What do you think?
Rate this book
Bosstown #2
A Town Called Malice: A Novel
A bike messenger navigates Boston's gritty underworld of gangsters and blood money in this novel with more twists and turns than Boston's streets, in Adam Abramowitz's A Town Called Malice.
Boston's fastest-talking, baddest bike messenger Zesty Meyers is back in town...Bosstown.
Boston's Big Dig has put a brand new shine on the city, its once insular neighborhoods awash with new money and runaway development. Not everybody is happy with the change. Zesty is struggling to keep his courier business afloat and is falling behind on rent, while his brother, Zero, owner of a moving company stocked with ex-cons has hired an unemployed rabbi who begins to exert a strange influence on the family and delivers most of his sermons with his fists.
When a rock and roll legend suspected of murdering his girlfriend reappears after thirty years on the run, Zesty is once again haunted by his family's dark past and the mounting evidence that his father, Boston's former Poker King now suffering from Alzheimer's, has long been dealing from the bottom of the deck. From shady bars to college campus underground poker leagues, Zesty's speeding toward trouble, desperately trying to map out a future in a town where stop signs are optional, signaling is for the weak and Karma lurks around every corner with payback on its mind.
Boston's fastest-talking, baddest bike messenger Zesty Meyers is back in town...Bosstown.
Boston's Big Dig has put a brand new shine on the city, its once insular neighborhoods awash with new money and runaway development. Not everybody is happy with the change. Zesty is struggling to keep his courier business afloat and is falling behind on rent, while his brother, Zero, owner of a moving company stocked with ex-cons has hired an unemployed rabbi who begins to exert a strange influence on the family and delivers most of his sermons with his fists.
When a rock and roll legend suspected of murdering his girlfriend reappears after thirty years on the run, Zesty is once again haunted by his family's dark past and the mounting evidence that his father, Boston's former Poker King now suffering from Alzheimer's, has long been dealing from the bottom of the deck. From shady bars to college campus underground poker leagues, Zesty's speeding toward trouble, desperately trying to map out a future in a town where stop signs are optional, signaling is for the weak and Karma lurks around every corner with payback on its mind.
320 pages, Hardcover
First published March 19, 2019
4 people are currently reading
91 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews
June 4, 2020
A Town Called Malice by Adam Abramowitz is a 2019 Thomas Dunne Books publication.
I do not recall how this book came to my attention because I added it to my TBR pile a long time ago, but whoever pointed me in this direction is owed my gratitude.
Set in Boston, the story follows Zesty, a bicycle messenger trying to stay afloat, and come to terms with his father’s Alzheimer’s disease, while his brother Zero, owns a moving company packed with dubious employees.
But, Zesty’s life becomes even more complicated when a former rock star, who was the prime suspect in his girlfriend’s disappearance and probable murder, suddenly resurfaces. The situation drags Zesty’s father into the equation and points uncomfortable fingers in his direction. Did his father have something to do with the girl's death?
Meanwhile, Zesty gets caught up in another case in which a college student may have gotten in over his head with the Russian mob. This leads Zesty to forge a relationship with a cop on suspension, and an attractive reporter who could be in the direct line of fire.
Although this story is a little busy at times, and the construction is a bit off kilter, I found this to be a very engrossing mystery. The author did a terrific job of giving the city of Boston a prominent role, while developing a zany cast of characters, featuring Zesty as an unlikely, and unconventional hero.
The pacing is quick and packed with sharp, witty dialogue. The novel examines the fallout of gentrification and class divisions in Boston, while building a gritty, but also stylish crime story. Zesty’s funny sarcasm, coupled with his poignant monologues, which examines his conflicting relationship with his father, makes him an undeniably likeable character.
I thought the various threads all came together nicely in the end. There were a few surprises and twists I didn’t see coming, but what I liked best was the redemptive aspects, which might have been the most rewarding part of solving the mystery.
Apparently, this book is a follow up novel to Boomtown, which I haven’t read. But this book worked just fine as a stand-alone- Although I am definitely interested in finding a copy of the first installment and I do hope we'll have the pleasure of meeting up with Zesty Meyers again someday.
Overall, despite some unevenness, I thought this was an impressive, slightly offbeat, but quite enjoyable crime drama.
4 stars
I do not recall how this book came to my attention because I added it to my TBR pile a long time ago, but whoever pointed me in this direction is owed my gratitude.
