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Bragg #1
The Dead Never Forget
This is the action-packed novel that launched Jack Lynch’s Edgar Award and two-time Shamus Award-nominated Bragg series…vaulting him into the pantheon of detective fiction masters alongside Raymond Chandler, Sue Grafton, Dashiell Hammett, Robert B. Parker and Ross MacDonald.
“Tough, taut and terse… literate without being lofty, not unlike the work of Hammett himself.” The Thrilling Detective
Korean War vet and ex-reporter Peter Bragg is hired by Armando Barker, a retired mobster, to find out who is targeting him and his eleven-year-old daughter with death threats. But after a gruesome killing of someone close to Barker, the threats become a bloody promise. Barker’s violent past in Sand Valley, a bleak, California desert town, has come back to haunt him with a vengeance. So that’s where Bragg goes, walking right into the vicious, bloody war that’s raging between the town’s factions…and becoming everyone’s target.
“First-rate, well-plotted. Bragg is a restrained and believable hero. The action scenes are excellent. The gangland gun battle that rages across Sand Valley is a superb.” 101 Knights: A Survey of American Detective Fiction
“Bragg is authentic, gripping, gritty.” San Francisco Examiner
Originally Published as “Bragg’s Hunch.”
“Tough, taut and terse… literate without being lofty, not unlike the work of Hammett himself.” The Thrilling Detective
Korean War vet and ex-reporter Peter Bragg is hired by Armando Barker, a retired mobster, to find out who is targeting him and his eleven-year-old daughter with death threats. But after a gruesome killing of someone close to Barker, the threats become a bloody promise. Barker’s violent past in Sand Valley, a bleak, California desert town, has come back to haunt him with a vengeance. So that’s where Bragg goes, walking right into the vicious, bloody war that’s raging between the town’s factions…and becoming everyone’s target.
“First-rate, well-plotted. Bragg is a restrained and believable hero. The action scenes are excellent. The gangland gun battle that rages across Sand Valley is a superb.” 101 Knights: A Survey of American Detective Fiction
“Bragg is authentic, gripping, gritty.” San Francisco Examiner
Originally Published as “Bragg’s Hunch.”
304 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1982
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382 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 38 reviews
September 16, 2014
Peter Bragg is an ex-military man and a former reporter. Upon leaving the newspaper business, he decides to use the skills he acquired as an investigative reporter to become a private investigator in San Francisco. He’s approached by an agent of a man named Armando Barker, a mobster who claims to now be retired. Someone has sent threatening messages to Barker and then backed up the messages by firing shots at him late one night as Barker was leaving a club that he owns. Barker wants Bragg to deal with the situation, and when Bragg asks him why he doesn’t just call the cops, Barker explains that he doesn’t relate well to the police.
Bragg takes the job and then Barker’s adversary ups the ante by threatening to go after Barker’s eleven-year-old step-daughter. The girl is safely away at a boarding school which allegedly has great security, but Barker is naturally worried nonetheless. Then the noose tightens even more when someone close to Barker is murdered.
Before “retiring,” Barker was a mob boss in a wide-open town called Sand Valley where gambling, women and various other recreational pursuits are widely and readily available. He claims he has no enemies left there, but Bragg concludes that the threat may well originate in Sand Valley and so moves his investigation in that direction. Once he arrives the action really heats up on a variety of fronts, leading to a surprising climax.
This is a hard-boiled novel of the old school, first published in 1981, and it launched a series of books featuring Peter Bragg. Like the other detectives who star in hard-boiled novels, Bragg can take a licking and keep on ticking. He’s bright, witty, and very attractive to the ladies, and it’s fun to ride along with him as he pokes around the underside of tacky casinos and whorehouses. This is a well-written and entertaining story, populated by the sorts of characters one would have expected to meet in a novel like this in 1981. The book holds up very well and has now been republished as an e-book and in a very nice trade paperback edition. It will appeal to a lot of readers who are fans of this genre.
Bragg takes the job and then Barker’s adversary ups the ante by threatening to go after Barker’s eleven-year-old step-daughter. The girl is safely away at a boarding school which allegedly has great security, but Barker is naturally worried nonetheless. Then the noose tightens even more when someone close to Barker is murdered.
