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All Our Yesterdays
They were the Sheridan men, ruled by passion, betrayed by love, heirs to a legacy of violence and forbidden desire. Gus, Boston's top homicide cop: he knew equally well the backroom politics of City Hall and the private passions of the very rich, a man haunted by the wanton courage and perilous obsessions he inherited from his father... Conn, the patriarch, a lawless cop who spawned a circle of vengeance and betrayal that would span half a century... and Chris, Gus's beloved son, a Harvard lawyer and criminologist, fated to risk everything to break the chain of obsession and rage... Three generations linked by crime and punishment--cops and heroes, fathers, sons, and lovers united at last by revelations that could bring a family to its knees...
480 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published October 1, 1994
277 people are currently reading
554 people want to read
About the author
Robert B. Parker
489 books2,299 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database named Robert B. Parker.
Robert Brown Parker was an American writer, primarily of fiction within the mystery/detective genre. His most famous works were the 40 novels written about the fictional private detective Spenser. ABC television network developed the television series Spenser: For Hire based on the character in the mid-1980s; a series of TV movies was also produced based on the character. His works incorporate encyclopedic knowledge of the Boston metropolitan area. The Spenser novels have been cited as reviving and changing the detective genre by critics and bestselling authors including Robert Crais, Harlan Coben, and Dennis Lehane.
Parker also wrote nine novels featuring the fictional character Jesse Stone, a Los Angeles police officer who moves to a small New England town; six novels with the fictional character Sunny Randall, a female private investigator; and four Westerns starring the duo Virgil Cole and Everett Hitch. The first was Appaloosa, made into a film starring Ed Harris and Viggo Mortensen.
Robert Brown Parker was an American writer, primarily of fiction within the mystery/detective genre. His most famous works were the 40 novels written about the fictional private detective Spenser. ABC television network developed the television series Spenser: For Hire based on the character in the mid-1980s; a series of TV movies was also produced based on the character. His works incorporate encyclopedic knowledge of the Boston metropolitan area. The Spenser novels have been cited as reviving and changing the detective genre by critics and bestselling authors including Robert Crais, Harlan Coben, and Dennis Lehane.
Parker also wrote nine novels featuring the fictional character Jesse Stone, a Los Angeles police officer who moves to a small New England town; six novels with the fictional character Sunny Randall, a female private investigator; and four Westerns starring the duo Virgil Cole and Everett Hitch. The first was Appaloosa, made into a film starring Ed Harris and Viggo Mortensen.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 103 reviews
January 2, 2012
I read an interview with Robert B. Parker in which he said that he thought All Our Yesterdays was probably his best book, but that it was also one of his worst selling ones. It was certainly among his most ambitious and came just before his Spenser books started a serious decline in quality.
Would RBP have taken on some bigger challenges and not allowed Spenser to grow repetitive and stale if this would have been more successful? He created three new series as well as doing some other stand-alone novels after this was published so it’s not like he just quit trying new things, but it does seem like the last time he’d do something really outside his normal comfort zone.
Conn Sheridan is a soldier in the Irish Republican Army in 1920 when he meets Hadley Winslow, the beautiful wife of a rich American visiting Dublin. The two have a passionate affair, and Conn eventually asks Hadley to leave her husband. She refuses, things get ugly, and Conn has to flee to Boston.
In America, Conn joins the police, but the heartbreak of losing Hadley has left him not giving much of a shit about anything. Years pass, and he marries a woman he doesn’t love after getting her pregnant. While he feels some attachment to his son Gus, he’s still unable to get emotionally involved in anything until he discovers something that allows him to blackmail Hadley into resuming their affair.
More time passes. Gus eventually joins the police, too, and he also learns the Winslow secret. Gus gets trapped in another loveless marriage but is completely devoted to his own son, Chris. Chris eventually falls in love with the granddaughter of Hadley, but they’re unaware that their families have a long history of obsessive love and blackmail. A mid-90s Boston gang war starts a chain of events that threatens to expose the past.
RBP used a lot of his favorite themes here. There’s the ‘good’ man who is completely in love with a ‘bad’ woman, and there’s also a woman who has to cheat on her lover to ultimately prove to herself that their love is real. Father and son relationships play a big part of it, too. There’s also a couple of completely useless and overbearing mother figures in the story which is another RBP favorite. (Between his repeated character of the stupid, drunken, overbearing mother in several books and Spenser’s origin story of being raised by his father and two uncles after his mother died in childbirth, I’ve got a hunch that RBP may have had more than a few mommy issues.)
