The Concrete River

by John Shannon

Book Overview

Jack Liffey's lost everything: his job, his lovely wife, his daughter. His first case as a Los Angeles child-finder becomes a fight for redemption and for life itself, as he's swept into a world gone... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0963905058
• ISBN13: 9780963905055
• Release Date: January 1996
• Publisher: John Brown Books
• Length: 190 Pages
• Weight: 0.60 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.5" x 8.2"

Customer Reviews

Wow! Shannon can write

This is my first John Shannon Jack Liffey novel. I came across Shannon's name in a magazine article and decided to start at the beginning of this series with The Concrete River. I don't know why John Shannon isn't better known. This writer deserves much more attention by mystery readers--his writing is that good. His protagonist--Liffey--is a well-educated, down-on-his-luck child finder, a modern-day philosopher, whose sense of honor is the driving force of his actions and interactions. Los Angeles is a major character in the story, a sense of place--the bleak and the bizarre-- established by a writer who knows the city well. While the mystery is compelling and well told, it is the careful construction of Liffey by the author that brings this tale to life. I am already on the fourth book in the series and have not been disappointed yet.

First Jack Liffey Mystery

This book begins John Shannon's Jack Liffey series about a character who becomes an unintended and unlicensed detective tracing lost children. Liffey fits right into the tradition of other Los Angeles offbeat detective-protagonists. The random comments about the weirdness of L.A. are especially amusing. Recommend reading the series in order to appreciate the development of the characters.

Great Los Angeles Noir

This was my first experience with a Jack Liffey novel and it won't be the last. Rather than start with his later work, I ordered "The Concrete River" as this is the first in the series and I wanted to be in on the beginning. John Shannon is clearly an underated talent and I am pleased to see that there will be reissues of more of his earlier work. Shannon's writing is Chandleresque and Liffey is a great world-weary private eye. The descriptions of the underbelly of Los Angeles are spot on and remind me of Hammett, Mosely and Michael Connelly. Avid mystery readers owe it to themselves to check out Shannon. You won't be disappointed. My next Liffey novel is on pre-order!

Brilliant!

There are writers in various genres (mystery, romance, westerns, etc.) and then there are Writers; they're the gifted people whose genre is scarcely relevant because their work always rises above the territory upon which they've staked their claim. John Shannon is a Writer.This first of Shannon's Jack Liffey series is a work of lean, effective prose, spiced with startling dashes of outrageous humor (as was The Orange Curtain, my introduction to Shannon's work). Los Angeles, as portrayed through Liffey's eyes, is a series on ongoing atrocities and carnage that are so everyday as to be normal. Add to this mix a character with a tired, yet invincible, spirit who observes and accepts (but doesn't like) what he sees, and you have a hero unlike any other. Liffy is the essential American of a certain age, (and a Viet Nam vet) possessed of heart and conscience, trying very hard to be honorable while he searches for missing children (in itself a profound metaphor for the lost innocence not only of the city, but of our entire society.)It is a sad fact that talent is not its own reward; it does not guarantee success. But if anyone writing today deserves recognition on a large scale, it is John Shannon. His work is both insightful social commentary and an unflinching, wrenching look at the human heart. If you want to be entertained and informed, get this book! Go to out-of-print booksites if you must, or search your local library, but this is a writer who very much deserves to be widely read.

A great read:

Captures Los Angeles perfectly. Protagonist is believable, story is absorbing - I couldn't wait for the second of this series and bought it immediately when it came out (this is the first). Looking forward to the author's next book. If you like Michael Connelly, Abigail Padgett, and find Andrew Vacchs compelling (if not always palatable), give this author a try. You won't be disappointed.