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/ABEL, KENNETH Once Walsh was a good cop. Then he became a drunk--and plowed his car into the son of a Boston Mafia don, Jimmy D'Angelo. Marked to die, Walsh agrees to wear a wire and help the feds take D'Angelo down. But to get close to the mobster, Walsh will first have to cross a sea of corruption, lies and murder.
271 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1994
4 people are currently reading
68 people want to read
About the author
Kenneth Abel
14 books20 followersPseudonym of Sergei Lobanov-Rostovsky.
Sergei Lobanov-Rostovsky has taught at Kenyon since 1993. He teaches courses on Shakespeare, Renaissance poetry, film, and fiction writing. His research centers on the politics of spectacle in early modern drama, and he has also published a series of crime novels under the pseudonym Kenneth Abel. In 2001, he received the Junior Trustee Award for Teaching Excellence.
He lives in Columbus, Ohio.
Series:
* Danny Chaisson
Sergei Lobanov-Rostovsky has taught at Kenyon since 1993. He teaches courses on Shakespeare, Renaissance poetry, film, and fiction writing. His research centers on the politics of spectacle in early modern drama, and he has also published a series of crime novels under the pseudonym Kenneth Abel. In 2001, he received the Junior Trustee Award for Teaching Excellence.
He lives in Columbus, Ohio.
Series:
* Danny Chaisson
Ratings & Reviews
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Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews
July 23, 2016
Great find!
This author is new to me but dang! he can write! Scenes are vivid and all the characters are well rounded. Plot moves quickly and the way the author weaves the story strands together, the reader/listener gradually sees a larger and more complex story.
Frank Muller's narration is, of course, perfect.
At the end, I felt like a kid at a magic show gleefully yelling “Do it again! Do it again!”
This author is new to me but dang! he can write! Scenes are vivid and all the characters are well rounded. Plot moves quickly and the way the author weaves the story strands together, the reader/listener gradually sees a larger and more complex story.
Frank Muller's narration is, of course, perfect.
At the end, I felt like a kid at a magic show gleefully yelling “Do it again! Do it again!”
January 14, 2016
I started this book after reading an excerpt in Boston Noir 2 and grabbed it from our local library.
I enjoyed the story, the characters were well-ish drawn in a familiar hard-boiled kind of style so that you felt you knew these characters from a Donald Westlake, an Elmore Leonard, an Adrian McKinty novel.
Not bad at all.
I enjoyed the story, the characters were well-ish drawn in a familiar hard-boiled kind of style so that you felt you knew these characters from a Donald Westlake, an Elmore Leonard, an Adrian McKinty novel.
Not bad at all.
May 28, 2017
Maybe the best thriller I have ever read, and I've read a lot. Authentic and taut; great dialog, believable characters, good setting. I like a story with a lot of forward motion, and reading this was like waterskiing.
April 3, 2021
I ripped through this novel in less than 24 hours. It feels prescient and modern though written in 1994, and it predates The Departed and other stories of its ilk by over a decade. I think the heart of the appeal is the crisp writing, the crackling dialogue, and the richness of the scenes. Smart, weathered, tired, flawed people all around, Abel has crafted a memorable story; I simply cannot accept why this tome has not been turned into a movie or miniseries. Very awesome.
August 7, 2020
I found it a bit of a muddle but did finish it as I enjoyed parts of it.
Want to read
October 5, 2021I like it
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 10, 2024
Two hours is enough time for me to figure out I can stand the writing style, or the confusing story. Pass.
Want to read
December 20, 2018Synopsis: a Boston cop kills a Mafia don's son by accident; he's now a target.
March 28, 2013
This was one of the books I purchased at Hay-on-Wye during my trip to England. The title and front cover are clearly noirish in the style of Bladerunner and the back cover blurb was spare and compelling.
“The day narcotics cop Jack Walsh killed Mafia boss Johnny D’Angelo’s son in a drunk-driving accident he knew his life was over…as the hit team begins to circle Walsh’s …hideaway, the FBI watch and wait. For them D’Angelo is the catch they’ve never quite managed to land. And Jack Walsh is suddenly the perfect bait.”
We begin the book with ex-cop Jack Walsh having recently been released from jail for vehicular manslaughter. Jack is clearly a damaged man, both physically – he walks with a limp – and emotionally. Five years ago, he was drunk and driving, with his lover as passenger, when he killed the only son of a mob boss.
This sets up the potential for a taut, fast-moving thriller. And the book delivers. Told in the first-person, from Jack’s point of view, you feel the tension he feels and see only his side of events. Jack as an anti-hero is very well drawn. You start by having no sympathy for his crime and, perhaps, even think he got off light with a jail term of only five years. As the book reveals more and more of the story five years ago, you are forced to revise your understanding of what happened and the role the various characters played in the outcome.