What sets this one apart is that RBP didn’t just forgive his characters for their behavior and allow them to be heroic anyhow. Conn’s inability to let Hadley go cuts him off from anyone else he should care about, including his son, and also causes him to do some fairly unsavory shit. Gus’s refusal to leave a wife he doesn’t love because of his devotion to young Chris leaves him coasting unhappily through life and leads him to follow Conn‘s example of cutting corners. Adult Chris’s love of Grace is obsessive to the point of suffocating her and is killing their relationship. Usually, RBP portrayed the men who refuse to give up on their love for someone no matter what happens as romantic and admirable. Here, he more accurately portrays it as unhealthy and something that will seriously screw up your life.
In a perfect world, this would have been the culmination of the theme of obsessive love for RBP, and he would have moved on to other things after getting it all out of his system in this book. Unfortunately, like one of his own characters, RBP could never let it go and would continue to make it one of the main characteristics of most of his work for the rest of his life. Still, this book about three generations of men suffering because of their hang-ups was some of his best writing on the subject.
Would RBP have taken on some bigger challenges and not allowed Spenser to grow repetitive and stale if this would have been more successful? He created three new series as well as doing some other stand-alone novels after this was published so it’s not like he just quit trying new things, but it does seem like the last time he’d do something really outside his normal comfort zone.
Conn Sheridan is a soldier in the Irish Republican Army in 1920 when he meets Hadley Winslow, the beautiful wife of a rich American visiting Dublin. The two have a passionate affair, and Conn eventually asks Hadley to leave her husband. She refuses, things get ugly, and Conn has to flee to Boston.
In America, Conn joins the police, but the heartbreak of losing Hadley has left him not giving much of a shit about anything. Years pass, and he marries a woman he doesn’t love after getting her pregnant. While he feels some attachment to his son Gus, he’s still unable to get emotionally involved in anything until he discovers something that allows him to blackmail Hadley into resuming their affair.
More time passes. Gus eventually joins the police, too, and he also learns the Winslow secret. Gus gets trapped in another loveless marriage but is completely devoted to his own son, Chris. Chris eventually falls in love with the granddaughter of Hadley, but they’re unaware that their families have a long history of obsessive love and blackmail. A mid-90s Boston gang war starts a chain of events that threatens to expose the past.
RBP used a lot of his favorite themes here. There’s the ‘good’ man who is completely in love with a ‘bad’ woman, and there’s also a woman who has to cheat on her lover to ultimately prove to herself that their love is real. Father and son relationships play a big part of it, too. There’s also a couple of completely useless and overbearing mother figures in the story which is another RBP favorite. (Between his repeated character of the stupid, drunken, overbearing mother in several books and Spenser’s origin story of being raised by his father and two uncles after his mother died in childbirth, I’ve got a hunch that RBP may have had more than a few mommy issues.)
What sets this one apart is that RBP didn’t just forgive his characters for their behavior and allow them to be heroic anyhow. Conn’s inability to let Hadley go cuts him off from anyone else he should care about, including his son, and also causes him to do some fairly unsavory shit. Gus’s refusal to leave a wife he doesn’t love because of his devotion to young Chris leaves him coasting unhappily through life and leads him to follow Conn‘s example of cutting corners. Adult Chris’s love of Grace is obsessive to the point of suffocating her and is killing their relationship. Usually, RBP portrayed the men who refuse to give up on their love for someone no matter what happens as romantic and admirable. Here, he more accurately portrays it as unhealthy and something that will seriously screw up your life.
In a perfect world, this would have been the culmination of the theme of obsessive love for RBP, and he would have moved on to other things after getting it all out of his system in this book. Unfortunately, like one of his own characters, RBP could never let it go and would continue to make it one of the main characteristics of most of his work for the rest of his life. Still, this book about three generations of men suffering because of their hang-ups was some of his best writing on the subject.
November 21, 2015
This is really an extraordinary book. I expected a typical non-memorable crime/thriller story, of which I read many. Instead, here is a brilliantly constructed multi-generational exploration of the very interesting lives of some very flawed people. And does Parker ever make me care about these people!
There was something unusual and very powerful about the structure of the story. It reached what seemed to me could have been the conclusion of a shorter novel about half-way through, at a point when many novels are struggling with that fearsome middle-of-the-book trough. (Since I was reading the book on kindle, I didn't know how far along I was and thought the story was about to end. When I checked, I learned I was at 48%.) But exactly here Parker gathers up a new burst of writing energy and the story takes off again, with one revelation after another, until the final resolution many worthwhile reading hours away.
Parker's use of time is also worthy of note, especially for me since he does so successfully what I am struggling to achieve in my own novel-in-progress. You start in the present in Boston, with two people who seem to love each other but are not clear if they can be together. Some cataclysmic event has thrown them into relationship disarray. Then you jump back 70 years, and a young man in Dublin is an IRA terrorist fighting British domination in Ireland. The story emerges in a series of flashbacks, and in the very skillful and emotional revelation of the impact of these past events on the original two lovers, getting ever closer to the present. To say more would reveal too much.
