A predominant theme of this wonderful new novel by Reed Farrel Coleman is guilt, something of which there is more than enough to go around, and which plagues several of the characters, not least of whom is the protagonist, Moe Prager. Moe [as are most New Yorkers] is still feeling the aftershock of 9/11; unable to deal with the murder of his first wife [from whom he had been divorced], seven years prior, for which he still feels responsible, and which.had in turn led to his continuing estrangement from his adored daughter, Sarah; morose following the end of his second marriage after six years, which had also caused him to close his p.i. office, in which his ex-wife had been a partner. He now, with his brother, owns several successful wine shops in and around the metro New York area, from Brooklyn to the Hamptons. All that changes when Sarah asks Moe to speak with a woman who was her best friend, role model and babysitter when Sarah was a child, about the disappearance of the woman’s young daughter, a prodigy in the art world at four years of age, now only 11.
Moe, though now 60 and out of the NYPD for thirty years, cannot refuse his daughter, and he takes on the search for the possibly kidnapped child, now gone for three weeks; as he says, he is “back in the game,” hoping that at the end there will be two daughters restored to their families. The title derives from something Moe is told by a possible suspect: “Beware the innocent monster, Mr. Prager, for it need not hide itself and lives closely among us.”
The book is totally engaging from page one. The plot is intriguing; the characters well-drawn; the ending stunning. I’ve read most of Mr. Coleman’s prior books and loved them all. The 2008 Empty Ever After stayed with me long after I’d read the last page, and I suspect this newest novel will as well. [And it’s not just the fact I grew up, as did Prager, a Brooklyn Jew who still remembers all the neighborhoods where the investigation takes Moe, the original Nathan’s Famous in Coney Island, the villainous departure of the Dodgers in 1957, and now roots for the Mets in Flushing.] The book revolves around the [mostly] enduring love of family. The writing is terrific, and the book is highly recommended.
