You won’t be able to stop reading Straw Man by Gerry Boyle

Straw Man by Gerry Boyle

I couldn’t wait for Gerry Boyle’s new novel, Straw Man, so I ordered up an uncorrected proof review copy, and read it in two evenings. Couldn’t put it down actually. Stayed up the first night well beyond my normal bedtime.

Gerry is one of my very favorite novelists, and this is the 10th in his Jack McMorrow mystery series. He once worked for the Morning Sentinel. He told me back then that he got up at 4 am to write his novels, before heading off to work. I’m afraid anything I wrote at 4 am wouldn’t be worth reading!

But boy, this novel is that and a lot more. It’s set in Prosperity, Maine, a place that could be any town in rural Maine. Gerry does a wonderful job with his characters and plots, and the plot in Straw Man is intense. Very intense. There’s lots of murder and mayhem, intrigue and mystery, and, as another of my favorite novelists, Paul Doiron, wrote on the back cover,”this book is lean, mean, and packed with action.” That it is.

Published by Islandport Press, the book should be available later this month, and while you wait, if you haven’t already, grab one of Gerry’s other novels to enjoy. I highly recommend his last novel, Once Burned, a real page-turner. It’ll get you revved up to read Straw Man.

George Smith

About George Smith

George stepped down at the end of 2010 after 18 years as the executive director of the Sportsman’s Alliance of Maine to write full time. He writes a weekly editorial page column in the Kennebec Journal and Waterville Morning Sentinel, a weekly travel column in those same newspapers (with his wife Linda), monthly columns in The Maine Sportsman magazine, two outdoor news blogs (one on his website, georgesmithmaine.com, and one on the website of the Bangor Daily News), and special columns for many publications and newsletters. Islandport Press published a book of George's favorite columns, "A Life Lived Outdoors" in 2014. In 2014, George also won a Maine Press Association award for writing the state's bet sports blog. In 2016, Down East Books published George's book, Maine Sporting Camps, and Islandport Press published George and his wife Linda's travel book, Take It From ME, about their favorite Maine inns and restaurants.