ニュースが死んだ街

First-rate PI mystery-thriller with vivid description of Fall River area in western Massachusetts.

Healy shows his mastery of the genre in this tight tale of murder and police corruption in a small town.

Cuddy is low-key, more Everyman than Macho man, making him one of the best main characters ever written.

There are only 13 novels in this series. I wish there were twice that many more. But sadly, Jeremiah Healy died last year and there will be no more.

A writer friend of mine likes the work of Jeremiah Healy, who recently committed suicide, finding his work superior to that of the great Robert B Parker, on his private eye, Spenser. I disagree. Healy writes about his private eye, John Cuddy, who, like Spenser, operates in Boston. Healy also refers to Parker, and Spenser, in his novels. I find Healy's writing much coarser than Parker's, there are passages that feel like meander fruitlessly, as though the writer is taking a breather while continuing to type. Healy, like many writers, needs a good editor, apparently an expense too far for many publishers today.
So, not a great book, though many reviewers disagree with me. To be fair, Healy's work was nominated fifteen times for Shamus Awards. This is his fifth novel, and is the one where Cuddy tries to find out who killed the confidential source of a journalist. Yesterday's News never catches fire, and I found it an effort to get though it. Healy's weakness is that his characters are feebly drawn, the descriptions predictable, and the action always less than exciting.

Always great entertainment. Healy's recent death reminded me to read all the Cuddy mysteries again.