Before “retiring,” Barker was a mob boss in a wide-open town called Sand Valley where gambling, women and various other recreational pursuits are widely and readily available. He claims he has no enemies left there, but Bragg concludes that the threat may well originate in Sand Valley and so moves his investigation in that direction. Once he arrives the action really heats up on a variety of fronts, leading to a surprising climax.
This is a hard-boiled novel of the old school, first published in 1981, and it launched a series of books featuring Peter Bragg. Like the other detectives who star in hard-boiled novels, Bragg can take a licking and keep on ticking. He’s bright, witty, and very attractive to the ladies, and it’s fun to ride along with him as he pokes around the underside of tacky casinos and whorehouses. This is a well-written and entertaining story, populated by the sorts of characters one would have expected to meet in a novel like this in 1981. The book holds up very well and has now been republished as an e-book and in a very nice trade paperback edition. It will appeal to a lot of readers who are fans of this genre.
February 25, 2023
Jack Lynch is a class act! The Dead Never Forget is a fun, action-packed thriller with lots of exciting twists and turns.
Fans of Raymond Chandler, Elmore Leonard and Dashiell Hammett will love this one!
Fans of Raymond Chandler, Elmore Leonard and Dashiell Hammett will love this one!
April 30, 2022
As Private detectives go, and I have read a lot, this one will make my top ten.
April 27, 2015
Last fall, I was fortunate enough to discover Brash Books and their plan to reissue Jack Lynch's Peter Bragg series, originally published in the 1980s. I enjoy hard-boiled detective fiction, and I could tell right away that Peter Bragg would not disappoint. I think I'm in love (although Bragg does seem to be a bit promiscuous with his affections), and I can't thank Brash Books enough for rescuing him from obscurity.
The Dead Never Forget is the first in the Bragg series. In it, Bragg is initially hired by former (?) mobster Armando Barker to investigate death threats he has received against not only himself, but also those he cares about, including his young step-daughter. Despite Barker's insistence that the threats must be related to his current life in San Francisco, Bragg senses that there is more to the story than meets the eye and heads off to Sand Valley, Barker's hometown. Sand Valley has its own criminal underbelly, reminiscent of Harlan County, Kentucky, in Elmore Leonard's Raylan Givens stories. Bragg is correct that the threats against Barker are related to his time in Sand Valley, but even Bragg is surprised by the nature of that connection. En route to the book's resolution, there are plenty of fights, deaths, and a dramatic, but unexpected, showdown in the streets of Sand Valley.
The Thrilling Detective website describes the Bragg series as "damned good, featuring a hard but believable hero, and narrated in a straight, unpretentious manner, literate without being lofty, not unlike the work of Hammett himself." I couldn't agree more and look forward to Bragg's next adventure.
I received a free copy of The Dead Never Forget through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
The Dead Never Forget is the first in the Bragg series. In it, Bragg is initially hired by former (?) mobster Armando Barker to investigate death threats he has received against not only himself, but also those he cares about, including his young step-daughter. Despite Barker's insistence that the threats must be related to his current life in San Francisco, Bragg senses that there is more to the story than meets the eye and heads off to Sand Valley, Barker's hometown. Sand Valley has its own criminal underbelly, reminiscent of Harlan County, Kentucky, in Elmore Leonard's Raylan Givens stories. Bragg is correct that the threats against Barker are related to his time in Sand Valley, but even Bragg is surprised by the nature of that connection. En route to the book's resolution, there are plenty of fights, deaths, and a dramatic, but unexpected, showdown in the streets of Sand Valley.
The Thrilling Detective website describes the Bragg series as "damned good, featuring a hard but believable hero, and narrated in a straight, unpretentious manner, literate without being lofty, not unlike the work of Hammett himself." I couldn't agree more and look forward to Bragg's next adventure.
I received a free copy of The Dead Never Forget through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
July 6, 2016
An action-packed story with so many twists and turns you haven't got time to breath. Lynch has a narrative style that creates great mental images yet keeps the story charging by. The characters are realistic and believable, despite the wild nature of the story. The plot keeps unfolding in layers, slowly bringing the reader to a powerful conclusion. This is a great book on many levels.