The first-person narrative is an excellent writing choice; you can’t know for sure what each character’s motivations are, if they are telling the truth (or part of it), and whether or not they will do or not do what they’ve promised. The main characters are sketched with enough depth that you can see them as people rather than characters.
The book is so well-written that it swept me along past the half-way point. It was past midnight but I had to stay up and finish. The flawed characters and the powerful ending stayed with me for some time.
The text relies heavily on dialogue. Combined with the tight, spare writing style, that occasionally caused me some problems trying to figure out who was talking. This was the only real flaw in the book.
I will be looking for other books by this author.
“The day narcotics cop Jack Walsh killed Mafia boss Johnny D’Angelo’s son in a drunk-driving accident he knew his life was over…as the hit team begins to circle Walsh’s …hideaway, the FBI watch and wait. For them D’Angelo is the catch they’ve never quite managed to land. And Jack Walsh is suddenly the perfect bait.”
We begin the book with ex-cop Jack Walsh having recently been released from jail for vehicular manslaughter. Jack is clearly a damaged man, both physically – he walks with a limp – and emotionally. Five years ago, he was drunk and driving, with his lover as passenger, when he killed the only son of a mob boss.
This sets up the potential for a taut, fast-moving thriller. And the book delivers. Told in the first-person, from Jack’s point of view, you feel the tension he feels and see only his side of events. Jack as an anti-hero is very well drawn. You start by having no sympathy for his crime and, perhaps, even think he got off light with a jail term of only five years. As the book reveals more and more of the story five years ago, you are forced to revise your understanding of what happened and the role the various characters played in the outcome.
The first-person narrative is an excellent writing choice; you can’t know for sure what each character’s motivations are, if they are telling the truth (or part of it), and whether or not they will do or not do what they’ve promised. The main characters are sketched with enough depth that you can see them as people rather than characters.
The book is so well-written that it swept me along past the half-way point. It was past midnight but I had to stay up and finish. The flawed characters and the powerful ending stayed with me for some time.
The text relies heavily on dialogue. Combined with the tight, spare writing style, that occasionally caused me some problems trying to figure out who was talking. This was the only real flaw in the book.
I will be looking for other books by this author.
May 24, 2022
I was sucked into "Bait" by the title and cover on the new fiction shelf at the library. It was author Kenneth Abel's debut, and the story grabbed me from the first chapter. I not only went on to buy this title, but chased down the author's three subsequent works as well.
Police detective Jack Walsh has been hitting the sauce pretty hard, is out driving off-duty and intoxicated. He wrecks his car, messing himself up pretty badly, and killing the driver of another vehicle (or motorcycle, maybe?). As if that wasn't bad enough, the deceased just happens to be the son of the local (Boston) mafia boss.
As I said, I found the premise compelling. It struck me as a very original jumping-off point, and I couldn't wait to see how the primary character might be be redeemed, or even if he could be redeemed at all.
Police detective Jack Walsh has been hitting the sauce pretty hard, is out driving off-duty and intoxicated. He wrecks his car, messing himself up pretty badly, and killing the driver of another vehicle (or motorcycle, maybe?). As if that wasn't bad enough, the deceased just happens to be the son of the local (Boston) mafia boss.
As I said, I found the premise compelling. It struck me as a very original jumping-off point, and I couldn't wait to see how the primary character might be be redeemed, or even if he could be redeemed at all.
March 20, 2010
PROTAGONIST: Jack Walsh, former cop
RATING: 3.0
WHY: When he was drunk, cop Jack Walsh hit another car and killed the son of a local mobster. He went to prison, and now he's out but always looking over his shoulder for the retribution he knows is coming. OK but not really very compelling.
RATING: 3.0
WHY: When he was drunk, cop Jack Walsh hit another car and killed the son of a local mobster. He went to prison, and now he's out but always looking over his shoulder for the retribution he knows is coming. OK but not really very compelling.
June 1, 2009
excellent
August 3, 2009
read it a few weeks ago, and it really made no impression..not even sure if I finished it. It was truly uncompelling.
July 11, 2010
The Blue Wall. Both of these are cop books. Very good cop books. If you're a Joseph Wambaugh fan, you'll love these books.
Read
December 1, 2012so-so
May 20, 2014
It was enjoyable reading this. It was an easy read.
December 17, 2016
this was the absolutely worst book I've ever read. i had to force myself to read it. i gave it an f-
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews