What You Break

by Reed Farrel Coleman

Overview

Former Suffolk County cop Gus Murphy returns to prowl the meaner streets of Long Island's darkest precincts, with a Russian mercenary at his back, in the stunning second installment of Reed Farrel Coleman's critically acclaimed series, now in paperback.

Gus Murphy and his girlfriend Magdalena are put in harm's way when Gus is caught up in the distant aftershocks of heinous crimes committed decades ago in Vietnam and Russia. Gus's ex-priest pal, Bill Kilkenny, introduces him to a wealthy businessman anxious to have someone look more deeply into the brutal murder of his granddaughter. Though the police already have the girl's murderer in custody, they have been unable to provide a reason for the killing. The businessman, Spears, offers big incentives if Gus can supply him with what the cops cannot—a motive.

Later that same day, Gus witnesses the execution of a man who has just met with his friend Slava. As Gus looks into the girl's murder and tries to"protect"Slava from the executioner's bullet, he must navigate a mine field populated by hostile cops, street gangs, and a Russian mercenary who will stop at nothing to do his master's bidding. But in trying to solve the girl's murder and save his friend, Gus may be opening a door into a past that was best left forgotten. Can he fix the damage done, or is it true that what you break you own...forever?

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780425283226
Publisher:	Penguin Publishing Group
Publication date:	01/02/2018
Series:	Gus Murphy Series , #2
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	368
Product dimensions:	5.45(w) x 8.20(h) x 0.79(d)

About the Author

Reed Farrel Coleman, called "a hard-boiled poet" by NPR's Maureen Corrigan and the "noir poet laureate" in the Huffington Post, is the Edgar-nominated author of twenty-five novels and three novellas, including the critically acclaimed Moe Prager series. A three-time winner of the Shamus Award, he has also won the Anthony, Macavity, Barry, and Audie awards.

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Excerpted from "What You Break"
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Copyright © 2018 Reed Farrel Coleman.
Excerpted by permission of Penguin Publishing Group.
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Editorial Reviews

I hereby crown Reed Farrel Coleman the king of Long Island noir for his wonderfully raw novels featuring Gus Murphy.” —New York Times

“Gracefully gritty…impressive….Coleman is a talented writer.” –Washington Post

“Coleman writes some of the best prose in modern crime fiction…stunning.”—Booklist
 
“Outstanding....Coleman doesn’t pull any punches or settle for pat character arcs in presenting a realistically flawed Gus, who realizes that his morality “was not so much a search for the truth as a set of rationalizations that let [him] sleep at night.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“Soulful.”—Kirkus Reviews

“First-rate…[a] deft mix of corrupt cops, gangbangers, drug dealers and makers of “ghost guns.” And the scruffy side of Suffolk County (read: not the Hamptons) has rarely been captured more colorfully.” –Chicago Tribune

“Part police procedural, part human interest story, part philosophical monolog, and totally fun reading.”—Library Journal

“Told in vivid prose mingled with hard-boiled action, Coleman continues to evoke the sensibilities of a bygone era of crime writers. No one today is doing this better.”—Deadly Pleasures

“Long Island has its own laureate of the LIE in the form of Reed Farrel Coleman and his hard-bitten sleuth Gus Murphy….It’s not just the details Coleman gets right, it’s the whole structure of class, race and money…the climax…is a corker—tensely narrated and genuinely dramatic. And Coleman has the cunning to leave much of Gus’ past clouded in secrecy, ripe for future revelations—and adventures.” –Newsday

“A gripping and beautifully crafted novel about a fascinating character whose complexities and observations about life elevate the novel beyond its genre.” –The Huffington Post


“What You Break by Reed Farrel Coleman is the sort of novel which rises above the crowded pool of thriller books and shines as a star…stunning…a masterpiece!” –Mystery Tribune

“With Gus Murphy, Reed Farrel Coleman has created one of the most complex and dangerous series hero's of the 21st century.” –MysteryPeople
 
“[Coleman] is at the top of his game….Reading a Reed Farrel Coleman book is surrendering your mind to a master teacher.”—Huffington Post

“Coleman delivers an action-packed thriller strengthened by solid character studied. The brisk plot delves into the dark corners of Long Island and the people who live there….Coleman’s affinity for involving plots elevates What You Break and shows why he has just been nominated for an Edgar Award for the first novel in the series….What You Break is strongest when Coleman takes a tour of Suffolk County, showing the seedy and the affluent areas. Gus’ existential musings illustrate his complicated personality and show why he is worth rooting for.” –SouthFlorida.com


Praise for Where It Hurts

“A gut punch of a novel, a murder mystery layered with grief, greed, and grit. Coleman is as good as Chandler, Hammett, or Ed McBain.”—Nelson DeMille
 
“One of the greatest voices in contemporary crime fiction, and one of the best storytellers, too. I loved this book. Nobody does it better.”—Lee Child
 