October 23, 2021
This is the first mystery in the Private Investigator Peter Bragg series. Peter works in San Francisco during the 1970s? I would describe it as a noir mystery as narrated by the detective, Peter Bragg. Peter is hired by a restaurant owner with a shady past to investigate death threats he has been receiving in the mail. The investigation leads to the restaurant owners past life in a small town out in the desert. A town where many illegal activities occur. The investigation takes time to unravel how these illegal activities may be connected to the death threats. There are enough plot twists to keep you guessing as to who and why anyone would be threatening Peter’s client. It’s a good mystery, with plenty of P.I. action (gun play and fisticuffs) and glib dialogue but it’s one shortfall was Peter’s weakness for women. He seemed to fall in love with every woman he met in this investigation. Mostly he is taken in by their sob stories and vulnerability. It seems that a hardened private eye that Peter presents himself as being would be a bit more skeptical of the stories witnesses and potential suspects tell him.
November 9, 2021
I had first encountered this series with #3 and wasn't as impressed as I'd hoped to have been. However, this first book was a completely satisfying read, and I was happily surprised and pleased that I'd decided to give Mr. Lynch another go.
The hard boiled detective genre is alive and well with this book, and the cast of characters is engaging and entertaining. Granted, sexism is spread throughout the pages, so if you're seeking enlightened writing in that respect, forget about reading this. If, however, you can suspend that sensibility long enough to read the story, it's quite a good one.
The plot moves along nicely and the PI, Peter Bragg, is cut from the classic bolt of cloth-- wry, witty, has a favorite bar and bourbon, and seems rather irresistible to women. He's okay with his mitts, but tends to lose his guns to bad guys, yet somehow manages to prevail. The twist in the plot is a good one, cleverly set up and well delivered. I hope that this trend continues and my ho-hum reaction to book #3 was an outlier. We'll see, as I've downloaded the collection of Bragg stories and shall make my way through them as long as the rest are as entertaining as this one.
The hard boiled detective genre is alive and well with this book, and the cast of characters is engaging and entertaining. Granted, sexism is spread throughout the pages, so if you're seeking enlightened writing in that respect, forget about reading this. If, however, you can suspend that sensibility long enough to read the story, it's quite a good one.
The plot moves along nicely and the PI, Peter Bragg, is cut from the classic bolt of cloth-- wry, witty, has a favorite bar and bourbon, and seems rather irresistible to women. He's okay with his mitts, but tends to lose his guns to bad guys, yet somehow manages to prevail. The twist in the plot is a good one, cleverly set up and well delivered. I hope that this trend continues and my ho-hum reaction to book #3 was an outlier. We'll see, as I've downloaded the collection of Bragg stories and shall make my way through them as long as the rest are as entertaining as this one.
December 4, 2022
Wild and wilder
It is a story of ex-cop, ex-reporter, ex-bartender and now private investigator investigating a case of threatening letter which tends into murder case. The hero fights with drug smugglers, thief, gangs, prostitute, money laundry …. it is wild macho story, getting wilder and wilder.
It is a story of ex-cop, ex-reporter, ex-bartender and now private investigator investigating a case of threatening letter which tends into murder case. The hero fights with drug smugglers, thief, gangs, prostitute, money laundry …. it is wild macho story, getting wilder and wilder.
August 26, 2017
Excellent mystery.
Bragg is on the case in a mystery filled with twists and turns. Lots of action and a hint of romance all combined into a story with an ending that actually makes sense.
Bragg is on the case in a mystery filled with twists and turns. Lots of action and a hint of romance all combined into a story with an ending that actually makes sense.
June 17, 2017
Another easy reading crime writer.
Ex journalise turned PI is employed to find out if it's the past or the present threatening the life of Armando Barker and his loved ones
Ex journalise turned PI is employed to find out if it's the past or the present threatening the life of Armando Barker and his loved ones
July 16, 2017
For me, this was like an action-hero comic book. Not much character or scene development, but it doesn't pretend to be. Lots of beach sand on this one.