Set in Boston, the story follows Zesty, a bicycle messenger trying to stay afloat, and come to terms with his father’s Alzheimer’s disease, while his brother Zero, owns a moving company packed with dubious employees.
But, Zesty’s life becomes even more complicated when a former rock star, who was the prime suspect in his girlfriend’s disappearance and probable murder, suddenly resurfaces. The situation drags Zesty’s father into the equation and points uncomfortable fingers in his direction. Did his father have something to do with the girl's death?
Meanwhile, Zesty gets caught up in another case in which a college student may have gotten in over his head with the Russian mob. This leads Zesty to forge a relationship with a cop on suspension, and an attractive reporter who could be in the direct line of fire.
Although this story is a little busy at times, and the construction is a bit off kilter, I found this to be a very engrossing mystery. The author did a terrific job of giving the city of Boston a prominent role, while developing a zany cast of characters, featuring Zesty as an unlikely, and unconventional hero.
The pacing is quick and packed with sharp, witty dialogue. The novel examines the fallout of gentrification and class divisions in Boston, while building a gritty, but also stylish crime story. Zesty’s funny sarcasm, coupled with his poignant monologues, which examines his conflicting relationship with his father, makes him an undeniably likeable character.
I thought the various threads all came together nicely in the end. There were a few surprises and twists I didn’t see coming, but what I liked best was the redemptive aspects, which might have been the most rewarding part of solving the mystery.
Apparently, this book is a follow up novel to Boomtown, which I haven’t read. But this book worked just fine as a stand-alone- Although I am definitely interested in finding a copy of the first installment and I do hope we'll have the pleasure of meeting up with Zesty Meyers again someday.
Overall, despite some unevenness, I thought this was an impressive, slightly offbeat, but quite enjoyable crime drama.
4 stars
February 17, 2019
Following up on the success of his debut book Bosstown, Abramowitz has given us a terrific sophomore follow-up with A Town Called Malice. There's a mystery or two here, investigations, street gangs, corpses, AWOL rock stars, casino chips, and more, but this isn't really a bang-bang, shoot-em-up kinda thing. Its got lots of chatter and, while much of the chatter seems unrelated to the main story, it all connects up in the end so have some faith that the train is not leaving the tracks. Zesty Myers is not a trench-coated, .45-wielding private eye.
Zesty is a bike messenger, tooling up the roads and byways of Boston and, anyone who thinks they can get through that maze, especially after the Big Dig, without taking a wrong turn is doing some wishful thinking. Zesty's brother Zero runs a moving and storage company. Their mother was a bomb throwing revolutionary bank robber and has been missing for decades. Their dad ran the best poker games in Boston and knew everyone who was to be known, a local fixer if you will. But, these days Dad is a little up there and Alzheimer's has got quite a stranglehold on him.
This book is about Boston from the inside like Campbell's Jimmy Flannery series is an insider's look at Chicago. This book is about the neighborhoods, the changing of the guard, the old rock clubs from the heyday twenty years gone, and the bars that are so authentic that most don't know them. There is homage paid to Will Hunting both in the setup of the working class bros and the uppity yuppies and the ivory towers across the river in Cambridge and in Zesty actually confronting a professor in front of the stunned undergrad lecture hall. That there is your working class genius.
A really enjoyable novel that I thought was far more about the journey than the ultimate destination, although if you follow the story there are some surprises at the finish line.
Many thanks to the publishing house for providing a copy for review.
Zesty is a bike messenger, tooling up the roads and byways of Boston and, anyone who thinks they can get through that maze, especially after the Big Dig, without taking a wrong turn is doing some wishful thinking. Zesty's brother Zero runs a moving and storage company. Their mother was a bomb throwing revolutionary bank robber and has been missing for decades. Their dad ran the best poker games in Boston and knew everyone who was to be known, a local fixer if you will. But, these days Dad is a little up there and Alzheimer's has got quite a stranglehold on him.
This book is about Boston from the inside like Campbell's Jimmy Flannery series is an insider's look at Chicago. This book is about the neighborhoods, the changing of the guard, the old rock clubs from the heyday twenty years gone, and the bars that are so authentic that most don't know them. There is homage paid to Will Hunting both in the setup of the working class bros and the uppity yuppies and the ivory towers across the river in Cambridge and in Zesty actually confronting a professor in front of the stunned undergrad lecture hall. That there is your working class genius.