“Superb . . . another standout series . . . in Coleman’s hands, all the standard elements seem as radiant and new as a freshly peroxided blonde. . . . Where It Hurts is one of those evocative mysteries that readers will remember as much for its charged sense of place as for any of its other considerable virtues.”—The Washington Post
 
“Stellar series kickoff . . . Coleman’s moving portrayal of a man in deep, deep pain, a tightly constructed plot, and a gift for making Long Island seem like James Ellroy’s L.A. add up to a winner.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)
 
“Gus . . . is absolutely one of genre veteran Coleman’s best-drawn characters. . . . He meets his tragedy and its consequences with a considered straightforwardness, and his desire for justice reawakens in time with the investigation’s quickening tempo, hopefully signaling the start of a series.”—Booklist (starred review)
 
“Coleman has long been one of the best crime novelists in the business. . . . Where It Hurts is a superb detective novel in the Raymond Chandler tradition, featuring fine prose, a suspenseful yarn and a compelling main character who will leave readers hungering for the next installment.”—Associated Press

From the Publisher

I hereby crown Reed Farrel Coleman the king of Long Island noir for his wonderfully raw novels featuring Gus Murphy…Coleman takes us on a native Long Islander's tour of Suffolk County…He's especially astute about the social divisions between the North and South Shores and the barriers that protect people who live in places like Shelter Island from people who gravitate to depressing places like the Paragon.

The New York Times Book Review - Marilyn Stasio

★ 11/21/2016
Shamus Award–winner Coleman delves deep into the wounded psyche of his ex-cop lead, Gus Murphy, in his outstanding sequel to 2016’s Where It Hurts. Gus, who’s still struggling with the sudden death of his 20-year-old son, John Jr., kills time working as a courtesy-van driver shuttling between a ratty Suffolk County hotel and Long Island’s MacArthur Airport. Meanwhile, the hidden past of his friend Slava Podalak, the hotel’s night bellman, has resurfaced with a vengeance, and Gus becomes a witness to murder. In addition, Gus’s confidant, Bill Kilkenny, a former priest, asks him to help the wealthy Micah Spears find out not who butchered his granddaughter but why. Spears makes Gus an offer impossible to resist—funding a youth sports foundation in John Jr.’s name. Coleman doesn’t pull any punches or settle for pat character arcs in presenting a realistically flawed Gus, who realizes that his morality “was not so much a search for the truth as a set of rationalizations that let sleep at night.” Agent: David Hale Smith, Inkwell Management. (Feb.)

Publishers Weekly

12/01/2016
After his son's sudden death, Gus Murphy was a tortured soul. He credits his recovery to his friendship with ex-priest Bill Kilkenny, so when Kilkenny asks Murphy to meet a friend, he agrees. The friend is Micah Spears, whose granddaughter was brutally murdered. Spears wants answers, but the apprehended killer is silent. Gus, a cop-turned-van driver for a Long Island hotel, gets caught up in a second case when one of his passengers is murdered gangland style. It turns out Gus's coworker and friend Slava, who has a secretive past, had known the stranger previously. Murphy is your average caring guy, who is good at his job and full of faults, whose philosophy is evident and commentary on point. Murphy is not slick, but he is effective. VERDICT Coleman's second series outing (after Where It Hurts) is part police procedural, part human interest story, part philosophical monolog, and totally fun reading. [See Prepub Alert, 8/15/16.]—Edward Goldberg, Syosset P.L., NY

Library Journal

2016-11-22
Two new cases threaten to break an unofficial Long Island private eye who really doesn't need to be broken.Smooth, feral energy czar Micah Spears wants John Augustus "Gus" Murphy to take enough time from his duties working security at the Paragon Hotel to look into the death of his adopted granddaughter, Linh Trang. Spears doesn't need to know whodunit—the Suffolk County cops already have a suspect, Asesinos gang member Rondo Salazar, dead to rights—but simply why, since Salazar won't say a word to anyone. Gus ("I didn't believe in God, but I believed in sin") instinctively bristles at Spears' request, but their mutual friend, ex-priest Bill Kilkenny, vouches for him, and Spears offers a sizable donation to set up a youth sports foundation in the name of Gus' late son, John Jr. (Where It Hurts, 2016). So Gus takes the case and instantly gets distracted by the arrival of a dubious Paragon guest calling himself Michael Smith. Smith's obviously in with Gus' friend, Paragon bellman Slava Podalak, so when he sees them leaving the hotel together, Gus follows them to a meeting that turns into an execution minutes after they leave the scene. Who is Smith, what hold does he have over Slava, and what does their dark shared secret have to do with the killing of Linh Trang? Gus' conscientious questioning of witnesses and suspects produces such meager results that you know he's going to need help from an unexpectedly benevolent providence to solve either case. "Knowledge of the dead changes nothing," announces the shop-soiled hero in resignation. Maybe not, but it does add a soulful depth to his investigation while readers wait for his two cases to collide.

Kirkus Reviews