Fields Where They Lay

Starred review from October 17, 2016
Edgar-finalist Hallinan deserves to win an Edgar for his ingeniously plotted, often hilarious sixth Junior Bender novel (after King Maybe). Junior, a thief who has “probably stolen more things than most people own,” owes a favor to a San Fernando Valley, Calif., crime boss, and agrees to work for a scary Russian thug who has adopted the name Tip Poindexter. The Edgerton Mall, which Tip owns, has recently experienced a dramatic spike in shoplifting, and Tip demands that Junior find out why. The assignment is depressing for Junior, since it comes just days before Christmas, which has always been an emotionally trying holiday for him. The investigation pays off with a brilliant solution that few will anticipate, and the sophisticated story line is only one of the book’s highlights. Another is the masterly way in which Hallinan creates his own world-weary Chandlerian narrative voice (a golf club Junior visits is “one of the Valley’s shiny new gathering places for people whose money was recently acquired and whose manners hadn’t yet been sanded down into the smooth indifference that marks multiple generations of wealth”). Readers will eagerly await Junior’s next adventure. Agent: Bob Mecoy, Bob Mecoy Literary.

An unexpectedly rich Christmas gift: the chance to spend the holidays in a fading suburban Los Angeles shopping mall with Junior Bender, the burglar who moonlights as a "detective for crooks."Junior doesn't usually do Christmas. He's not really into Jesus, peace on Earth, or glad tidings. But a serious spike in pre-holiday shoplifting at the San Fernando Valley's Edgerton Mall has led Tip Poindexter, of the Edgerton Partnership, to ask Trey Annunziato, the beleaguered but still powerful head of a Valley crime family, to recommend someone to investigate, and she's recommended Junior (King Maybe, 2016, etc.), who she thinks owes her a favor. Mobbed-up Tip, whom Junior dubs "Vlad the Impeller," is the client from hell, alternately demanding instant reports and threatening Junior's 13-year-old daughter, Rina, if he doesn't get them. And the case itself seems baffling, since all the owners of independent storefronts like Kim's Kollectables, iShop, Paper Dolls, KissyFace, Sam's Saddlery, and Time Remembered--virtually all the businesses the exodus of big-box chains has left the Edgerton Mall--have reported that losses have tripled, and the security tapes security chief Wally Durskee shows Junior don't reveal any distinctive person or persons doing the lifting. As the clock ticks down to the Christmas Eve deadline Tip has imposed on Junior, he bonds with several of the store owners and forms an even closer and more dangerous attachment to Francie DuBois, the friend of his friend Louie the Lost, who saves his life during one of several episodes in which someone shoots at him. As Junior allows, "This is a hell of a Christmas story"--one of the very best since "The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle."A plum pudding stuffed with cynical disillusionment, organized and disorganized crime, two Santas, a seasonal miracle, and an ending that earns every bit of its uplift. COPYRIGHT(1) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Starred review from October 15, 2016
Somebody is stealing stuff from a mall that time forgot, located deep in the ass end of the San Fernando Valley. The down-market mobster, Trip Poindexter, who owns the mall is pissed and hires Junior Bender, a thief himself when he's not sleuthing for the crooks of L.A., to find out who's pinching the tchotchkes. Junior wants nothing to do with the job, but he owes a favor to another mobster, the lethal Trey Annunciato, so when she tells Junior to take the gig, it's the proverbial offer that can't be refused. It doesn't help that it's Christmas in sunny California, and Junior considers the whole yuletide season the last letdown before the theoretically happy New Year. There might not even be a new year this time if Junior doesn't nab the thief, but his first tour of the mall leaves him clueless, convinced only that the culprit is neither of the two Santasthe too-thin one named Schlomo, who's at least relatively merry, and the appropriately sized one who's way too mean for the job. Then someone ups the Christmas ante by murdering one of the shop owners. Naturally, Junior finds a cobwebby network of double crosses buried deep in the mall's crumbling foundation and must dance his way way to a life-saving solution (while somehow getting his Christmas shopping done). Nobody does comic mystery with an edge better than Hallinan.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)

Starred review from October 15, 2016

Junior Bender, burglar and occasional fixer for the L.A. crime world, makes his sixth appearance (after King Maybe) in this funny, fast-paced mystery. It's the week before Christmas, and Junior is forced into investigating the sudden increase in shoplifting at the Edgerton Mall for one of the mall's owners, a dangerous Russian gangster. When the corpse of a shopkeeper surfaces, it's clear that something even more nefarious is going on amid the rundown stores. In between dodging bullets and detecting, Junior fits in a little Christmas shopping and soul-searching as he gets to the bottom of the case. VERDICT Hallinan offers up everything readers could want in a hard-boiled crime novel with an action-packed story and a cast of colorful characters. [See Prepub Alert, 4/10/16.]