June 17, 2019
The Dead Never Forget
I enjoyed this book. Yes, it's a bit "Old School" but it was well written 30 plus years ago and a nice read.
I enjoyed this book. Yes, it's a bit "Old School" but it was well written 30 plus years ago and a nice read.
October 16, 2021
Good read, fast paced and good blend of action and plot. Set in early 1980s so need to remember that as I read. Will read the second in series to see how the main character evolves or not.
October 25, 2021
I liked this book quite a lot -- interesting characters, a good plot line (albeit somewhat complicated), lots of actions. I dove right into book 2 even though it was not on my TBR pile. . .
April 16, 2016
This book is the first in the series featuring Peter Bragg; the series was nominated for the Edgar Award and twice for the Shamus Award. I’ve read three others in the series already and had nearly despaired of finding the first, so imagine my delight when I located it among the DRC’s offered by Brash Priority Readers Circle. Though I found it engaging, Lynch was likely still warming up when he wrote it. I am glad I had the opportunity to read it, not because it is exceptional, but because it is the first entry in what proves to be an exceptional series.
Like most Peter Bragg mysteries, this one is set in the Bay Area. A huge development is about to built on the waterfront, complete with a convention center and any number of hotels and restaurants. The problem arises when the residents of area houseboats protest the likelihood that they will be shut out. Bragg is working a different case, one involving pornographic photos that have been sent to the subject’s father, when he finds himself on the waterfront near his home helping to get people and pets to safety after a suspicious fire breaks out. A murder is discovered and before you know it, all hell has broken loose.
The setting is the 1990’s, shortly before the internet changed all of our lives. It is actually a contemporary setting because this is when the mystery was written, but now as it is re-released, it feels like a noir setting, because all of the telephones are land lines and all files are on paper buried in metal cabinets. In this sense, I think the series actually benefits from the time lag.
The novel is ambitious, bouncing us from one setting to another and introducing a large number of characters. I had trouble keeping track of them all. I might have wondered whether my mind was getting old and rusty but for the fact that I was reading a different galley at the same time with even more characters, and the latter left me with no doubt whatsoever who each one was.
On the plus side is not only our opportunity to meet the detective in his first criminal investigation, but I also like the way issues of race and gender are treated; appropriate and at times quite zesty without ever appearing to be self-consciously PC or awkward. There is a moment toward the end that made me want to stand up and cheer! This moment took what was about to be a three star review and bounced it back up to four stars.
On the downside, in addition to the confusion engendered by too frequently hopping between undeveloped characters and situations, there’s an over-the-top moment that some readers will enjoy, but that I found was too much for me: too much vigilantism, too violent, and over the top on my personal ick-meter.
Those that are fans of Jack Lynch will want to read this newly-republished mystery in order to introduce themselves to a kick-ass series. Those that love good mysteries and/or fiction set in the San Francisco area should also get this book and read it.
Why not spend a weekend curled up with Peter Bragg?
Like most Peter Bragg mysteries, this one is set in the Bay Area. A huge development is about to built on the waterfront, complete with a convention center and any number of hotels and restaurants. The problem arises when the residents of area houseboats protest the likelihood that they will be shut out. Bragg is working a different case, one involving pornographic photos that have been sent to the subject’s father, when he finds himself on the waterfront near his home helping to get people and pets to safety after a suspicious fire breaks out. A murder is discovered and before you know it, all hell has broken loose.
The setting is the 1990’s, shortly before the internet changed all of our lives. It is actually a contemporary setting because this is when the mystery was written, but now as it is re-released, it feels like a noir setting, because all of the telephones are land lines and all files are on paper buried in metal cabinets. In this sense, I think the series actually benefits from the time lag.
The novel is ambitious, bouncing us from one setting to another and introducing a large number of characters. I had trouble keeping track of them all. I might have wondered whether my mind was getting old and rusty but for the fact that I was reading a different galley at the same time with even more characters, and the latter left me with no doubt whatsoever who each one was.
On the plus side is not only our opportunity to meet the detective in his first criminal investigation, but I also like the way issues of race and gender are treated; appropriate and at times quite zesty without ever appearing to be self-consciously PC or awkward. There is a moment toward the end that made me want to stand up and cheer! This moment took what was about to be a three star review and bounced it back up to four stars.
On the downside, in addition to the confusion engendered by too frequently hopping between undeveloped characters and situations, there’s an over-the-top moment that some readers will enjoy, but that I found was too much for me: too much vigilantism, too violent, and over the top on my personal ick-meter.
Those that are fans of Jack Lynch will want to read this newly-republished mystery in order to introduce themselves to a kick-ass series. Those that love good mysteries and/or fiction set in the San Francisco area should also get this book and read it.
Why not spend a weekend curled up with Peter Bragg?
February 6, 2016
The competing offerings in a very small town on the edge of the desert, nestled in a valley in the mountains, made it into a truck stop and wayside stop for (executive) travellers.
sandusky
Gambling and ladies of a certain morality available at the two ends of the spectrum and the town works as the establishments are aimed at different markets.
But
At one of these establishments, the truck stop versions, the truckers have a couple of sidelines that make good use of their trucks and make them more money than just shuttling their loads.
1. The transport of stolen goods away from their point of origin to another site where they can be sold ‘no questions asked’.
2. Transport of cannabis. This being flown into the local private airport by a small plane and then sent onto to further destinations by road.
Both of these streams of income are very tempting to others.
And then there is some very dodgy financial dealings going on through the local bank - note that centralised banking conglomerates as per the UK and Europe were certainly less common at the time this book was set, and there were a lot of very small and very local banks.
The main ethos of all the people living in the town was that of the 3 monkeys:
I don’t see; I don’t hear; I don’t say.
Unfortunately one policeman decided to see, and hear, and then say.
Peter Bragg was a PI involved in some death threats to an ex-member of this small town and went to discover why this was happening and then became embroiled in the seeing and hearing.
But did he see and hear the truth?
And just how much of this truth did he hear?
And with whose agenda?
This is the first book in the series and other than the issues with phones stands up well to modern situations.
sandusky
Gambling and ladies of a certain morality available at the two ends of the spectrum and the town works as the establishments are aimed at different markets.
But
At one of these establishments, the truck stop versions, the truckers have a couple of sidelines that make good use of their trucks and make them more money than just shuttling their loads.
1. The transport of stolen goods away from their point of origin to another site where they can be sold ‘no questions asked’.
2. Transport of cannabis. This being flown into the local private airport by a small plane and then sent onto to further destinations by road.
Both of these streams of income are very tempting to others.
And then there is some very dodgy financial dealings going on through the local bank - note that centralised banking conglomerates as per the UK and Europe were certainly less common at the time this book was set, and there were a lot of very small and very local banks.
The main ethos of all the people living in the town was that of the 3 monkeys:
I don’t see; I don’t hear; I don’t say.
Unfortunately one policeman decided to see, and hear, and then say.
Peter Bragg was a PI involved in some death threats to an ex-member of this small town and went to discover why this was happening and then became embroiled in the seeing and hearing.
But did he see and hear the truth?
And just how much of this truth did he hear?
And with whose agenda?
This is the first book in the series and other than the issues with phones stands up well to modern situations.
November 4, 2015
Having read three of the eight or nine in this series, though definitely not in any kind of order, I found this one going back to the beginning, and let’s just say it’s a good thing I didn’t read this one first, because I might not have continued with the series otherwise.
Not that it was terrible, in fact it contained a lot of the elements I enjoyed in the later books. The problem is that the main setting, a small town called Sand Valley, which has a casino and a truck stop that’s anything but, falls quickly into anarchy, with gangs roaming the streets and the cops helpless. It just felt preposterous, especially that the police chief doesn’t even bother to call for reinforcements until the protagonist suggests it. At times the citizens are too scared to come out of their homes, yet at others they wander around without a care. It’s the first time in four books by this author that I’m not buying it; on the other hand, this was the first, and I’ve already read the second, so things do get better.
At the end the person who turned out to be the murderer. . . seemed a little too perfect for the plot; it just didn’t feel right. Thankfully this author improved. . .
