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Willie Black #6
The Devil's Triangle
When a twin-engine Beechcraft crashes into one of Richmond's watering holes and turns happy hour into Hell, theories run rampant. Was it terrorists who, for some reason, decided to vent their spleens on unsuspecting Richmond? Was it a statement by homegrown killers less-than-thrilled that the city still, in the 21st century, chooses to honor Confederate leaders on its most prominent avenue? The obvious answers though, just don't pan out. All the shoot-from-the-hip purveyors of vigilante justice have to stand down when it becomes clear that the pilot of the suicide plane was a disaffected former Richmonder, David Biggio, with no known links to any terrorist organizations foreign or domestic. For Willie Black, the daily newspaper's hard-charging, hard-drinking night cops reporter, the question still Why? To complicate matters, one of the victims of the kamikaze crash was the present husband of Willie's third ex-wife, Kate. Willie's reconnection with her is placing his present relationship with the lovely Cindy Peroni on shaky ground. And, as the newspaper business continues on a death spiral that seems to rival Biggio's last flight, the city's most intrepid reporter wonders just how long a 50-something guy with authority issues can hope to draw a weekly paycheck. New ownership of the paper looms, and Willie comes to realize that sometimes things are darkest just before they get pitch black.Willie's search for the truth eventually leads him to a small town on the Chesapeake where David Biggio spent his last years. There, Willie will eventually learn what drove a deranged man to commit an act of seemingly anonymous mayhem. And, as has often been the case in the past, he will find that the answers he seeks can come at a high price.
254 pages, Kindle Edition
Published June 27, 2017
5 people are currently reading
239 people want to read
About the author
Howard Owen
32 books67 followersHoward Owen was born March 1, 1949, in Fayetteville, N.C. He is a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (1971, journalism) and has a master's degree from Virginia Commonwealth University (1981, English).
He and his wife since 1973, Karen Van Neste Owen (the former publisher of Van Neste Books), live in Richmond, Va. He was a newspaper reporter and editor for 44 years.
Owen won The Dashiell Hammett Prize for crime literature in the United States and Canada for Oregon Hill, his 10th novel.
His first novel, "Littlejohn," was written in 1989, when he was 40. It was bought by The Permanent Press and published in 1992. Random House bought it from The Permanent Press and reissued it as a Villard hardcover in 1993 and a Vintage Contemporary paperback in 1994. It was nominated for the Abbey Award (American Booksellers) and Discovery (Barnes & Noble) award for best new fiction. It has sold, in all, more than 50,000 copies. It has been printed in Japanese, French and Korean; it has been a Doubleday Book Club selection; audio and large-print editions have been issued, and movie option rights have been sold.
His second novel, "Fat Lightning," came out as a Permanent Press book in 1994. It was bought by HarperCollins and was reissued as a Harper Perennial paperback in 1996. It received a starred review from Publishers' Weekly.
His third novel, "Answers to Lucky," was published by HarperCollins as a hardcover in 1996 and as a paperback in 1997. It received favorable reviews in The New York Times, Southern Living, GW, Publishers' Weekly, the Atlanta Constitution, the Baltimore Sun, the Memphis Commercial Appeal and numerous other publications. It was included in "The Best Novels of the Nineties: A Reader’s Guide."
His fourth novel, "The Measured Man," was published in hardcover by HarperCollins in 1997. It was praised in The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, Publishers' Weekly, Kirkus Reviews, the Raleigh News & Observer, the Orlando Sentinel, the Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel and many other publications. It was one of the LA Times Book Reviews’ "Recommended Titles" for 1997. It was included in "The Best Novels of the Nineties: A Reader’s Guide."
Owen's fifth novel, "Harry and Ruth," was published by The Permanent Press in September of 2000 to critical acclaim from Kirkus, Publisher's Weekly and various weekly publications.
His sixth novel, "The Rail," was published in April of 2002. It is about (among other things) baseball and the parable of the talents. Owen won the 2002 Theresa Pollack Award for Words.
His seventh novel, "Turn Signal," was about a man whose muse drives him either to madness or to the best move he's ever made in his life. It came out in 2004 and was a Booksense selection for July of 2004.
His eighth novel, "Rock of Ages," is something of a sequel to his first novel, "Littlejohn." Georgia McCain returns to her hometown years after her father’s death to sell the family farm and finds herself immersed in baby-boomer guilt and a murder mystery. It was a Booksense pick for July of 2006.
His ninth novel, "The Reckoning," about ghosts of the ’60s, came out in late 2010 and received very positive reviews from, among others, Publishers Weekly and the New York Journal of Books.