A really enjoyable novel that I thought was far more about the journey than the ultimate destination, although if you follow the story there are some surprises at the finish line.
Many thanks to the publishing house for providing a copy for review.
January 22, 2022
Second book of a contemporary noir-ish, hipster-ish, mystery, set in Metro-Boston, with musical, gambling, and cyber-crime themes.
Boston’s Waterfront Innovation District
My dead tree version was a moderate 310 pages. It had a 2019 US copyright.
Adam Abramowitz is an American author of detective thrillers. He has published two novels. This was the second book in the author’s Zesty Meyers series. This was the second book I've read by the author. The last book being Bosstown (my review).
Note this book was the second in the author’s Zesty Meyers series. I read the first book, Bosstown . It’s strongly recommended you read the books in order. Without a background on key characters from the first book, you could get seriously lost as this story unwinds.
This book has been on my TBR for a while. I liked the first Zesty Meyers, bike messenger detective book, but gave it a low rating. One reason I liked it, was because I was an honorary Cantabrigian (Massachusetts) at the time setting of that book. I was also familiar with the Boston music scene, of which was featured as a plotline. That book also contained several good ideas, hip and ironic prose, and was well edited. It hewed closely to the tropes of the noir genre. The protagonist (Zesty) was a good character, but the story faltered with most every other character. There were also pacing issues. However, I liked the character and the setting well-enough to give the author another try.
In this story Zesty gets sucked into the murder of an MIT grad student that implicates a friend of his, who is also an MIT PhD candidate. Oddly, that friend never appears in the story.
Prose was good. Dialog and descriptive prose were both well done. The story was a bit dark, but not verging on the gritty. I liked what the author was doing prose-wise. He achieved an atmosphere that I happened to be familiar with. In places, the hip, ironic prose drew smiles—but no laugh-out-louds. The smutty bits were tastefully done, of the fade-to-black type. In this book, the author only had a single POV (Zesty’s). (The previous book had two.)
While the book was technically well written. I did find technical errors. The author’s police procedure was television style. In the real world, the Zesty character would never receive the information he did from the police or the FBI. The author also had a couple of problems with his streets. Boston geography was part of the story’s Edutainment. Geo-locating every scene was an artifice of Zesty being a bike messenger and knowing metro-Boston geography like the back of his hand. Some of the action took place Boston’s Back Bay. The author put a rendezvous at the Loews Hotel on the corner of Clarendon & Stuart. At one point I dated a woman who rented in Back Bay. I knew her geography like the back of my hand. The Loews is on the corner of Berkeley & Stuart, one block further from Mass Ave. (I’ve been there.) There was another address error in Cambridge too.
The story contains sex, drugs and lots of rock ‘n roll. There was: heteronormative sex, discussion of gay sex, both hard and soft-core drug usage, and moderate alcohol consumption for the hard-drinking noir genre. Zesty tokes a lot, but doesn’t seem to notice the quality of his weed. As in the previous book, the The Bosstown Sound was featured. Violence was physical, and firearms related. It was moderately graphic. Zesty like all proper protagonists, had the constitution of an ox. Bicyclists in Boston always come out second in a round with cars and trucks. Helmetless Zesty left me thinking he was invulnerable despite several bike crashes and beatings by thugs. Body count was modest.
Zesty Meyers (what a cool name?), was a mainstream drop-out, that was making ends meet as a bike messenger. Urban biking, a blood sport in Boston, was played for maximum edutainment value. He also was a font of (then) contemporary music references. Like Philip Marlowe he was also smart taking. Zesty was also connected in Boston, through his father who was an ex-Boston fixer, music entrepreneur and gambler from the 60’s-70’s. Zesty's father knew where all the bodies were buried in the Metro-Boston city halls and demimonde. Zesty inherited some of his father’s karma and connections. He learned how to be a fixer at his father’s knee.
In support of Zesty were slew of noir-esque, Boston-flavored characters: reporters, PIs, musicians, PhDs, bent and straight cops, Feds, gangsters and jefes, hangers-on (male and female), bartenders, bar flys, ex-cons and extortionists. Some of them were antagonists, and some were supporting characters. It was with the characters where the story failed me. There were at least two (?) antagonists, but they took the greatest portion of the book to come to the front. One of them disappeared without notice. By then, they were non-antagonists? This gave the story a Quest like atmosphere, but with seemingly no bad guys. There was also a very heavy dependence on characters from the first book. To the point where they just appeared in the narrative in full form without background.
