Speaking of Holland (was I?), DAMAGED GOODS was noticed by a Dutch noir reviewer, Jochem Van De Steen. He liked it, and made the Robert B. Parker comparison. It’s global, I guess. Check out the review and leave a comment so he knows he’s being read by McMorrow’s readers here as well.

“Robert Parker fans who have yet to discover Boyle will be pleasantly surprised by his suspenseful ninth crime novel set in Maine featuring former New York Times reporter Jack McMorrow. …  Boyle has succeeded in creating a likable lead whose sense of responsibility is reminiscent of Spenser as well as supporting characters with depth.”

I wrote about Bob Parker and his early and generous assistance in an earlier post. Scroll down.

Next stop is RiverRun Books in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, Thursday, May 20, at 7 p.m. It’s my birthday. Come by and help blow out the candles. Or at least say hi and stay a bit for a chat.

So after all of the editing, copy editing, back and forth, it’s on its way. Kind of like pushing a kid down a  slide. Away it goes. DAMAGED GOODS will hit stores in March. The last step was asking for endorsements for the jacket. My editor, Michael Steere at Down East Books, printed out a handful of manuscripts, sent them off to writers we both respect. C.J. Box, whose finely crafted mysteries are as rugged as all outdoors, said,

“Gerry Boyle’s  DAMAGED GOODS  started working on me like a confident boxer would:  setting me up with jabs, circling, feinting this way and that, sucking me in, and then … finishing with a wild flurry.  A terrific thriller with terrifically original characters.”

Tess Gerritsen, whose thrillers keep half the world on edge, said,

“DAMAGED GOODS is so compelling, it’s like literary crack — I simply couldn’t stop reading. Gerry Boyle’s twisting plot simply won’t let you go.  If you want a book that will keep you up all night, this is it!”

Jabbing and feinting. Literary crack. (Am I trafficking in crime novels?) Interesting similies to describe that feeling of being absolutely gripped by a fictional world, don’t you think? We all know that feeling. How would you describe it?

I have a general idea, as I enter the last two months or so of research: riding with Portland P.D., meeting some good police officers. Watching the waterfront scene. Thinking a lot about Mia and Brandon, how young people grow up together in a relationship. Or do they grow apart? What is it that keeps a couple together? What happens when terrible things happen all around them? Do they succumb to collateral damage?

From Publishers Weekly
Once a New York Times reporter, Jack McMorrow left the city in the 1980s after a virulent falling-out with the paper’s management. A decade later, he’s back in Manhattan, settling the details for his gig as the Times’s new northern New England stringer before returning home to Maine. While in town, Jack has a drink with his childhood pal, former cop Butch Casey. The next morning a TV reporter informs Jack that New York’s popular mayor, the Giulianiesque Johnny Fiore, has been fatally stabbed and Butch has been arrested for the crime. Boyle (Borderline, etc.) deftly puts Jack through his paces: Is Jack’s work on the story a conflict of interest? Can he resist the decadent temptations of his old life and return to the woman he loves in Maine? Boyle’s snappy prose stops just short of hard-boiled, letting some poignancy slip into his characters’ plights. As the story pushes forward, he fashions a powerful study of New York City–of its glamour, of the tawdry hopelessness of so many who live there, and of the power-mad honchos who feed on them.

From Library Journal
Maine investigative reporter Jack McMorrow visits New York intending to work freelance for the New York Times. When news breaks of the mayor’s murder and police arrest Jack’s longtime friend, an ex-cop, as the perp, Jack’s plans quickly change. Hoping to save his friend and track down the real murderer, he offers to assist the police, winds up under media scrutiny himself, then uncovers political corruption leading back to the mayor and beyond. Boyle offers potential movie material here: murder, intrigue, frantic chases, confrontations, ambitious women (and men), and hidden agendas–all told with crisp tension.

Booklist
[This] may be the one that puts him on the bestseller lists.

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Surprising twists and turns.

San Antonio Express-News
Deft dialogue and detail.

Amazon.com
After a grueling career as a New York City journalist rendered him cynical and sick of newspapers, Jack McMorrow thinks he’s found a proper place to recharge–Kennebec, Maine. But what he finds is a small town with big problems. The bars are populated with the long-term unemployed, the river is polluted, and the downtown is crumbling. If that’s not enough, as a reporter covering the courthouse, he is thrust into a messy situation in which a shoddy assistant prosecutor causes the death of a woman Jack has come to know. Though his intent was to escape such unseemly altercations, Jack jumps into the fray with a fervor, emerging with unexpected results.

From Publishers Weekly
Jack McMorrow, seen before in Bloodline and Deadline, is a former New York Times reporter now working for a small paper in Maine. Covering the courthouse, he senses a good story in Donna Marchant, a young woman complaining of domestic abuse but ignored by the autocratic assistant district attorney, Linda Tate. McMorrow writes about Donna’s plight, arousing the wrath of her loutish boyfriend, Jeff Tanner. When Donna is murdered, suspicion falls not only on Tanner but also on McMorrow, whom police suspect of having become too close to his subject. . . . Boyle, a Maine newspaper writer himself, makes McMorrow a credible crusader, equally comfortable in the quiet woods and small-town courthouses. The narrative moves briskly as McMorrow eliminates several suspects on his way to a surprise solution.

