AUGUST 2021 - AudioFile
In 1972, 13-year-old Graham moves with his family to Beirut, Lebanon, where he navigates the challenges of a tense home environment and a different world outside, packed with formidable characters and hidden danger. Narrator Jonathan Davis does a sterling job bringing the lead characters to life, particularly as Graham finds that typical youthful scrapes have much bigger consequences in this new and sometimes dangerous land. Davis seamlessly moves between different accents, making the large blocks of dialogue easy to comprehend. His strong narration helps to create a believable setting for this combination coming-of-age story and adventure tale. K.J.P. © AudioFile 2021, Portland, Maine
Publishers Weekly
★ 03/01/2021
In 1973, 12-year-old Graham Sanderson, the narrator of this outstanding thriller from Swinson (the Frank Marr PI series), moves with his family to Beirut, Lebanon, where his father, a Foreign Service officer, is posted to the U.S. embassy. For Graham, it’s an opportunity to make two expat friends who will help him explore the delights and occasional risks of a new place and different culture. Observant and inquisitive, Graham soon becomes aware of the underlying sense of danger and imminent violence that hangs over the city, the result of forces he can’t understand. When Graham discovers that his father carries a gun and holds clandestine late-night rendezvous with strangers, the boy suspects he may be working for the CIA. Events take a darker turn after Graham secretly witnesses the murder of an Arab by a foreigner, possibly an American involved in illegal gunrunning, at which point he and his friends are forced to make a decision that will end their youthful innocence. Swinson offers the reader a deeply felt coming-of-age novel set against a background of powerful authenticity. This is not to be missed. Agent: Deborah Schneider, Gelfman Schneider/ICM. (May)
From the Publisher
This stand-alone follow-up to Swinson's Frank Marr mysteries—most recently Trigger (2019)—unfolds with cool understatement and entertaining period details (prepare for an onslaught of Jethro Tull) and builds to a satisfying climax.” —Kirkus
“Swinson offers the reader a deeply felt coming-of-age novel set against a background of powerful authenticity. This is not to be missed.” —Publishers Weekly
PRAISE FOR DAVID SWINSON AND FRANK MARR:
"Swinson is one of the best dialogue hounds in the business."
"Streetwise."—The New York Times Book Review
"With ripped-from-the-headlines intensity....Swinson sustains the velocity of the drama and ingeniously gets at the power dynamic of personal relationships with nuance and generosity toward broken people in his messy world of ambiguous boundaries."—The National Book Review
"Within the first couple of pages, David Swinson pulls off a masterly piece of characterization: he creates a damaged, damned protagonist who no sane person would want to get close to, and then he grabs you by the collar and hauls you into Frank Marr's mind so fast and so thoroughly that none of that matters. The writing throws sparks, and the ferocious plot peels back layer after layer of Frank's character as we—and he—find out how much of his humanity is still left."—Tana French, author of The Trespasser
"Frank Marr prowls Washington like a creature from a different age: hard-knuckled, hard-drinking, equal parts loyalty, craving, determination, and regret. But in Trigger, David Swinson's detailed, glittering, vicious DC is up-to-the-minute. Never one to bend a rule when he can smash it instead, Marr leads us straight back into the wreckage he left in The Second Girl and Crime Song. It's a thrill to watch him pick up the pieces."—Bill Beverly, Edgar Award-winning author of Dodgers
"Frankie Marr, the ex-cop turned PI with a skewed sense of justice, situational ethics and a drug habit he kicked by turning to alcohol, is back. The ex-cop turned author, David Swinson, takes us on another pulse-pounding, stripped-down excursion into the badlands of the nation's capital. An old friend and colleague teeters on the brink of catastrophe and Frankie answers the call; his street wits, reckless courage, and pit bull tenacity racing ahead of glorious and soulful collapse. I missed you, Frankie, and I'm very happy to see you again."—Joe Ide, author of IQ
"Chock full of pace and purpose, Trigger lays out hard-hustle D.C. in all its gritty shades of gray without ever once sneering at them. It's a brave novel, one with no easy outs, and an ending that feels both raw and true."—Ryan Gattis, author of Safe
"George Pelecanos fans will welcome Swinson's gritty third novel featuring PI Frank Marr. . . . Swinson, a former police officer, writes with authority and honesty, giving readers a timely, informed look at the mean streets from an insider's perspective."—Publishers Weekly
"Frank remains a fascinating, deeply flawed protagonist. . . . He remains a hard-boiled hero well worth our attention."—Booklist
Library Journal
04/30/2021
In 1972, 13-year-old Graham and his family arrive in Beirut for his father's new assignment in the U.S. Foreign Service. They move into an apartment building on a hill near the sea. Everything about his new home is exciting for Graham; he looks forward to snorkeling off the reefs in the Mediterranean, and making friends among the other children of U.S. government officials. With two new friends, Graham has adventures, builds a fort in a brush pile, and spies on the neighborhood with binoculars. Then one day, when Graham is alone in the fort, he sees one man stab another, who falls dead right outside the brush pile; Graham runs away as fast as he can. As the mystery of the murder unfolds, the boys find out that the victim worked at the foreign service office in a minor job. The boys are in increasing danger as the murderer's identity becomes clearer. VERDICT Because Swinson's ("Frank Marr" series) father served in the U.S. Foreign Service and his family lived all over the world, this book has a particular realism and an almost autobiographical perspective. Readers who enjoy international intrigue, spies, and mystery, or coming-of-age stories, will enjoy this book.—Cynde Suite, Bartow Cty. Lib. Syst., Adairsville, GA
AUGUST 2021 - AudioFile
In 1972, 13-year-old Graham moves with his family to Beirut, Lebanon, where he navigates the challenges of a tense home environment and a different world outside, packed with formidable characters and hidden danger. Narrator Jonathan Davis does a sterling job bringing the lead characters to life, particularly as Graham finds that typical youthful scrapes have much bigger consequences in this new and sometimes dangerous land. Davis seamlessly moves between different accents, making the large blocks of dialogue easy to comprehend. His strong narration helps to create a believable setting for this combination coming-of-age story and adventure tale. K.J.P. © AudioFile 2021, Portland, Maine
Kirkus Reviews
2021-03-17
As tensions between Israel and Palestine ratchet up following the massacre at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, a 12-year-old American boy living in Beirut slowly discovers what his mysterious father is really up to.
The boy is Graham. His father works for the State Department, in what capacity he won't say. Their family arrives in Beirut in the spring of 1972, having previously lived in Mexico City for four years. Exploring the new terrain with his two American friends, Graham discovers endless ways to get into trouble, including wandering out into a sandstorm and confronting a sullen, rock-tossing local boy. Life changes dramatically when, near the boys' play fort, Graham witnesses the killing of a Middle Eastern man by an American. His father, in whose satchel the boy was shocked to find a gun ("Was he a spy?"), responds gravely to news of the death. People start showing up at their apartment door at all hours, among them a man from the embassy with a healed bullet hole in his face. Curfews are called, "little pops" and explosions are heard in the near distance, and the boys are told to sleep on the floor. Meanwhile, the stern Presbyterian father and alcoholic Jewish mother wage their own war. Told by the adult Graham, who becomes a cop like Swinson did, the novel occasionally gets caught between a coming-of-age story and a mystery. But this stand-alone follow-up to Swinson's Frank Marr mysteries—most recently Trigger (2019)—unfolds with cool understatement and entertaining period details (prepare for an onslaught of Jethro Tull) and builds to a satisfying climax.
An absorbing take on Middle East conflict as seen through the eyes of an American boy.