For example, The Cavalry arrives late in the book to tie-off the main plot-line. Actually, it arrives twice. The first time, they make this unlikely appearance late in the story, with only a few passing previous references in the prose. (This was a character from the previous book.) I know this was the intended trope. However, this usage was so badly done, that it was really the Deus ex Machina. The second time they arrive, its a different character, but its more conventional, and better implemented.
Plot was a noir chestnut, two major seemingly unrelated sub-plots that spiral into each other to meet at the end. Only they don’t. In this case, it’s who murdered the MIT geek on the Mass Ave bridge, and Zesty’s father’s past comes back to haunt Zesty. The first sub-plot was of the find-the-money trope. There was an interesting twist there, in which the criminal activity changed. The second was a long-term plot line involving Zesty and his unresolved issues with his father, his father's life as a shady, band manager, and Zesty’s future as a series character. Silly me, I expected the two sub-plots to converge?
Pacing was an issue too. I started getting nervous with 50-pages to go. There was a lot happening, and I was having a good time going for the ride, but the author was running out of road. He needed at least 100-pages to wrap-up the book in a consistent way, and he had half that. Hence The Cavalry endings, and a couple of quick uses of the The Summations tropes to wrap it up, while paving the way for another book. To be fair, this was pretty good fast work. However, the ending(s) were not at all with the same narrative pace as the previous 95-percent of the book.
World building was a high point for me. Reading this book was a bit of a walk down Memory Lane. The author was raised in metro-Boston. I’m familiar with Boston/Cambridge, and knew some of the scene locations. I lived on a street in Cambridge mentioned in the book. I enjoyed the Boston punk-era and 70’s music references. I hazily remember myself going to Chet's, The Channel and the Rat venues mentioned in the book. Also, a buddy of mine was peripherally involved in the IRL MIT gambling scandal mentioned in the book. The reviled gentrification that was a theme in the book has since progressed quite a bit from the book’s setting. However, the background scenery of the book was either realistic or very credible, give or take a few address errors. Yet, if you're going to by very detailed about location, it would have helped to have gotten all the locations correct?
As an aside, as was their custom, Led Zeppelin performed approximately two-and-a-half hour shows on the first leg of their 1975 tour. There was no opening act. Abramowitz used literary license in creating the fictional Boston-based band Mass managed by Zesty's father, with its lead singer Klaussen opening for Zep.
The book was a second novel. It had merit, but it wasn't any better than the first. It had the same faults as the first book, characters and pacing. It actually crutched too heavily on the first book to be a better effort.
The story continued with many of the good ideas from the first book. The prose was hip, ironic and well edited. It hewed closely to the tropes of the noir genre. Its protagonist was a solid character. However, the book failed in its other character implementations. In particular, the author failed to create proper antagonists. In addition, while the journey was pleasant enough, he squandered too many pages on clever dialog, atmosphere and red herrings. This left the reader with a Slam, Bam, Thank You ending. I liked this book mostly, but thought the minor characters and pacing through the divergent sub-plots were seriously mishandled. It could have been a lot better than the first book, if it had been longer.
Boston’s Waterfront Innovation District
My dead tree version was a moderate 310 pages. It had a 2019 US copyright.
Adam Abramowitz is an American author of detective thrillers. He has published two novels. This was the second book in the author’s Zesty Meyers series. This was the second book I've read by the author. The last book being Bosstown (my review).
Note this book was the second in the author’s Zesty Meyers series. I read the first book, Bosstown . It’s strongly recommended you read the books in order. Without a background on key characters from the first book, you could get seriously lost as this story unwinds.
This book has been on my TBR for a while. I liked the first Zesty Meyers, bike messenger detective book, but gave it a low rating. One reason I liked it, was because I was an honorary Cantabrigian (Massachusetts) at the time setting of that book. I was also familiar with the Boston music scene, of which was featured as a plotline. That book also contained several good ideas, hip and ironic prose, and was well edited. It hewed closely to the tropes of the noir genre. The protagonist (Zesty) was a good character, but the story faltered with most every other character. There were also pacing issues. However, I liked the character and the setting well-enough to give the author another try.
In this story Zesty gets sucked into the murder of an MIT grad student that implicates a friend of his, who is also an MIT PhD candidate. Oddly, that friend never appears in the story.
