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kevinrtipple's review against another edition
5.0
Reporter Liam Mulligan from the start knows this is going to be a very unpleasant story. Cosmo Scalici raises hogs and hogs will eat just about anything that ends up in their pens. That includes a child’s arm. While local law enforcement now has killed the hog so they can hopefully retrieve whatever is left of some little girl’s arm and hand, finding out to whom it belonged to and where it came from is going to be very hard. When Cosmo Scalici isn’t dealing with the hogs, he runs company, Scalici Recycling. They collect garbage from schools, jails, and restaurants all over Rhode Island. That means the arm could have come from just about anywhere.
That isn’t the only story Mulligan is working on though it is the most gruesome one right now. Mulligan is also working on figuring out who is doing some waste dumping, who is trying to buy the governor this time through campaign funds, and how long his paper, Providence Dispatch, is going to survive.
It is because he is sent out to Newport to attend an event during the weeklong Newport Jumping Derby that he witnesses Salvatore Maniella in deep conversation with the governor. The same Salvatore Maniella who is found hours later splattered across the rocks below Newport’s world famous Cliff Walk. The same Salvatore Maniella who is linked to various forms of pornography, prostitution, and others things.
In chasing the various stories, Mulligan finds himself a target as well as a confident to a number of people. He might make headway on his stories if the newspaper he works for wasn’t in such a state of collapse. The newspaper is crumbling around him with more and more layoffs, circulation cutbacks, financial cuts and other problems. Like any other business these days, it means that those that are left, Mulligan and others must increasingly share the workload to keep the paper afloat. His personal problems in terms of his health as well as an ex that just won’t leave him alone add to his burdens. Mulligan is at a crossroads, both personally and professionally, in a tale where faith and politics play increasing roles in cases that get darker as the weeks pass into the fall months.
Bruce DeSilva won both the 2011 Edgar and Macavity Awards for his debut novel, Rogue Island. Rightfully so, as that was a powerful book that firmly established the Liam Mulligan character as well as several others. Simply put, CLIFF WALK just might be a better book. Featuring the same occasionally sarcastic tone and laugh out loud moments (the obits are a must read on their own), several complex storylines where nothing is as it seems, and a sense that you right there with Mulligan every step of the way, he book is a good one from the start to the moving finish.
While it can be read as a stand-alone, those who have read Rogue Island will get far more out of CLIFF WALK as the characters and relationships continue to evolve.
CLIFF WALK: A MULLIGAN NOVEL
Bruce DeSilva
http://www.brucedesilva.com
A Forge Book (Tom Doherty Associates)
http://www.tor-forge.com
May 2012
ISBN# 978-0-7653-3237-0
Hardback (also available in e-book and audio book)
318 Pages
$24.99
Material supplied by the good folks of the Plano, Texas Public Library System.
Kevin R. Tipple ©2012
That isn’t the only story Mulligan is working on though it is the most gruesome one right now. Mulligan is also working on figuring out who is doing some waste dumping, who is trying to buy the governor this time through campaign funds, and how long his paper, Providence Dispatch, is going to survive.
It is because he is sent out to Newport to attend an event during the weeklong Newport Jumping Derby that he witnesses Salvatore Maniella in deep conversation with the governor. The same Salvatore Maniella who is found hours later splattered across the rocks below Newport’s world famous Cliff Walk. The same Salvatore Maniella who is linked to various forms of pornography, prostitution, and others things.
In chasing the various stories, Mulligan finds himself a target as well as a confident to a number of people. He might make headway on his stories if the newspaper he works for wasn’t in such a state of collapse. The newspaper is crumbling around him with more and more layoffs, circulation cutbacks, financial cuts and other problems. Like any other business these days, it means that those that are left, Mulligan and others must increasingly share the workload to keep the paper afloat. His personal problems in terms of his health as well as an ex that just won’t leave him alone add to his burdens. Mulligan is at a crossroads, both personally and professionally, in a tale where faith and politics play increasing roles in cases that get darker as the weeks pass into the fall months.
Bruce DeSilva won both the 2011 Edgar and Macavity Awards for his debut novel, Rogue Island. Rightfully so, as that was a powerful book that firmly established the Liam Mulligan character as well as several others. Simply put, CLIFF WALK just might be a better book. Featuring the same occasionally sarcastic tone and laugh out loud moments (the obits are a must read on their own), several complex storylines where nothing is as it seems, and a sense that you right there with Mulligan every step of the way, he book is a good one from the start to the moving finish.
While it can be read as a stand-alone, those who have read Rogue Island will get far more out of CLIFF WALK as the characters and relationships continue to evolve.
