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The Devils of Bakersfield: A Jack Liffey Mystery
 
 
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The Devils of Bakersfield: A Jack Liffey Mystery (Hardcover)

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3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)

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The Devils of Bakersfield: A Jack Liffey Mystery + Palos Verdes Blue: A Jack Liffey Mystery (Jack Liffey Mysteries) + The  Concrete River: A Jack Liffey Mystery
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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In Shannon's searing 10th novel to feature Jack Liffey (after 2007's The Dark Streets), Jack and his pregnant teenage daughter, Maeve, run into trouble in Bakersfield, Calif., after stopping there for the night on their way home to Los Angeles. When a sleepless Maeve leaves their motel for a walk, she's falsely arrested for dope possession and jailed for a short time with Toxie, a rebellious teen with whom she discovers she shares a passion for Jane Eyre. Worried about Toxie, Maeve later returns from L.A. to Bakersfield, where Dennis Kohlmeyer, the paranoid pastor of the 10,000-member Olive Grove Evangelical Church, has incited his flock to hysteria against devil worshippers. Scenes of book burning, exorcism, wholesale jailings and worse may strike some as exaggerated, but Shannon cites actual examples of Bakersfield's long history of racial and social prejudice throughout. The plot-driven action builds to an either/or ending on which readers are invited to vote on the author's Web site. (Apr.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.


From Booklist

*Starred Review* In the tenth installment of Shannon’s excellent Jack Liffey series, chance brings the ruminative PI and his headstrong daughter, Maeve, from L.A. to Bakersfield—and into a conflagration of anti-Satanist hysteria. The pregnant Maeve is incarcerated with other suspect teens, and Jack, his cop girlfriend, Gloria Ramirez, and a handful of colorful locals fight like hell to free her and restore the rule of law. While Liffey is constantly fine-tuning his moral compass, the bad guys he faces are usually zealots—like the megachurch pastor in this book—and the conflict is less black and white than black and gray. Here, Jack and Maeve’s intuitive morality meets unrelenting evangelical fervor, and the fight takes place in a literal fog. Interspersed throughout the story are historical artifacts, real and reimagined, that paint a portrait of the Central Valley city as having a long history of isolationism, intolerance, and inhospitality. This book won’t be loved by the local chamber of commerce, but its message is universal. And if the idea of religious hysteria overwhelming government, even momentarily, seems far-fetched to some readers, both history and current events provide plenty of precedents. Another winner from a writer whose own moral compass is holding steady. --Keir Graff

Product Details

  • Hardcover: 336 pages
  • Publisher: Pegasus Books (April 28, 2008)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 1933648295
  • ISBN-13: 978-1933648293
  • Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.3 x 1.3 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,006,016 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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11 Reviews
5 star:
 (2)
4 star:
 (5)
3 star:    (0)
2 star:
 (1)
1 star:
 (3)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
3.2 out of 5 stars (11 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Not an exaggeration, June 13, 2008
By Book Lover (California) - See all my reviews
Very interesting and entertaining mystery. And if you think the depiction of what passes for "justice" in Bakersfield is an exaggeration, read Pulitzer Prize winner Edward Humes' book Mean Justice about DA Ed Jagels and his misuse of power. I live here. It is no distortion.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Fun read!, May 27, 2008
By Megan Schultz (San Francisco, CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
First off, this is my first Jack Liffey mystery and one of only a handful of books that I have read of its genre. I picked up the book because I saw that it was set in Bakersfield, the city where I grew up, and because the author was going to be speaking at a bookstore near where I live now.

The book is a quick, fun read. While it has some slow parts, it is generally fast-moving and entertaining, never tedious. The author throws in some literary references here and there which are fun to spot and think about, but in general the book reads more like genre fiction. Sometimes the author delves into deeper issues and hits the reader over the head with them. He and, by extension, his protagonist Liffey, could be a bit more subtle. In a few places Liffey seems to make statements that are somewhat obvious--restating what has already happened. This doesn't further the story and sometimes makes it seem as if Shannon is using Liffey to lecture the reader.

Shannon's treatment of Bakersfield is a bit rough-handed, though in many ways its not that far off the mark. I really liked the historical artifacts that he put throughout the book. His use of historical context and fog were very creative and were a highlight of the book. It was fun seeing staples of Bakersfield like the Marketplace, the bluffs, and Oildale in print.

I'm struggling right now to give this book four stars. I think it's more of a 3.5 star book. It's 4 to 5 stars a lot of the way through, but the ending is just plain bad.

Overall, a very readable book that I would recommend to people who read crime noir and anybody who wants to read a book with a lot of the Central Valley in it.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Devils & Demons, April 27, 2008
By Rapid Reader (Los Angeles, CA USA) - See all my reviews
Here is another wonderful book from one of my favorites, John Shannon. This time as well as allowing us to catch up with the ongoing Liffey saga, the author has taken us further afield, leaving LA County for oil-rich Bakersfield. Even though I knew some of the grim Bakersfield history & politics, this book brings it alive & shows how the past affects the present. Most of all though, it's a GREAT read & as usual with Shannon's books, I could hardly put it down!
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars great account of the "Devils" in Bakersfield
The Devils of Bakersfield: A Jack Liffey Mystery (Jack Liffey Mysteries)

Gripping novel involving those who believe in a literal devil. Read more
Published 5 months ago by EMudgeSr

4.0 out of 5 stars I've been to Bakersfield
The use of "factoids" were an interesting addition to the Jack Liffey tale -- but do interrupt the flow and apparently annoyed many of the reviewers. Read more
Published 6 months ago by E. Reinhart

1.0 out of 5 stars Warning: Turn back from this book while you still can
If I were to capsulize The Devils of Bakersfield into two simple phrases I would have to express it as: a murder mystery with two messages, Bakersfield sucks, and religion = bad... Read more
Published 7 months ago by Cristian M. Rodier

1.0 out of 5 stars A Crock
I am not sure where the most prejudice and ignorance is evidenced, in the minds of people naive enough to believe the "historical (perhaps hysterical) precedence" spewed by this... Read more
Published 13 months ago by B Pratt

1.0 out of 5 stars Historical "Artifacts" bogus
The story like many mysteries keeps you guessing and the alternate 'you choose' endings are always fun, but that aside I thought this book was poor because as you can see when... Read more
Published 14 months ago by Elizabeth C. Stewart

2.0 out of 5 stars Ugghh!
This book is truly awful.

I gave this book two stars because its dialog, when it was not obtuse or disconnected, was not as bad as, say, that of an 11th grade English... Read more
Published 17 months ago by R. Speir

4.0 out of 5 stars Accurate and humorous
The author does a great job of flavoring this neo-noir novel with the names, eccentricities, locations, and history of intolerance in and around Bakersfield, California. Read more
Published 17 months ago by regulargrind

4.0 out of 5 stars Good job all around from a skilled writer.
This book is full of action and some humor, and although it seems pretty likely the good guys will come out okay, the exact nature of the resolution is not all that obvious till... Read more
Published 17 months ago by Keith Nichols

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