The Concrete Maze

by Steven Torres

When his teenage daughter Jasmine is kidnapped by a Bronx crime boss, Luis Ramos will do anything it takes to get her back. By the author of Precinct Puerto Rico and Death in Precinct Puerto Rico. Original.

Genres: Mystery, Noir, Fiction, New York

286 pages, Paperback

First published July 31, 2007

About the author

Steven Torres was born in the Bronx, spent part of his childhood in Puerto Rico and has authored six previously published novels. He teaches English in Connecticut where he lives with wife and daughter.

Reviews

[Paulo "paper books only" · Rating 2 out of 5]

The concrete maze is not horror - no matter what people try to say it is - it is not. It's a mystery thriller/noir. Is there horror elements? Unless you consider rape, abduction, killing, beating, drugs horror then ... there you go.
If you consider this kind of stuff horror - then most movies are horror no? Of course rape is a horrific experience BUT it's if you watch a movie where someone kills another due to vengeance would you consider horror or action? maybe action, the same applies with everything else I mentioned before.

Well, I was not supposed to read this book - at all. It was on my list "to last" so I had 1000 books before. Since I buy more each time this one would probably never be read. But, alas, the perfect storm happened and I was at my mother's house where this book was and I was shelfing books. I grab this one, like many others, and read one page or so. Something happen and I read everything in two sittings. It's a small fast pace book about vengeance - and justice (?).

Well, basically our main character a puerto rico guy is living in New York and his niece of 14 is kidnapped. His uncle tells him and they try to get to her. From place to place we follow our two puerto rico guys as they try to find what happened to her. At moments we get some glimpses of how new work is inhospitable and how dangerous. Seldom someone talks about new work in a good eye. Why would people wanna live there?

Well after a while they find that she was killed - rather gruesome business (never graphic) and thus begin the investigation and revenge.

This book was written in 2006 and already we saw some "white man = bad man" / "police = Corrupt/Bad" and that rather upset me BUT, since it was in 2006 I can "forget" it.

Is it good? Nope. It's a normal story. Small..

[Stacy Alesi]

This is dark, terrific story about a Puerto Rican family in crisis in New York City. Often called the "concrete jungle," the maze is more than just the concrete streets of NY, but rather the circuitous route that needs to be followed when a 13 year old girl goes missing. Her father and cousin drop everything and will do anything to find her and get her back unharmed, while the police aren't too concerned about another teenage runaway. Their search takes them into the world of runaways, drug addicts, sexual slavery, dirty cops and murder, making this a riveting ride through a complex, haunting tale.

[Joyce · Rating 3 out of 5]

A young girl disappears from a roller rink in New York. Her father and cousin to search for her. Their investigation leads to pimps, drug dealers and assorted other evil doers. Their vigilante tactics are somewhat understandable but disconcerting (wouldn't we all like to think we are more civilized than that?). i had problems with the almost unlimited amounts of money the father was able to use for buying information and also with his ability to "handle" extremely difficult situations. The ending was not completely as expected, but in hindsight, fit perfectly.

[Eva · Rating 4 out of 5]

I actually picked this up because I want to read Torres' Precinct Puerto Rico series and number one was checked out at the library.

This book is about a father's desperate search for his missing 13-year-old daughter, Jasmine. He takes his nephew, our narrator, Marc, with him on this search. Along the way, we run into dangerous drug dealers, spoiled rich junkies and an underground sex ring. It is a dark, but quickly moving story. I finished it in two days because I had to know who killed Jasmine. I recommend to mystery fans all over.

[Melanie Melancon · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Concrete Maze

Three stars instead of more because the story wasn't very believable. In a city as big as New York, this crime couldn't have been solved in the way this one was solved. That said, it would be an entertaining read for a weekend at the beach because the story is easy to follow. You can empathize with the characters, who are dealing with a horrible personal tragedy in the only way they know how. Enjoy.

[Julie Baker · Rating 5 out of 5]

EXCELLENT! I felt like I was on the edge of my seat the whole time I was reading. Very difficult story emotionally but the characters were so tragically beautiful that it made the subject matter slightly more palatable. I loved the simple, straight forward approach Torres took. Very impressed with the book!

[Pam]

03/06/08 rec via bookmooch

[Robert Heil · Rating 2 out of 5]

tedious