MysteryPeople Pick of the Month: ‘Hurt Machine’

~Post by MP Crime Fiction Coordinator Scott M.

MysteryPeople December Pick of the Month:
Hurt Machine by Reed Farrel Coleman

Reed Farrel Coleman’s Jewish part-time investigator Moe Prager is my favorite modern PI. Poignant and believable, in previous books we’ve followed Moe and his city from the mid-70s to post 9/11, discovering that this PI keeps as many secrets as he’s uncovered. Hurt Machine brings us to the end of his journey and looks at the toll those secrets have taken on his life when Moe is diagnosed with cancer.

To take his mind off the upcoming surgery and maybe even his daughter’s wedding, Prager agrees to help his ex-wife whose sister, an EMT, was stabbed to death a week after she and her partner refused to help a dying man. Moe’s investigation into both deaths brings him to the conclusion that we are all hurt machines that cause pain, intentional or not.

Both the case and Moe’s health make him consider life and time. Moe views his suspects’ grudges and obsessions as petty compared to the big picture, wondering if those things would enter their mind when death comes knocking. Coleman’s voice puts you in Prager’s skin as he deals with these people and struggles with his disease. Being a keeper of secrets, it’s his instinct to hide the news from those close to him.

Reed has said this is his last Moe book (not counting a prequel that will take place in his police days). If so, one of the the best PIs has left as good as he entered.

MysteryPeople is BookPeople’s mystery bookstore-within-a-bookstore, conceieved and coordinated by our Main Man of Mystery, Scott M. Subscribe to the MysteryPeople monthely e-newsletter for reading recommendations, author Q&A’s, book reviews, & updates about upcoming author events with Crime Fiction writers at BookPeople.