His short story, "The Thirteenth Floor," part of "Richmond Noir," came out in early 2010.
The protagonist of “The Thirteenth Floor,” Willie Black, also is at the center of Owen’s 10th novel, “Oregon Hill,” which came in July of 2012 to very positive reviews in The New York Times, Publishers Weekly, Kirkus and elsewhere. It's also an audio book.
Willie starred in future Owen novels: The Philadelphia Quarry (2013), Parker Field (2014), The Bottom (2015), Grace (2016) and The Devil's Triangle (2017). His 16th novel, Annie's Bones, comes out in April of 2018.
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
September 11, 2017
I won this book in a goodreads drawing.
When a small airplane crashes into a crowded nightclub in Richmond, Virginia, reporter Willie Black has to get to the bottom of things.
Not too bad. Lot of whining about the plight of the newspapers, as if the newspapers were without fault. Ole Willie gets his hours cut by the mean business managers.
Not bad, but not something I'd reread time and again.
When a small airplane crashes into a crowded nightclub in Richmond, Virginia, reporter Willie Black has to get to the bottom of things.
Not too bad. Lot of whining about the plight of the newspapers, as if the newspapers were without fault. Ole Willie gets his hours cut by the mean business managers.
Not bad, but not something I'd reread time and again.
February 12, 2020
It is April 2016 as The Devil’s Triangle: A Willie Black Mystery begins. A local bar that was a watering hole for Willie Black and many others was destroyed that Friday afternoon when a small plane crashed into it. The loss of life is many and that includes several folks from Kate’s old law firm who were known to frequent the place every Friday afternoon. One of the deceased in the flaming wreckage and rubble is Greg Ellis, who was Katie’s husband.
In the first hours and days of the fiery aftermath, it becomes clear that, despite all the public speculation, it was not domestic or foreign terrorism that rained massive destruction and death on the neighborhood. It was one man by the name of David Biggio who was the pilot and soul person on board the borrowed plane. A man that clearly had his own issues, but had no reason to target the building, the block, or anyone in the place. While several basic questions of the story have already been answered, the main question of why it happened is the angle that reporter Willie Black is chasing in The Devil’s Triangle: A Novel by Howard Owen.
Like any good series worth reading, time passes and characters evolve in this mystery series. As in real life, characters in this series go through ups and downs as events happen. This sixth book in the series continues the changes for Willie Black, his girlfriend, Cindy Peronie, and his ex-wife, Kate, among many others. The recurring theme that has been present since the start regarding the decline in the newspaper industry as well as the public cost of the lost journalism at the local and national level continues in this read.
At the core of each read is always the mystery that Willie Black is trying to solve which is the heart of the current story/case. As in the other books of the series, the mystery here is complicated and not at all easily solved. Doing so raises the risks for Willie Black. One really does not want to be Willie’s Black insurance agent.
The series that began so well with Oregon Hill continues on here, six books later, with The Devil’s Triangle. Another solidly good read by author Howard Owen and highly recommended.
My reading copy came from the Skyline Branch of the Dallas Public Library System.
Kevin R. Tipple ©2020
In the first hours and days of the fiery aftermath, it becomes clear that, despite all the public speculation, it was not domestic or foreign terrorism that rained massive destruction and death on the neighborhood. It was one man by the name of David Biggio who was the pilot and soul person on board the borrowed plane. A man that clearly had his own issues, but had no reason to target the building, the block, or anyone in the place. While several basic questions of the story have already been answered, the main question of why it happened is the angle that reporter Willie Black is chasing in The Devil’s Triangle: A Novel by Howard Owen.
Like any good series worth reading, time passes and characters evolve in this mystery series. As in real life, characters in this series go through ups and downs as events happen. This sixth book in the series continues the changes for Willie Black, his girlfriend, Cindy Peronie, and his ex-wife, Kate, among many others. The recurring theme that has been present since the start regarding the decline in the newspaper industry as well as the public cost of the lost journalism at the local and national level continues in this read.
At the core of each read is always the mystery that Willie Black is trying to solve which is the heart of the current story/case. As in the other books of the series, the mystery here is complicated and not at all easily solved. Doing so raises the risks for Willie Black. One really does not want to be Willie’s Black insurance agent.
The series that began so well with Oregon Hill continues on here, six books later, with The Devil’s Triangle. Another solidly good read by author Howard Owen and highly recommended.
My reading copy came from the Skyline Branch of the Dallas Public Library System.