2.5 pushed up to 3/5
Not that it was terrible, in fact it contained a lot of the elements I enjoyed in the later books. The problem is that the main setting, a small town called Sand Valley, which has a casino and a truck stop that’s anything but, falls quickly into anarchy, with gangs roaming the streets and the cops helpless. It just felt preposterous, especially that the police chief doesn’t even bother to call for reinforcements until the protagonist suggests it. At times the citizens are too scared to come out of their homes, yet at others they wander around without a care. It’s the first time in four books by this author that I’m not buying it; on the other hand, this was the first, and I’ve already read the second, so things do get better.
At the end the person who turned out to be the murderer. . . seemed a little too perfect for the plot; it just didn’t feel right. Thankfully this author improved. . .
2.5 pushed up to 3/5
October 10, 2013
Ex-reporter turned P.I. Peter Bragg has a new client, former hood Armondo Barker. Death threats have been coming in against him, his bodyguard, and his step daughter. Just a few days before someone had taken a half dozen shots at him. It didn't seem a serious attempt because he'd been so exposed. But Barker wanted the threats ended.
He believed it had to do with someone here in San Francisco and not the town of Sand Valley where he'd retired from the criminal game. He had a successful restaurant and did have his hands in a few strip clubs and massage parlors though.
But when the bodyguard is murdered, an ice pick shoved into his brain and then pushed over a railing on the eleventh floor balcony, and the words Sand Valley were on the ice pick handle sends Bragg to the small town.
And right in the middle of a war between two forces wanting control of the town.
Bragg believed it all tied in of course, but he needed to stay alive long enough to find out exactly what was going on.
Liked this one.
He believed it had to do with someone here in San Francisco and not the town of Sand Valley where he'd retired from the criminal game. He had a successful restaurant and did have his hands in a few strip clubs and massage parlors though.
But when the bodyguard is murdered, an ice pick shoved into his brain and then pushed over a railing on the eleventh floor balcony, and the words Sand Valley were on the ice pick handle sends Bragg to the small town.
And right in the middle of a war between two forces wanting control of the town.
Bragg believed it all tied in of course, but he needed to stay alive long enough to find out exactly what was going on.
Liked this one.
February 11, 2015
I read this book from Netgalley. It is a reissue of a book originally published in 1981.
Peter Bragg is an ex-newsman, ex-police who is presently working as at Private Detective. He is hired by Armando Barker to find out who is sending threatening cards and shooting at him. Bragg witnesses the death of Barker's hired muscle at a local hotel after being stabbed with an ice pick and thrown from the 18th floor of the hotel. The icepick has the name of a small town outside of LasVegas on it and Bragg finds out that Barker used to live there. He wants to go and see if there is a tie in to what is happening in SanFrancisco. Barker does not think there is any reason to go but Bragg wins out and off he goes. In the style of a hard boiled PI, Bragg solves the mystery and gets the girl. I am looking forward to the other 6 in the series.
Peter Bragg is an ex-newsman, ex-police who is presently working as at Private Detective. He is hired by Armando Barker to find out who is sending threatening cards and shooting at him. Bragg witnesses the death of Barker's hired muscle at a local hotel after being stabbed with an ice pick and thrown from the 18th floor of the hotel. The icepick has the name of a small town outside of LasVegas on it and Bragg finds out that Barker used to live there. He wants to go and see if there is a tie in to what is happening in SanFrancisco. Barker does not think there is any reason to go but Bragg wins out and off he goes. In the style of a hard boiled PI, Bragg solves the mystery and gets the girl. I am looking forward to the other 6 in the series.
January 5, 2016
3.5 stars. Peter Bragg is a former reporter turned private investigator who works out of a few old-timey rooms in an old-timey building in San Francisco. He's really an old-timey kind of guy who has a special soft spot for children. His newest client has an 11 year old stepdaughter who he wants to keep safe. The client has been receiving sympathy cards with implied threats. His colorful bodyguard falls from an eleven story balcony with an ice pick in his neck that reads Sand Valley. So Bragg heads out to Sand Valley to investigate the threat. A war breaks out between the patrons of a casino and a truck stop and Bragg has to knock a few heads to figure out where the real threat is coming from.
The action starts to pick up after the first quarter of the book and the author leads us down a twisty path that Bragg figures out in the end.
