Lesser Evils

Starred review from January 25, 2016
Flanagan’s highly impressive debut transposes the corrupt world of James Ellroy’s L.A. Confidential to the Cape Cod of 1957. Trouble appears for Lt. Bill Warren, a single father who oversees the police force in Barnstable, in the form of Capt. Dale Stasiak of the Massachusetts State Police, a crew-cut giant of a man who has been assigned to look into the disappearance of a young boy in Truro. Stasiak makes no bones about annexing the case from the local police, with the grudging support of district attorney Elliott Yost. When Warren learns of Stasiak’s bigfooting, he takes it as a personal insult. Why is Stasiak resisting Warren’s efforts to investigate a gambling and loan-shark ring that seems to have spread its tentacles Cape-wide? Why, when the corpses of other young boys are discovered near surrounding towns, isn’t Stasiak alarmed that a serial killer may be running loose? And how does disgraced Father Boyle fit into the picture? Flanagan ratchets up the suspense to an almost unbearable level, and the climactic face-off between Warren and the monstrous Stasiak is an instant classic. Agent: Ellen Levine, Trident Media Group.

December 15, 2015
Flanagan's ironically titled debut, set in 1957, pits a Cape Cod cop against a murderous child molester, a murderous gambling ring, and the scarcely less murderous Massachusetts State Police. Lt. Bill Warren, acting chief of the Barnstable Police Department, is horrified by the sex killings of two local boys, especially since his alcoholic wife Ava's departure has left him the sole support of a vulnerable son, Little Mike, who has the mental faculties of a 3-year-old. Warren is infuriated when hotshot state trooper Capt. Dale Stasiak grabs the case from the local police, and he's even more angry when the cooperation Cape Cod DA Elliott Yost promised between the two law enforcement agencies turns out to consist entirely of Stasiak grabbing Detective Phil Dunleavy from Warren's department to run his errands. But then it gets worse, and not just because more little boys are found dead. Someone in the know tips off loan shark George McCarthy to clean evidence of his gambling operation out of a local bar, the Bent Elbow, minutes before Warren raids the place. And when Warren tries to question a selectman's son about the robbery of an antiques shop owned by a gay couple, he runs into an eminently predictable brick wall. Meanwhile, troubled Father Terrence Boyle keeps taking boys from Nazareth Hall, a school for intellectually disabled children, on unauthorized trips into the deep woods. How long will it be before his eye turns to Little Mike? Enough skullduggery for a TV series; you have to wonder what Flanagan is saving for the sequel. But the author creates a truly hopeless sense of menace, even if the most menacing figures are with the state police.

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February 1, 2016

In 1957 Hyannis, a small coastal town on picturesque Cape Cod lives Lt. Bill Warren, an honorable yet complicated man. A failed marriage and a mentally disabled young son have alienated him from his staff and many in the community. When a boy goes missing, Warren and his team begin the search. Enraged when the district attorney inexplicably hands the case over to the Massachusetts State Police, Warren refuses to let go. An intense and violent rivalry develops between the two men as multiple story lines emerge; a missing family, illegal gambling, and the spiritual journey of a priest who has lost his faith but not his compassion. The intensity mounts as the crime develops into a string of horrific child murders and past sins are brought to light. Flanagan's debut does a masterly job of evoking place without being ham-fisted about it. Warren's disabled son is skillfully portrayed and Warren himself is eminently sympathetic. VERDICT With explicit violence and gore, this title is not for the cozy mystery set. Despite an ending that is a little too tidy, this gripping read will find fans in the noir and police procedural crowd.--Amy Nolan, St. Joseph, MI

Copyright 2016 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

February 1, 2016
Recommend this stylish novel to anyone weary of the same old stuff, specifically to those who love a display of language being used at optimum power. The ingredients may seem familiar: a small-town policemanin Cape Cod, this timeabandoned by his wife, trying to raise his mentally challenged son, thwarted by politicians and their untouchable supporters. Then the child murders begin, and Lieutenant Bill Warren's investigation is derailed by infighting. Enter the ringers, including an ambiguous priest whose epiphany introduces a storm of language it heated the air, changed the way sound behaved. Then a snooty psychiatrist with his own verbal turns: Recent events find you out of your depth and prone to hostility and suspicion, he tells the cops. There are enough well-orchestrated fights, shootouts, chases, betrayals, and plot twists to keep action fans on board, and the surging prose, a pleasure in itself, remains solidly in service to the story.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)