Prose was good. Dialog and descriptive prose were both well done. The story was a bit dark, but not verging on the gritty. I liked what the author was doing prose-wise. He achieved an atmosphere that I happened to be familiar with. In places, the hip, ironic prose drew smiles—but no laugh-out-louds. The smutty bits were tastefully done, of the fade-to-black type. In this book, the author only had a single POV (Zesty’s). (The previous book had two.)
While the book was technically well written. I did find technical errors. The author’s police procedure was television style. In the real world, the Zesty character would never receive the information he did from the police or the FBI. The author also had a couple of problems with his streets. Boston geography was part of the story’s Edutainment. Geo-locating every scene was an artifice of Zesty being a bike messenger and knowing metro-Boston geography like the back of his hand. Some of the action took place Boston’s Back Bay. The author put a rendezvous at the Loews Hotel on the corner of Clarendon & Stuart. At one point I dated a woman who rented in Back Bay. I knew her geography like the back of my hand. The Loews is on the corner of Berkeley & Stuart, one block further from Mass Ave. (I’ve been there.) There was another address error in Cambridge too.
The story contains sex, drugs and lots of rock ‘n roll. There was: heteronormative sex, discussion of gay sex, both hard and soft-core drug usage, and moderate alcohol consumption for the hard-drinking noir genre. Zesty tokes a lot, but doesn’t seem to notice the quality of his weed. As in the previous book, the The Bosstown Sound was featured. Violence was physical, and firearms related. It was moderately graphic. Zesty like all proper protagonists, had the constitution of an ox. Bicyclists in Boston always come out second in a round with cars and trucks. Helmetless Zesty left me thinking he was invulnerable despite several bike crashes and beatings by thugs. Body count was modest.
Zesty Meyers (what a cool name?), was a mainstream drop-out, that was making ends meet as a bike messenger. Urban biking, a blood sport in Boston, was played for maximum edutainment value. He also was a font of (then) contemporary music references. Like Philip Marlowe he was also smart taking. Zesty was also connected in Boston, through his father who was an ex-Boston fixer, music entrepreneur and gambler from the 60’s-70’s. Zesty's father knew where all the bodies were buried in the Metro-Boston city halls and demimonde. Zesty inherited some of his father’s karma and connections. He learned how to be a fixer at his father’s knee.
In support of Zesty were slew of noir-esque, Boston-flavored characters: reporters, PIs, musicians, PhDs, bent and straight cops, Feds, gangsters and jefes, hangers-on (male and female), bartenders, bar flys, ex-cons and extortionists. Some of them were antagonists, and some were supporting characters. It was with the characters where the story failed me. There were at least two (?) antagonists, but they took the greatest portion of the book to come to the front. One of them disappeared without notice. By then, they were non-antagonists? This gave the story a Quest like atmosphere, but with seemingly no bad guys. There was also a very heavy dependence on characters from the first book. To the point where they just appeared in the narrative in full form without background.
For example, The Cavalry arrives late in the book to tie-off the main plot-line. Actually, it arrives twice. The first time, they make this unlikely appearance late in the story, with only a few passing previous references in the prose. (This was a character from the previous book.) I know this was the intended trope. However, this usage was so badly done, that it was really the Deus ex Machina. The second time they arrive, its a different character, but its more conventional, and better implemented.
Plot was a noir chestnut, two major seemingly unrelated sub-plots that spiral into each other to meet at the end. Only they don’t. In this case, it’s who murdered the MIT geek on the Mass Ave bridge, and Zesty’s father’s past comes back to haunt Zesty. The first sub-plot was of the find-the-money trope. There was an interesting twist there, in which the criminal activity changed. The second was a long-term plot line involving Zesty and his unresolved issues with his father, his father's life as a shady, band manager, and Zesty’s future as a series character. Silly me, I expected the two sub-plots to converge?
Pacing was an issue too. I started getting nervous with 50-pages to go. There was a lot happening, and I was having a good time going for the ride, but the author was running out of road. He needed at least 100-pages to wrap-up the book in a consistent way, and he had half that. Hence The Cavalry endings, and a couple of quick uses of the The Summations tropes to wrap it up, while paving the way for another book. To be fair, this was pretty good fast work. However, the ending(s) were not at all with the same narrative pace as the previous 95-percent of the book.
