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.