The action starts to pick up after the first quarter of the book and the author leads us down a twisty path that Bragg figures out in the end.
February 6, 2016
Private eye Peter Bragg is hired to protect a young girl; her step-father has received threats on his life and hers, and he has no clue why. Well, he was a hood in a small town near the Nevada border where they look away from the booze, prostitutes and gambling - but that can't have anything to do with it. When his body guard is killed, he is more confused and worried for the little girl. So Peter goes to the small town and finds warring factions - and a good cop fired for being dirty who commits suicide - and marijuana trafficking - and something bigger that is causing the all hell to break loose. A bit more unraveling of what everyone tells him has nothing to do with the little girl leads Peter to find the culprit and save the girl.
November 16, 2014
I happened to find this book while searching for new authors. I have to say this was a great find. The plot was done in an original way and the characters were also well written. Peter Bragg is a great character and the supporting cast is interesting too. The plot had just enough twists and turns to keep me hooked until the end. I just found out this was a series and I have to say I'm excited to read the next book.
If you are looking for a well written who-done-it, look no further. This is the book for you.
Netgalley supplied me with a copy for review which did not effect my review one way or the other.
If you are looking for a well written who-done-it, look no further. This is the book for you.
Netgalley supplied me with a copy for review which did not effect my review one way or the other.
January 17, 2016
Bragg, a hard-boiled private detective, is hired by Armando Barker, a former mobster, to see who's threatening him. Bragg ends up tracing Barker's past to Sand Valley, a gambling town with plenty of unsavory characters. The whole book had a bit of a noir feel. I liked Bragg's character - tough and not easily intimidated but persistent and seemed to care about the people involved in his case. The story seemed to derail a bit about 2/3 of the way through with some crazy gunfighting in town that seemed a little irrelevant, so I skimmed a lot of that. From the other reviews, it sounds like the series gets better so i will probably try some more.
April 27, 2015
Written in the style of bygone days so no cell phones here. Plain old gumshoe work amidst the chaos of corruption in a style somewhere between old west shoot ups and mob style tactics. Following the twists and turns of a plot contrived by misguided revenge seekers and yet with the nostalgia of simpler times, such as seeking a payphone. While some of the lines seem somewhat elementary in their simplicity it is never the less an entertaining and engaging story. Liken it to watching a favorite old movie without quite knowing what happens next and it becomes time well spent amongst the pages of a good story.
December 14, 2015
Review of The Dead Never Forget
This was a rather unusual situation for a PI. Extreme violence wasn't really necessary, but did not detract from the story. Did not feel I got to know Bragg as well as I should to encourage reading more stories about him. Which, if any, of the women was he truly interested in pursuing? What other things was he partial to that defined him as a person? Good read otherwise.
This was a rather unusual situation for a PI. Extreme violence wasn't really necessary, but did not detract from the story. Did not feel I got to know Bragg as well as I should to encourage reading more stories about him. Which, if any, of the women was he truly interested in pursuing? What other things was he partial to that defined him as a person? Good read otherwise.
December 28, 2015
Action packed
The Dead Never Forget is an easy read. There were times I wasn't sure how certain events flowed together but in the end it all worked out. The characters were not over the top but they were very unique to the story.
The Dead Never Forget is an easy read. There were times I wasn't sure how certain events flowed together but in the end it all worked out. The characters were not over the top but they were very unique to the story.
July 27, 2016
I felt like I was watching a Dirty Harry movie, this brought back life in the 70's. It was a fun read, though the events in the desert town were so far from, well, reality, it was a bit eyerolling. And of course, EVERY woman wanted in Bragg's pants. Yeah, right.
November 14, 2015
Excellent Reading!
A very enjoyable story having all the points of a wonderful mystery. A well written masterpiece in its own rite.
A very enjoyable story having all the points of a wonderful mystery. A well written masterpiece in its own rite.
November 17, 2015
Fast Paced thriller
This was a fast paced thriller with several twists and turns. It keeps the readers interest piqued. A real page turner.
This was a fast paced thriller with several twists and turns. It keeps the readers interest piqued. A real page turner.
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