World building was a high point for me. Reading this book was a bit of a walk down Memory Lane. The author was raised in metro-Boston. I’m familiar with Boston/Cambridge, and knew some of the scene locations. I lived on a street in Cambridge mentioned in the book. I enjoyed the Boston punk-era and 70’s music references. I hazily remember myself going to Chet's, The Channel and the Rat venues mentioned in the book. Also, a buddy of mine was peripherally involved in the IRL MIT gambling scandal mentioned in the book. The reviled gentrification that was a theme in the book has since progressed quite a bit from the book’s setting. However, the background scenery of the book was either realistic or very credible, give or take a few address errors. Yet, if you're going to by very detailed about location, it would have helped to have gotten all the locations correct?
As an aside, as was their custom, Led Zeppelin performed approximately two-and-a-half hour shows on the first leg of their 1975 tour. There was no opening act. Abramowitz used literary license in creating the fictional Boston-based band Mass managed by Zesty's father, with its lead singer Klaussen opening for Zep.
The book was a second novel. It had merit, but it wasn't any better than the first. It had the same faults as the first book, characters and pacing. It actually crutched too heavily on the first book to be a better effort.
The story continued with many of the good ideas from the first book. The prose was hip, ironic and well edited. It hewed closely to the tropes of the noir genre. Its protagonist was a solid character. However, the book failed in its other character implementations. In particular, the author failed to create proper antagonists. In addition, while the journey was pleasant enough, he squandered too many pages on clever dialog, atmosphere and red herrings. This left the reader with a Slam, Bam, Thank You ending. I liked this book mostly, but thought the minor characters and pacing through the divergent sub-plots were seriously mishandled. It could have been a lot better than the first book, if it had been longer.
March 13, 2019
This quote (taken from the galley graciously provided by NetGalley and St. Martin's Press so therefore might not be in the copy of the book you end up reading) sums up the entire book: "Zesty has a proven track record of insinuating himself into situations, making things more complicated than they out to be." And if nothing else, that is what makes this series so good! It is like finding yourself eating a dish that you expect to be mediocre and then realize it is an incredible combination of quality products. Complex characters, deep back stories, convoluted plot lines all make for a dense mesh of a book. Sometimes that is a bad thing but in this case it is a very excellent thing. I only have 2 questions: Just how old IS Zesty? And did he actually deliver anything for his job during the course of the story?
Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for providing a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for providing a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
March 11, 2019
Hard to review and it won't be for everyone but this is a hoot. Zesty, who runs a bike messenger business in Boston, is the son of an organized crime boss who may or may not have dementia. His brother Zero runs a moving company which is, to say the least, unique. Zesty has once again found himself in the middle of a murder mystery which involves places and people which will no doubt resonate with those who have lived or spent time in Boston. Although most of these were not familiar to me, I found myself wrapped into what sometimes feels a tad unhinged but I kept reading because I wanted to find out what happened. Zesty is a classic hero in some ways, defying his past and trying to build a future around it. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC.
March 21, 2019
Abramowitz has delivered the goods again! One of my friends bought me Bosstown and I was happy when this follow-up arrived soon after. This is a thriller with heart in a city that seems to have lost its gritty edge and turned into a playground for the one-percenters of the world. Abramowitz has either lived a life on the edge or knows it well. His writing is crisp and wry and Zesty Meyers (great name!), the main protagonist of this Bosstown series is unlike any character working the crime genre today. Full of surprises and just plain great writing, "A Town Called Malice" is someplace every reader who has loved Robert Parker or Dennis Lehane should visit.
April 10, 2019
This book was sitting on the display shelf at the library and I was in the mood for a mystery and it's sort of noirish the sign said. So I checked it out. Glad I did. Abramowitz is a heck of a writer and he gets the economic war that is being waged against the middle class but lays it out in a pretty stylish mystery with wonderfully colorful characters and excellent dialogue. Zesty Meyers, the protagonist has his own set of ethics, learned at the knee of his poker playing fixer-type father. They are the kind of ethics most of us can subscribe to. I haven't enjoyed a non Michael Connelly mystery so much in a long time. Highly recommend.
July 11, 2019
Adam Abramowitz has given life to the characters in this book. As you read, you can see and hear them as if you were standing next to them. It's a rare talent and usually takes a while to develop characters this well. I'm really impressed with his writing. This was really an enjoyable book.
Two brothers are barely hanging onto their businesses while trying to not get involved in "business" that can cost you more than a paycheck. Their lives are complicated by Boston's politics and their own relatives. The brothers enjoy the race and learn many lessons as they try to keep on the right side of the law and the mob.
