Malrooneys

by T.M. Merremont

Would it kill you to keep in touch with your family? Sentiment can be a deadly thing around the seriously twisted Malrooney clan.
The disastrously hip join forces with a clan of Boston criminals in pursuit of a fortune in drug money in the novel Malrooneys. Focusing upon the oddball, double-dealing inhabitants of Basilica Hill T.M. Merremont has created a special world of mystery, myth, and mayhem, in this most pixielated of Boston neighborhoods, “Where language is savored like the kiss of fine whiskey.” Malrooneys cleverly mocks the powerful –without mocking God.
The story, full of tale-telling and blarney, revolves around the blackmail fueled investigation of a former CIA agent's murder. The reluctant investigators are the victim's resentful son and his scheming, Guinness swigging grandfather. The two grow to discover the importance of family bonds despite being at cross purposes with other members of "the only gene pool that would have us"--the dangerously warped Malrooney clan.
Along the way they face off against a Medellín drug lord who thinks he's Ché Guevara, a devil worshipping attorney, police detective partners who would rather bicker than solve a case, a New Age cult led by a charismatic dwarf, and a very persistent cannibal leper Assassin and his posse.

264 pages, Paperback

First published June 27, 2013

About the author

In his diverse careers, T.M. Merremont has been a crime fighting District Attorney, a Nobel Prize winning cartographer, an astronaut piloting the Mars Mission, and the President of England. In gratitude, Mahatma Gandhi named his son after him, and The Vatican is also thinking up something cool.

Reviews

[Anthony O'Connor · Rating 5 out of 5]

Who killed Finn Malrooney - and with considerable prejudice? Where is the missing three million dollars worth of diamonds? The list of suspects, or at least the suspiciously involved grows rapidly: Jive Guru Dave,the mystically oriented dwarf,co-founder and spiritual leader of the Ashanti commune and his devoted follower StarChild, the leper Assassin, most wanted on five continents, aka the Cannibal ( Geez, I only did it that one time ! ), the CIA, the Russian Mafia, the Cali drug cartel. Sodom and Beggorah are a pair of incompetent detectives assigned to the case by unknown higher powers who don't want it solved at all. We can be sure though that it wasn't one of the Malrooneys, an extended clan of criminals and con-men infesting Basilica Hill, a Boston suburb. Well ... reasonably sure! They do seem determined to find the killer for themselves and, oh yes, the diamonds. There is Finn's father Da, the patriarch of the Clan and as crooked and corrupt as they come. Ma, probably a witch - at times 'insanity sparkled like fiery diamonds in her eyes'. The demon obsessed attorney Slow Eddie, Finn's not so bright brother, who dreams of eventually becoming one of Satan's demons though more immediately longs for a trusted position as Da's 'Consilyarray'. Finn's son Michael the slightly stiff but steady former MP suspected of several murders but never convicted. The cousins Andrew and Squash, big burly bruisers only recently released from prison, with a penchant for torture, a deep admiration of Looney Tunes and a variety of novel methods at their disposal - one very persuasive and effective approach involving ferrets in a way which no male could possible resist for even a second. And not to forget the black sheep of the family, Detective Captain Terrence Malrooney, a police officer! Tolerated only after Da in an act of magnanimity declared that the poor sod 'cannot help what the Good Lord made him'.

Beautifully written with finely crafted language you really can savor and a wealth of subtle references and insider jokes. ( The author doesn't seem to like the Kennedy School of Government! The beautiful but neurotic Rachel, Michael's fiance and so not quite family yet, is considering the possibility of 'finding fame and fortune by rehabilitating Nixon as a feminist icon'.) There is a complex flow of scenes and an unfolding of plots within plots building to a sequence of surprising conclusions - one or more of them quite stunning. I found myself drawn into the absurdity and the lush moodiness, mellow at least once ( I think ? ) but mostly manic. I even found myself liking some of the characters - jaded but passionate - though all of them slippery and corrupt and absolutely not to be trusted.

Tm Merremont has produced an excellent novel - definitely worth reading. I hope that there are more to follow.

[Compulsion Reads · Rating 4 out of 5]

When Finn Malrooney is blown to smithereens on a cold Boston morning in the neighborhood of Basilica Hill, one might wear out the soles of their shoes looking for a true mourner. His estranged son, Michael, certainly didn't shed any tears. Yet, Michael teams up with his grandfather, "Da", the dubious patriarch of the rough and tumble Malrooney clan, to unveil the mystery of Finn's death. They have more than enough suspects. Like a typical Malrooney, Finn had his fingers in many corrupt pies, and it's rumored he might have even swindled a large sum from Che Guevara (Yes, that Che Guevara). Michael and Da are not the only ones on the hunt for Finn's secrets or his money, and the closer they get to the truth, the higher the risk. Death, mayhem and lots of heavy drinking make just a typical day in Basilica Hill.

Author T.M. Merremont offers a unique, insightful and absurdist take on a low-level crime family in Malrooneys. He sews the book with deep strikes of canny observations (Rachel was heir apparent to a significant portion of this fortune, but, being twenty-two and the product of a typical America higher education, she had been taught to disdain wealth as an inauthentic seducer of true being. A chimera of the actual self) and propels the plot forward on the backs of a diverse cast of characters, including some who straddle the line of cartoondom. There's the unsuccessful cultist dwarf guru, the lawyer who pretends to embody Satanic demons to get through the day, the leper assassin who applies a management self-help philosophy to his enterprise and two huge lugs who literally wish for a world of Looney Tune violence.

I found Malrooneys to be an amusing adventure. It was different and proud to be different. It unapologetically showcased petty criminals, assassins and corrupt bureaucrats instead of heroes, offered us a dark and seedy corner of Boston to call home and never took itself too seriously.
(This book was provided to Compulsion Reads by the author for review.)