CLIFF WALK: A MULLIGAN NOVEL
Bruce DeSilva
http://www.brucedesilva.com
A Forge Book (Tom Doherty Associates)
http://www.tor-forge.com
May 2012
ISBN# 978-0-7653-3237-0
Hardback (also available in e-book and audio book)
318 Pages
$24.99
Material supplied by the good folks of the Plano, Texas Public Library System.
Kevin R. Tipple ©2012
juliebean1020's review against another edition
5.0
Mulligan investigates child deaths, pornography, prostitution and crooked politicians. Very few people are all good or all bad and he realizes it's hard to tell which is which, even among those he's known the longest. If anything, this series entry is even better than the first for which DeSilva won the Edgar.
cathyleigh1's review against another edition
4.0
I had read Rogue Island, DeSilva's first (and award-winning) Mulligan novel and had been anxiously awaiting Cliff Walk. It was certainly worth the wait. Liam Mulligan is a fascinating character--a long-time journalist in a fast-fading newspaper business who can't stop digging into a complex story. And the story he's digging into is full of low-life characters that may or may not be connected to the very worst kind of pornography and are certainly murderers. A page-turner of the first degree, I highly recommend this second Mulligan novel and again, anxiously await the next.
markfeltskog's review against another edition
A strong second entry in the first series in which I've been able to sustain interest since Robert B. Parker died and took Spenser with him. I wish Bruce DeSilva as long a career writing mystery novels as he enjoyed as a journalist.
dannafs's review
4.0
Bruce DeSilva's second Mulligan novel is as engaging as the first. Mulligan is a reporter for the failing Rhode Island newspaper, the Dispatch. As a veteran reporter, he has inserted himself into the lives of dozens of influential Rhode Islanders, ranging from mobsters to pimps to police captains.
In Cliff Walk, Mulligan witnesses a murder at a Newport charity ball. The killing is linked to a relentless web of crimes, and Mulligan finds himself in the center, running elbows with both sides of the law, to solve the crimes and be the first to tell the tale. Mulligan is a smart-aleck, and the novel has a never-ending witty banter that is actually amusing enough to not be irritating. For example:
"The worst places always seem to be named after the best people. Any Franklin Delano Roosevelt High School, Martin Luther King Drive, or Dorothea Dix Hospital is likely to be a war zone" (182).
One of the things I most enjoyed about both Mulligan novels is that they take place in Rhode Island. DeSilva does a remarkable job of bringing this colorful little state to life. The endless connections of Rhode Islanders, both corrupt and benign, are entertaining and oh-so true.
Cliff Walk ended in a way that invites a third novel, but also tied up the loose ends in an unexpected manner. This book is just the right dose of crime, humor, and superhero-bad-guy-fighting to make me hope DeSilva resurrects Mulligan for a third installment.
In Cliff Walk, Mulligan witnesses a murder at a Newport charity ball. The killing is linked to a relentless web of crimes, and Mulligan finds himself in the center, running elbows with both sides of the law, to solve the crimes and be the first to tell the tale. Mulligan is a smart-aleck, and the novel has a never-ending witty banter that is actually amusing enough to not be irritating. For example:
"The worst places always seem to be named after the best people. Any Franklin Delano Roosevelt High School, Martin Luther King Drive, or Dorothea Dix Hospital is likely to be a war zone" (182).
One of the things I most enjoyed about both Mulligan novels is that they take place in Rhode Island. DeSilva does a remarkable job of bringing this colorful little state to life. The endless connections of Rhode Islanders, both corrupt and benign, are entertaining and oh-so true.
Cliff Walk ended in a way that invites a third novel, but also tied up the loose ends in an unexpected manner. This book is just the right dose of crime, humor, and superhero-bad-guy-fighting to make me hope DeSilva resurrects Mulligan for a third installment.
vkemp's review
5.0
Two days. It took me two days to read this because I had to sleep some time. Liam Mulligan is back with the wisecracks and the one-liners. This time he is taking on prostitution in Rhode Island, where it has been legal due to loophole in the law. It is mostly a one man crusade since his newspaper is going down like a stone. And then the ugly stuff starts, the bodies of dead children start turning up at a local pig farm. Excellent writing and funny dialogue, along with a cameo appearance by the author's wife. Good stuff, highly recommended.
catmum's review
5.0
Mulligan investigates child deaths, pornography, prostitution and crooked politicians. Very few people are all good or all bad and he realizes it's hard to tell which is which, even among those he's known the longest. If anything, this series entry is even better than the first for which DeSilva won the Edgar.