Two brothers are barely hanging onto their businesses while trying to not get involved in "business" that can cost you more than a paycheck. Their lives are complicated by Boston's politics and their own relatives. The brothers enjoy the race and learn many lessons as they try to keep on the right side of the law and the mob.
March 21, 2019
I've read both books in this Bosstown series and loved both of them, but "A Town Called Malice" really spoke to me as Zesty (the bike messenger main character) was dealing with his ailing and declining father who has a criminal past and dark secrets which threaten the entire Meyers clan. Fast paced, thoughtful, suspenseful, laugh-out loud funny and full of Boston characters, this book is a great ride! I can't wait for the next book in this series, but something tells me I might see this on Netflix even before the next one is out. I totally recommend this great novel.
April 2, 2019
When I got the ARC of this book, I didn't know it was Book #2 of a series. It may have been better if I had read the first book first. However, it was an enjoyable ride, and Zesty is a character I'd like to hear from again. Also, the music scene that his father had been involved in occurred at a time that I was living in Boston and following a few of the bands mentioned. Now I'm going to look for Bosstown and hope that A Town Called Malice hasn't provided too many spoilers.
September 17, 2019
(3). The Standells sang it in 1965, "I love that dirty water, Boston you're my home." This book is pure Boston, with the wonderfully engaging Zesty Meyers as our guide. This is the second starring role for Zesty, and he is quite a handful. Smart, smarmy, low life and Zen master all rolled into one. Who could resist him? This story is all over the place but mostly works really well. But the plot doesn't matter as long as Zesty is leading the way. Good stuff.
October 13, 2019
Interesting follow up to Bosstown! Mr Abramowitz continues to develop Zesty into a more complicated character. It appears that we have a series on our hands and that is a fine thing. Like any decent thriller, the plot is convoluted. My only beef, and it is kind of a minor one: most of the Boston geography is pretty danged accurate, but in the last third, he kind of went off the tracks. I would recommend this book.
March 21, 2019
Wake up, Boston, Zesty Meyers rides again in this great sequel to Bosstown! Chock full of Boston history, rock clubs and smart, funny dialogue, this is a great and unique crime novel from a writer who knows his stuff.
May 17, 2019
A great follow up to Bosstown. Fun characters and an interesting plot. Perfect for any Masshole.
September 2, 2019
I have enjoyed this series and look forward to more novels in the future. I like the combination of mystery, bike messenger, rock and roll, and Boston history.
February 28, 2025
I totally enjoyed this! The quality of the writing played a part. But also nostalgia for my college days in Bosstown.
December 15, 2020
I actually couldn't finish the book. The main character/narrator was completely unlikable; much too arrogant with a blue collar toughness that he wears like a Kevlar jacket.
I also thought the novel lacked any clear sense of direction, even after I read more than half the book.
If you love Boston you might like this book; but not the historical Boston. This book wanders in and out of the gritty proletarian Boston, and the more modern gentrified Boston. If you love lots of esoteric Boston bands from the 80s, you'll really love this book because the narrator is constantly talking about them.
So this wasn't really for me, but it has a regional charm I think might be a good match for anyone with an affinity for Boston.
I also thought the novel lacked any clear sense of direction, even after I read more than half the book.
If you love Boston you might like this book; but not the historical Boston. This book wanders in and out of the gritty proletarian Boston, and the more modern gentrified Boston. If you love lots of esoteric Boston bands from the 80s, you'll really love this book because the narrator is constantly talking about them.
So this wasn't really for me, but it has a regional charm I think might be a good match for anyone with an affinity for Boston.
March 17, 2019
This is a great book for those who enjoy this style of writing but it’s not for me. A bit too disjointed
Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for allowing me this arc in return for an honest review
Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for allowing me this arc in return for an honest review
March 19, 2019
This was a slow read for me. The plot seemed to meander all over the place and I'm afraid I couldn't get into the characters. I'm not familiar with Boston (though perhaps many people familiar with Boston wouldn't relate to THIS version of Boston). I'm sure many people will enjoy this book. It's just not for me.
April 10, 2019
The first few chapters were like being thrown into a pond to learn how to swim. Once I got used to the writing style it was much easier going. That said, I loved it from the start.,The characters were great and there's lots of characters. I love Boston so it was fun to read about areas I knew though I lived there before the Big Dig.
All in all, a really fun read and one I would recommend.
All in all, a really fun read and one I would recommend.
Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews