, as I thought THE NIGHT MEN was one of the best books I've read this year. For one thing, it takes chances. Combining three different story arcs--that of Jason's vigilant nightwatch over Zeb's shop after it's been vandalized, when Jason and his closest friends Robert and Martin meet as teenagers and forge their friendship in the midst of a similar situation (but with different results), and excerpts from a PI novel that was an inspiration for the trio in their teen years and from then on--is no easy task, and most writers don't even come close to succeeding. However, I never had a problem discerning between the arcs, and the transitions were very smooth and easy to follow.

Second, the characters have grown from previous books and grow throughout. The Jason, Robert, and Martin you may have met in SHOW CONTROL (or more likely in the later books) are older, more thoughtful, and less likely to fall back on the flippancy that often characterizes their conversations. It's still there, and I'm glad for it, but not to the same degree. This mirrors the progression of Snyder's own writing style--it has far more substance and honesty in THE NIGHT MEN than it ever did before.

Which ties into my third point, which is that this book doesn't patronize talk down to the reader, but instead assumes that he or she can handle reasonably intelligent ideas and thought. And it's probably the only book with a subplot about a stolen theremin, and I just thought that was cool.

Admittedly, THE NIGHT MEN is not an easy book to categorize; it's drenched in the conventions of the crime novel and owes much to it, but I wouldn't call the book a crime novel. It doesn't have Big Best Seller (TM) written all over it (though I really wish it did) because it doesn't fit so neatly into the little boxes occupied by whoever's on the fiction list these days. But that shouldn't stop you from getting it, reading it, buying it for your friends, getting them to read it, etc. Because if you're looking for something that actually makes you think about a great many things, like what makes a friendship and the emotional benefits and costs, and why familial bonds are often less strong than they potentially should be, THE NIGHT MEN's the book to pick up.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wow!, December 21, 2001

By	Gwendolyn Lauterbach (Oxnard, CA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

"Suddenly, thoroughly sick of learning things, Jason snapped. "Look-!"

Keith Snyder goes deeper and farther with Jason Keltner and his friends than he's gone before (And neither he nor Jason would be guilty of committing a cliche like that.)

Comng of age is another cliche and The NIght Men is not "just" a coming of age story. A friend's music store is trashed in the night--amybe a hate crime--and Jason rides his bike over the Brooklyn Bridge in winter. Not a good idea for anyone, especially a California boy. Something more than macho pride or even friendship impels him.

The past is never really past, of course, it bleeds into the present. When Jason and Robert and Martin were in high school, they met because life sometimes throws people together and fighting in a very nonTV-ish unsimplistic way against a hate crime/defending Robert's house binds them together.

The Night Men--a crime novel that Robert and Jason read togethe--binds the story together. Carter is the hero, one of those lone men who down those dark streets go, the knight errent who tried to save--who tries to save who and what he can. When he can.

Jason offers to guard the music store at night. robert flies out to be with him. The past is present. The boy stands guard with the man.

And Jason learns, even though, as he says, he is tired of learning lessons. He learns about friendship and love and what a man does to be honorable even when he wonders if he's only making a fool of himself, swinging at shadows.

This is a brilliant, wonderful, funny, heartbreaking, heartmeaking book. Buy it. Read it. Love it. (I did. I do.)

6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I loved THE NIGHT MEN!, December 22, 2001

By	Melissa Cooper (Cedar Park, Texas USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

In The Night Men, we follow Jason Keltner to New York City, where he ends up watching his friend's music store at night, after it's vandalized and trashed in a possible hate crime. Jason, having done something similar in high school, stays up nights to protect the place. He also does some snooping around to see if he can find the culprits and solve an enigma relating to the name of the store.

The book switches back and forth between the high school Jason and the adult Jason. We learn how he met Robert and Martin, and why they're such close friends. And we admire both Jasons' missions--watching out for friends. Despite the serious nature of the plot, Jason, Robert, and Martin are funny and quick with the offbeat comments. There's also interesting sub-plots about a recording studio, some rare instruments, and Jason's girlfriend.

This book is well-written: it's humorous and serious in all the right places. These guys are intelligent and well-read, and they make smart jokes, references, and comments instead of little-boy fart jokes.

I have loved all of Keith Snyder's books, and The Night Men is no exception. It's funny, smart, eccentric, and extremely entertaining.