Tuff NY JEW ( )

Sad but satisfying wrap up to the Moe Prager series. ( )

By now I’m sure you know that I like Reed Farrel Coleman as a mystery writer. His standalones as well as his series, HollowGirlDylan Klein and Moe Prager are well written, action packed and fun reading. So, it is with both joy and sadness that I read Hollow Girl, Coleman’s latest. It is a great read, but also the last in the Prager series.

Moe’s fiancee, Pam, was killed in a freak auto accident a month earlier and Moe has been drunk ever since. He’s awakened one morning by his brother, Aaron. Nancy Lustig, a women Moe met on a case 35 years earlier wants to meet. Moe reluctantly agrees. It seems Nancy’s daughter, Sloane (aka Siobhan) has been missing. While she’s been out of touch for several weeks at a time previously, this is the longest period of silence. The mother and daughter seem to have a love-hate relationship and Sloane seems to live to torture her mother.

Sloane had passing notoriety a decade earlier as the Hollow Girl, an internet sensation performing ‘real life’ performance art, which included an fictional suicide. As Moe pursues the case, he uncovers Sloane’s sordid life. He also begins a relationship with Nancy that, kept silent all these decades, was simmering in both of them.

I really enjoyed Hollow Girl. And why not!!! He mentions two of my favorite things: Katz’ Deli in lower Manhattan and the Allman Brothers. Moe Prager is the guy next door. He suffers the same things we all do: loss of friends, cancer, failed relationships. And he waxes philosophical about all of these things. He has hunches that sometimes work out and sometimes don’t. The Prager books have a lot of action, countered by Moe’s reminiscing. They explore how people feel. They are well written, as well.

Reed Farrel Coleman packs a lot into his books about life and love. It’s not just the mystery that captures you, it’s the people. I will admit that there was one of his books I didn’t like at all…Gun Church. I couldn’t even finish it, so I’d suggest you skip it. But, other than that, I’d read all of his other books.

I’m sure there’s something new on the Coleman horizon that will thrill fans. I can’t wait to find out what it is. In the meantime, enjoy Hollow Girl ( )

After a bout with cancer and the accidental death of his fiancée, Moe Prager, is determined to drown himself in vast amounts of alcohol. Then he gets a call from Nancy Lustig, an old client from the first book in the series, who needs his help regarding her daughter, Sloane. Sloane had been an early internet sensation a few years back when she had recorded her feelings about the betrayal of her boyfriend with her best friend. When she committed suicide on-line, 911 lines were clogged with calls of help from her fans. Problem was, none of it was real. The ‘boyfriend’ was just a friend who had allowed her to use his picture without knowing why and the ‘suicide’ was, according to Sloane, performance art. As a result of the ensuing publicity, Sloane changed her name to Siobhan and had achieved some success as an actress. Things had worked out a lot worse for the ‘boyfriend’ who was plagued ever since with the fallout from the stunt.

But now Sloane is missing and, when the body of her female lover is found in their apartment, Moe must find out whether Sloane is a victim or the perpetrator. Then videos begin to show up on the net of Sloane bound, gagged and beaten but with disclaimers that this is just another performance and viewers shouldn’t intervene. But Moe is convinced this isn’t staged and he is determined to discover who is behind it before the final video is aired.

The Hollow Girl is the ninth and final installment in author Reed Farrel Coleman’s Moe Prager series. The story, itself, is interesting as much for its commentary on society in the era of internet access and plastic surgery and the lengths people will go to reinvent themselves to achieve approval and their fifteen minutes of fame as it is for the mystery. As interesting as this is, it is Moe who grabs and keeps our attention throughout the tale. He is at his sweetest, kindest, most self-effacing best. He has always epitomized the everyman in us all, succeeding as much by luck as by hard work and he will be missed. ( )

Moe was such an endearing and humble character - a good man and retired private investigator who has had a difficult life and is on the verge of self-destruction when he is contacted by an old acquaintance who convinces him to take on the case of her missing daughter. The case revives his thirst for life and sucks him out of the whirlpool that he was drowning in. While I really liked Moe, and the case itself is intriguing and far from predictable, I felt like some parts needed further development. For example, it was a bit hard to swallow that a simple Google search allowed Moe to identify a single new suspect from what was likely hundreds or thousands of hits. But despite some misgivings, this suspenseful book was entertaining and hard to put down. ( )