Publisher's Weekly Review
In Shannon's violent, anarchic 13th Jack Liffey mystery (after 2010's On the Nickel), the Los Angeles child finder has plenty to worry about. Jack's trouble-prone teenage daughter, Maeve, has left home for UCLA and an off-campus apartment, while he fears he's losing his live-in girlfriend, L.A. cop Gloria Ramirez, to investigator Sonny Theroux, a former friend of his, in Bakersfield. Meanwhile, when black movie star Tyrone Bird, a schizophrenic, goes off his meds, off the set, and on a search for his father, the studio hires Liffey to find Ty. The arrival of Colombian drug-runner Jhon Orteguaza ups the ante. Shannon's frequent point-of-view shifts can be disruptive, but he makes great use of the sordid history of the real-life Sandstone Retreat, the infamous home to free sex back in the '70s, as well as movie lore. The main characters-Liffey, Ramirez, and Maeve-continue to grow in depth and complexity. (Apr.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Kirkus Review
This time out, Jack Liffey (On the Nickel,2010, etc.), finder of lost children, searches for a lost father.Though African-American movie star Tyrone Bird is positioned comfortably among the box-office elite, not much else in his life is comfortable. For some time he's been in emotional disarray, heading quietly for psychological meltdown. A marker along the way is his special brand of hallucination: the Skinnies, a team of attenuated tormenters functioning like an ill-disposed entourage. Buttressed by meds, he's been able to hold things together well enough to keep his pictures consistently earning A-list money. Now, however, Bird is on the wing somewhere, his disappearance triggered by a secret desire that's become a full-blown obsession. Ty needs to find his father, and as a consequence Jack needs to find them both for the sake of an important movie left half-finished. The gig isn't Jack's usual kindno actual kids are involvedbut cash-flow problems have a way of fostering flexibility. Unfortunately, traces of Ty prove scant. Nor is Jack at his professional best. At 63, and with unexpected bitterness, he's experiencing something he thought he'd safely consigned to history: woman troubles.In the 13th of this widely respected series, Shannon wavers between realistic family drama and unabashed melodrama. It's an uncertainty readers will sense and share.]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
*Starred Review* It starts out as a simple missing-persons case: find a marquee-caliber but notoriously troublesome African American actor who has disappeared in the middle of a shoot. But soon enough, L.A. private investigator Jack Liffey is doing what he always does, trying desperately to help set the world right. He wished he were three or four different people so he could watch over everything that needed watching over. Maybe five or six would be good this time, as the watching over includes not only the actor, who is suffering from schizophrenia, but also his father, a former 1960s radical turned drug dealer. Also in jeopardy are Jack's daughter, now a UCLA student; his live-in lover, Gloria, who is undergoing a midlife crisis that has landed her in the bed of a detective friend of Jack's; and a good-hearted Jamaican who has fallen into the employ of a drug kingpin. Shannon has an overstuffed plot on his hands here, but he manages it splendidly, keeping all the balls in the air while focusing our sympathy on the overmatched Jack, out of his league but determined to plow ahead: I'm not much of a detective, but I keep coming. That's my virtue. It is, in fact, the virtue of this entire series, which tells the ongoing, ever-bittersweet story of a man, too smart for abstract idealism, who can't help but try to fix the next seemingly unfixable problem in front of him.--Ott, Bill Copyright 2010 Booklist
Library Journal Review
California PI Jack Liffey (On the Nickel) isn't searching for a missing child this time, but his travels are just as earnest. (c) Copyright 2011. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