From The New York Times Book Review, Marilyn Stasio
His style is poised and pointed when he is writing about the barren lives of the hopeless cases who rattle in and out of court.

From Booklist, Wes Lukowsky
Burned-out reporter Jack McMorrow has taken to the Maine woods, where bird-watching and beer drinking occupy his days. His nights are occupied by social worker Roxanne, who can’t abide his laggardly ways, prompting McMorrow to take a part-time job as court reporter for the Kennebec Observer. It’s in court where he first meets Donna Marchant, a single mother with an abusive boyfriend. McMorrow reports on Donna’s case, and though he uses no names, the small-town citizens know who’s who. Soon Donna is murdered, and McMorrow feels responsible. After some early tentativeness, author Boyle has found McMorrow’s voice; it is only a matter time until he finds his audience. Expect the battle-weary reporter to become an old friend to his loyal readers much as Spenser or Dave Robicheaux have become with theirs.

From the Washington Times
Stay healthy, McMorrow. You’re fun to have around.

From Kirkus Reviews
In his first day on the job as court reporter for the Kennebec Observer, former Times newsman Jack files a story featuring battered Donna Marchant. Bad idea. Jeff Tanner, the ex-boyfriend responsible for Donna’s bruises and bite marks, returns to tell her he’ll kill both her and McMorrow, and he and some friends pay a call on McMorrow, too. . . . For all his manly virtue, you can’t help liking the guy.

From Publishers Weekly

Boyle’s effective, low-key sequel to Deadline brings back ex-New York Times reporter Jack McMorrow, who is making a habit of getting in trouble in his new home in Prosperity, Maine. Jack has taken a high-paying assignment from New England Look magazine to write an article on “Kids Having Kids.” Poking about a nearby high school leads him to Missy Hewett, who gave up her baby for adoption before moving to Prosperity where she intends to finish her schooling. . . . Boyle deftly establishes mood and setting, clearly defines his characters and offers lots of reflection from Jack, whose subdued first-person narration gives this solid mystery an intimate, small-town air.

From School Library Journal
“Kids having kids” is not a subject with which Jack McMorrow, a 38-year-old former New York Times writer transplanted to rural Maine, is familiar. Living a solitary existence off a steadily dwindling retirement fund in a bat-infested house and spending his days bird-watching and drinking beer, however, make the offer of a freelance job look pretty good. Jack accepts, thus setting out on a road that leads to harassment, violence, cover-up, and murder. Boyle writes evocatively of rural life in all of its manifestations and, along with his very real characterizations and sly, subtle humor, offers readers much more than simply a good story. Robert B. Parker enthusiasts will welcome the advent of Jack McMorrow.

From Booklist, Wes Lukowsky
Jack McMorrow is a former New York Times reporter mending his soul in rural Maine. But a man’s gotta eat, so when an offer comes to do a story on teenage motherhood, Jack accepts. He starts with Missy Hewitt, a local girl who recently gave her baby up for adoption. She supplies Jack with several sensible reasons for her decision, but a couple of days later, she leaves Jack a message saying she wants to get her baby back. Then she turns up murdered, and before you can say phone trace, the cops are viewing Jack as a suspect. . . . This second entry in the McMorrow series is an improvement over the first, Deadline (1993). McMorrow is less a collection of traits and quirks and much more a fully realized character. There’s also an intriguing cast of secondary characters who bode well for future McMorrow adventures.

From Publishers Weekly
First-novelist Boyle deftly transplants a big-city noir atmosphere to the western Maine mill town of Androscoggin, where the discovery of a freelance photographer’s body floating in the canal leads newspaper editor Jack McMorrow into a series of intrigues. . . . The author, himself an award-winning columnist, uses his insider’s knowledge of the newspaper business to give his plot plenty of texture; he also delivers realistic characterizations, diverting subplots and evocative descriptions of rural Maine. Turning what could have been a contrived ending into a powerful, scary denouement, Boyle shocks readers into the recognition that life, in all of its subtlety, will constantly contradict itself. A fine debut; one hopes to see more of McMorrow.

From Booklist
Boyle makes an auspicious debut, using his years of experience as a journalist and his knowledge of small-town Maine to create an entertaining mystery-adventure. . . . Boyle’s characters are all engaging; his high-speed plot never bogs down; and his dry wit provides some welcome relief from the hard-hitting action. Fans of Robert B. Parker’s Spenser will love McMorrow, a quintessential male who’s tough, funny, macho, and intelligent, who thrives on danger, and who has a girlfriend who’s almost as cool as Susan Silverman. All he lacks is a sidekick like Spenser’s Hawk.

From Midwest Book Review
Filled with unexpected twists, the reader weaves with the reporter Jack McMorrow through a labyrinth of hidden relationships, murderous intentions and secret pasts. McMorrow is the editor of a weekly newspaper in Androscoggin, Maine who tries to get some answers to why his photographer downed in an icy mill canal, why doesn’t anyone in the town care, and who, if anyone, can he trust? Deadline is a fast, lively and exceptionally well written mystery by a new author in the genre.