Copyright 2016 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

May 1, 2016

There's not a lot of ho-ho-hoing in the Edgerton Mall this Christmas, with so many stores closed and shoplifting a growing problem. Enter series antihero, burglar Junior Bender, who's asked by the mall's Russian owners to check out the shoplifting. Instead, two people wind up dead, even as Junior meditates mournfully on the very idea of Christmas. Sixth in the series from the Edgar-, Nero-, Shamus-, and Macavity-nominated Hallinan.

Copyright 2016 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

October 15, 2016

Junior Bender, burglar and occasional fixer for the L.A. crime world, makes his sixth appearance (after King Maybe) in this funny, fast-paced mystery. It's the week before Christmas, and Junior is forced into investigating the sudden increase in shoplifting at the Edgerton Mall for one of the mall's owners, a dangerous Russian gangster. When the corpse of a shopkeeper surfaces, it's clear that something even more nefarious is going on amid the rundown stores. In between dodging bullets and detecting, Junior fits in a little Christmas shopping and soul-searching as he gets to the bottom of the case. VERDICT Hallinan offers up everything readers could want in a hard-boiled crime novel with an action-packed story and a cast of colorful characters. [See Prepub Alert, 4/10/16.]

Copyright 2016 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from January 30, 2017
Hallinan’s sixth addition to his chronicles of likable professional thief Junior Bender takes place just before Christmas, but it’s a merry present to be opened at any time of the year. Reader Berkrot’s tough-but-smart delivery once again proves a fine match for the glib, genial, surprisingly moral Junior. Here, he tells us of being hired, mainly against his will, by a ruthless Russian mobster who goes by the name Tip Poindexter and wants Junior to find out why his suburban mall is suffering an uptick in shoplifting. With romantic problems adding to his general holiday gloom, Junior feels stuck in the sad collection of fading shops. The continuing thefts and a couple of murders don’t improve morale. Berkrot effectively captures Junior’s downbeat despair and witty, cynical commentary on his surroundings; Poindexter’s a soft, slightly accented hiss; and the distinct voices of the occupants of the mall, like the garrulous, excitable security guard Wally. Shlomo Semple, hired by the mall to dress as Santa, contributes an ironic story of his own involving his father’s escape from Nazi soldiers during WWII that’s so fascinating and so brilliantly enacted by Berkrot that it almost steals the novel. A Soho Crime hardcover.

Starred review from August 15, 2016
An unexpectedly rich Christmas gift: the chance to spend the holidays in a fading suburban Los Angeles shopping mall with Junior Bender, the burglar who moonlights as a detective for crooks.Junior doesnt usually do Christmas. Hes not really into Jesus, peace on Earth, or glad tidings. But a serious spike in pre-holiday shoplifting at the San Fernando Valleys Edgerton Mall has led Tip Poindexter, of the Edgerton Partnership, to ask Trey Annunziato, the beleaguered but still powerful head of a Valley crime family, to recommend someone to investigate, and shes recommended Junior (King Maybe, 2016, etc.), who she thinks owes her a favor. Mobbed-up Tip, whom Junior dubs Vlad the Impeller, is the client from hell, alternately demanding instant reports and threatening Juniors 13-year-old daughter, Rina, if he doesnt get them. And the case itself seems baffling, since all the owners of independent storefronts like Kims Kollectables, iShop, Paper Dolls, KissyFace, Sams Saddlery, and Time Rememberedvirtually all the businesses the exodus of big-box chains has left the Edgerton Mallhave reported that losses have tripled, and the security tapes security chief Wally Durskee shows Junior dont reveal any distinctive person or persons doing the lifting. As the clock ticks down to the Christmas Eve deadline Tip has imposed on Junior, he bonds with several of the store owners and forms an even closer and more dangerous attachment to Francie DuBois, the friend of his friend Louie the Lost, who saves his life during one of several episodes in which someone shoots at him. As Junior allows, This is a hell of a Christmas storyone of the very best since The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle.A plum pudding stuffed with cynical disillusionment, organized and disorganized crime, two Santas, a seasonal miracle, and an ending that earns every bit of its uplift.

COPYRIGHT(2016) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.