Kevin R. Tipple ©2020
June 8, 2017
In a world where newspapers and real news give way to the internet and rumors, where jobs are scarce, love is a rare bird, and fear is always easier to welcome than hope, Howard Owen’s hard-drinking, hard-bitten reporter Willie Black returns with another mystery to solve. Why would a terrorist fly a plane into a crowded Richmond bar? Who or what might be the intended target? Or was it simply accidental tragedy that deprived ex-wife number three of her ex-husband-to-be.
Never one to take the easy path, even when hours, pay and promises get cut, Willie Black follows clues and risks his job, his romance and his hope. From war with Twitter to war on terror to war on redundancy, the narration is spot-on, the plot is riveting, and the character is absorbingly human, flawed, and filled with determined hope. Committed to his work, committed to his friends and family, committed to finding out the truth… In a triangle of love or one of hate, “Willie Black is not afraid of commitment,” but what will that commitment do to him?
Howard Owens has created a well-drawn, humanly-flawed and super-humanly-generous character in his Willie Black series. The voice is consistent in all the books. Each tale stands alone, even as time moves on and the world grows older. The stories are steeped in time and place. And the danger, always just around the corner, always delivers its fear and ultimate hope. The Devil’s Triangle is a thoroughly enjoyable, thoroughly contemporary addition to the series and a really good read.
Disclosure: I was given a preview edition by the publisher and I thoroughly enjoyed it!
Never one to take the easy path, even when hours, pay and promises get cut, Willie Black follows clues and risks his job, his romance and his hope. From war with Twitter to war on terror to war on redundancy, the narration is spot-on, the plot is riveting, and the character is absorbingly human, flawed, and filled with determined hope. Committed to his work, committed to his friends and family, committed to finding out the truth… In a triangle of love or one of hate, “Willie Black is not afraid of commitment,” but what will that commitment do to him?
Howard Owens has created a well-drawn, humanly-flawed and super-humanly-generous character in his Willie Black series. The voice is consistent in all the books. Each tale stands alone, even as time moves on and the world grows older. The stories are steeped in time and place. And the danger, always just around the corner, always delivers its fear and ultimate hope. The Devil’s Triangle is a thoroughly enjoyable, thoroughly contemporary addition to the series and a really good read.
Disclosure: I was given a preview edition by the publisher and I thoroughly enjoyed it!
December 4, 2017
Fun to read a book set in my hometown, and certainly entertaining, but I found the writing mediocre and the story less than fulfilling.
July 5, 2017
The eponymous area of Richmond, Virginia had had an unsavory reputation, although not so much in recent years. The opening lines of the book are quite attention-getting: “In the flaming hell that used to be one of my watering holes, last call came about eight hours early. You don’t really expect a twin-engine Beechcraft to crash through the plate-glass window during happy hour.”
The author doesn’t really lose that initial grab of the reader’s attention through the remainder of the book, with tight plotting and wonderful writing, complete with sympathetic main characters, especially the protagonist, one Willie Black, a newspaperman of mixed race in a dying profession, one of many in a “dystopian march to obsolescence marked by layoffs, furloughs, and shortened hours.” We are told that more “staples of twenty-first century print journalism are on the way.” We meet Mal “Wheelie” Wheelwright, the editor, and the “print journalists” of which Willie is one. Willie says they “have to be like sharks. Keep moving or die. Either take a promotion or move to a bigger paper. . . At fifty-six, you want to be the SOB, not the person who works for SOBs. You aren’t likely to fire yourself.” Especially so for those in the “Fatal Fifties - - too young to retire, too old to outwork or underbid the damn millennials and their younger siblings.”
There is initially the suspicion that the “tragic air disaster in Richmond” was the work of foreign terrorists. The reporters on The Triangle go to the scene of the crime, where Willie finds Larry Doby Jones, the chief of police, standing “half a block from the carnage.” Of course, TV reporters were there en masse, as were print journalists from every paper from the Washington Post on down. We soon meet Willie’s family: His mother Peggy, 74, whose significant other is referred to simply as “Awesome Dude;” his daughter Andi, and grandson, William, typically, it would seem, a young boy born out of wedlock, as is Willie himself. Willie is renting a place from his third ex-wife, Kate, and lives there with his current romantic attachment, Cindy..
From the publisher: The obvious answers, though, just don’t pan out. All the shoot-from-the-hip purveyors of vigilante justice have to stand down when it becomes clear that the pilot of the suicide plane was a disaffected former Richmonder, David Biggio, with no known links to any terrorist organizations, foreign or domestic. For Willie Black, the daily newspaper’s hard-charging, hard-drinking night cops reporter, the question still remains: Why?
The story soon seems apparent: “Crazy guy gets crazier when his wife leaves him and takes his only child. He steals a plane and makes some kind of cataclysmic statement a few blocks from where his former family lives.” The number of dead reaches 25. The tale follows Willie’s investigation and its culmination, where every loose end is neatly tied up.
This is the author’s fifteenth novel, and the sixth in the Willie Black series. It is really a page-turner, and I can’t wait for the next in the series. Highly recommended.
The author doesn’t really lose that initial grab of the reader’s attention through the remainder of the book, with tight plotting and wonderful writing, complete with sympathetic main characters, especially the protagonist, one Willie Black, a newspaperman of mixed race in a dying profession, one of many in a “dystopian march to obsolescence marked by layoffs, furloughs, and shortened hours.” We are told that more “staples of twenty-first century print journalism are on the way.” We meet Mal “Wheelie” Wheelwright, the editor, and the “print journalists” of which Willie is one. Willie says they “have to be like sharks. Keep moving or die. Either take a promotion or move to a bigger paper. . . At fifty-six, you want to be the SOB, not the person who works for SOBs. You aren’t likely to fire yourself.” Especially so for those in the “Fatal Fifties - - too young to retire, too old to outwork or underbid the damn millennials and their younger siblings.”
There is initially the suspicion that the “tragic air disaster in Richmond” was the work of foreign terrorists. The reporters on The Triangle go to the scene of the crime, where Willie finds Larry Doby Jones, the chief of police, standing “half a block from the carnage.” Of course, TV reporters were there en masse, as were print journalists from every paper from the Washington Post on down. We soon meet Willie’s family: His mother Peggy, 74, whose significant other is referred to simply as “Awesome Dude;” his daughter Andi, and grandson, William, typically, it would seem, a young boy born out of wedlock, as is Willie himself. Willie is renting a place from his third ex-wife, Kate, and lives there with his current romantic attachment, Cindy..
From the publisher: The obvious answers, though, just don’t pan out. All the shoot-from-the-hip purveyors of vigilante justice have to stand down when it becomes clear that the pilot of the suicide plane was a disaffected former Richmonder, David Biggio, with no known links to any terrorist organizations, foreign or domestic. For Willie Black, the daily newspaper’s hard-charging, hard-drinking night cops reporter, the question still remains: Why?
The story soon seems apparent: “Crazy guy gets crazier when his wife leaves him and takes his only child. He steals a plane and makes some kind of cataclysmic statement a few blocks from where his former family lives.” The number of dead reaches 25. The tale follows Willie’s investigation and its culmination, where every loose end is neatly tied up.
This is the author’s fifteenth novel, and the sixth in the Willie Black series. It is really a page-turner, and I can’t wait for the next in the series. Highly recommended.
February 25, 2020
This is the first Willie Black novel for me. I liked it enough that I am going to read the others. That should be a good enough review, but here goes.
The book starts with an airplane crashing into a building. Yes, the author went there right off the bat. By the end of the book though, Howard Owen neatly folds the act into a plan of revenge that plays three-card monte with the truth, and very well.
One the strengths I saw here is that the primary characters and their descriptions are a pleasure to read, and even his bit players were well fleshed-out. Not many authors can do that without falling into such an excessive description of everything that the story bogs down.
Find it. Buy it. Read it!
The book starts with an airplane crashing into a building. Yes, the author went there right off the bat. By the end of the book though, Howard Owen neatly folds the act into a plan of revenge that plays three-card monte with the truth, and very well.
One the strengths I saw here is that the primary characters and their descriptions are a pleasure to read, and even his bit players were well fleshed-out. Not many authors can do that without falling into such an excessive description of everything that the story bogs down.
Find it. Buy it. Read it!
May 29, 2021
Howard Owen has become one of my go-to authors when I need to pick up a book I know I will enjoy. This is the sixth book in his Willie Black series; Willie is a crime journalist in his 50s working in the dying print newspaper industry who has an assortment of shady associates, ex-wives, bad habits and a knack for getting to the bottom of tricky crime stories usually after taking a few hard knocks. In this book, a small plane crashes into a bar in downtown Richmond and Willie persists in unraveling the circumstances, telling the tale from his usual cynical but humorous point of view. This is a series that should be read in order to get the full picture of Willie’s history and that of all of the great characters that inhabit his world.
August 26, 2017
I found this book very interesting. I probably enjoyed it more since I grew up in the Richmond area. Pierce's is the best BBQ!
September 10, 2017
Enjoyable even when I thought Owen was laying on the Richmond pretty thick, even when I couldn't keep track of characters.
May 11, 2018
Brilliant masterpiece
December 18, 2023
The sixth of 13 (so far) Willie Black murder mystery books all set in Richmond. A very good read.
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July 28, 2017PW
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews