"The Cracked Earth" is the second book in John Shannon's series about Jack Liffey, a sort of private detective, who specializes in finding missing kids. In this novel, Jack is hired by an aging famous Hollywood actress (whom he idolized in his youth) to find her missing teenage daughter. The plot...
The Concrete River by John Shannon is the first of a series set in modern-day Los Angeles CA. Jack Liffey is a former aerospace engineer, now a 'child finder' (not a licensed PI). He's divorced, not allowed to see his daughter because he is months behind in child support, and has a problem with a...
It is my third John Shannon's book, and I still have several to go. "The Poison Sky" is a strange mystery. From a quiet, Ross Macdonald-style (albeit set in the age of Internet) mystery, it morphs into a cinematic disaster thriller. The characters are somewhat believable and there is less pop psy...
Terminal Island is the latest book from top mystery writer John Shannon. While detective Jack Liffey is convalescing from a collapsed lung from his last case, he is called to his hometown of San Pedro, shipyard to Los Angeles, where an inexplicable string of mysterious accidents have befallen loc...
In the sixth novel of this best-selling private-eye series, Jack Liffey probes the complex ethnic mix—Muslim, Jewish, Baha'i, Christian, and secular—of the Persian communities in Los Angeles. A gripping tale that confronts youthful idealism with perfervid fundamentalism, it lands bright, earnest ...
‘Uh, what does that mean?’ Maeve asked on the phone. As soon as she’d got out of bed and got the information she needed in Mike Lewis’s e-mail, she’d started contacting Conor’s friends. ‘Yeah, I know. Say what? I think we could feel him detaching, you know, like the capsule coming off the mothers...
He could barely work out who he was himself, or Gloria, but there were worlds of bad faith standing between himself and this boy. Hang on tight, he told himself. He had decided it probably wouldn’t be a good idea to sit up on the porch like a strawboss while Thumb slaved away at the lawn so Jack ...
His Timex had staggered to a halt about ten, as it did every once in a while, particularly when it might have been nice to know the time. He had to live with his intuition that it was about three a.m., at least until he caught sight of a roadside clock. Strangely, a cortege of big American cars r...
The Northrup plant.” The wind plastered her skirt against slim legs, and he would have driven her to the moon, or tried. He leaned across to open the door. “I take it you're not looking for a job as a machinist.” It was a thin smile. “We picket every Friday. That's where they make the Stealth bom...
The equivalent of the Richter scale for wet-season floods was based on anticipated frequency, and in the world of rushing water the Big One was a hundred-year flood. The massive earthen Hanson Dam was almost two miles long, meant to keep a hundred-year flood sweeping down out of the Tujunga Canyo...
Man, you look bad.” Marlena’s nephew Rogelio was sitting in the living room with his feet up, gesturing with a Budweiser. Two young Latinos Jack Liffey had never met sat opposite with their own beers, and they were curious about his shiner, too. The TV was going but ignored, a Mexican soccer game...
The keening outside was unbearable. Fire glinted through pinholes, wind slapped the silica and foil shelter. He was a religious man, Missouri Synod Lutheran, and he prayed for his partner and himself. He had to see his wife and children again. “Our Father who art in Heaven…” He forced his mind to...