Parker has of course been enormously successful, although I have read only 1-2 of his subsequent crime stories, which I do not remember. Another Goodreads reviewer said Parker never again reached the level of excellence of this early novel that did not have much commercial success. If that is true, what a shame that he was not encouraged to reach harder for the literary excellence that was clearly within his potential.
There was something unusual and very powerful about the structure of the story. It reached what seemed to me could have been the conclusion of a shorter novel about half-way through, at a point when many novels are struggling with that fearsome middle-of-the-book trough. (Since I was reading the book on kindle, I didn't know how far along I was and thought the story was about to end. When I checked, I learned I was at 48%.) But exactly here Parker gathers up a new burst of writing energy and the story takes off again, with one revelation after another, until the final resolution many worthwhile reading hours away.
Parker's use of time is also worthy of note, especially for me since he does so successfully what I am struggling to achieve in my own novel-in-progress. You start in the present in Boston, with two people who seem to love each other but are not clear if they can be together. Some cataclysmic event has thrown them into relationship disarray. Then you jump back 70 years, and a young man in Dublin is an IRA terrorist fighting British domination in Ireland. The story emerges in a series of flashbacks, and in the very skillful and emotional revelation of the impact of these past events on the original two lovers, getting ever closer to the present. To say more would reveal too much.
Parker has of course been enormously successful, although I have read only 1-2 of his subsequent crime stories, which I do not remember. Another Goodreads reviewer said Parker never again reached the level of excellence of this early novel that did not have much commercial success. If that is true, what a shame that he was not encouraged to reach harder for the literary excellence that was clearly within his potential.
July 14, 2014
Wow! This book reminds me of a quote I saw on Facebook....."That moment when you finish a book, look around, and realize that everyone else is moving on with their lives......as though you didn't just experience emotional trauma at the hands of a book." Robert B. Parker was such an amazing writer, I'm sorry I didn't find him earlier:) This book stays with you.......
February 7, 2018
Another hit by Robert B. Parker
This book has everything that a cop mystery should have. There was crooked cops, money laundering and just about the hole ten yards of a large City like Boston!
The family of Conn Sheridan was a cop family until his grandson, Chris came along. Chris went to Harvard and became a Lawyer.
The Sheridan family was intertwined with the Winslow family in Dublin in the war with the British!
After the Winslow's came to America, Conn Sheridan came also! Conn became a Cop on the take!
This is where the story gets interesting and you need to read it to enjoy the mystery. It is well worth the time to read.
This book has everything that a cop mystery should have. There was crooked cops, money laundering and just about the hole ten yards of a large City like Boston!
The family of Conn Sheridan was a cop family until his grandson, Chris came along. Chris went to Harvard and became a Lawyer.
The Sheridan family was intertwined with the Winslow family in Dublin in the war with the British!
After the Winslow's came to America, Conn Sheridan came also! Conn became a Cop on the take!
This is where the story gets interesting and you need to read it to enjoy the mystery. It is well worth the time to read.
May 6, 2019
“All Our Yesterdays” is a Robert B. Parker stand-alone novel, but it is complete in itself in a way none of his series books are. Three generations of two families intertwine in a tight knit relationship. Cops in one, the wealthy in another: both get mixed into organized crime. The story moves quickly without losing characterization, tight plot, or Parker’s tight dialogue. It’s a saga, superbly done in one medium-size novel.
January 28, 2009
Surprise, surprise, a Robert Parker that does not feature Hawk or Spencer and does not even have a private detective. I think this is one of his best yet. Spanning three generations it follows the men of the Sheridan family, greatly flawed, who seek to redeem themselves of an obsession for violence and corruption that becomes a hex. Their lives all become entwined with the Winslows, to the detriment of all.
Conn Sheridan, the patriarch, is a young sniper for the IRA. He is assigned the assassination of an English politician. After being sold out by Hadley Winslow, his married lover, he escapes from British prison just before he is to be shot, and leaves for America. He becomes a cop, a rather corrupt one at that, whose son Gus inherits, or assumes, that corruptness but doesn't want it to singe his son Chris.
The story is told through a variety of perspectives, starting with conversations between Chris and his girlfriend Grace, the daughter of Tom Winslow, Hadley's son. Tom has a nsty secret. As a teenager, he had raped and killed a young girl, a crime that was covered up by Conn, who used the information to blackmail Hadley into resuming their affair. Conn passed along evidence of Tom's pedophilia – Tom had been sent to a private clinic in Switzerland as part of the deal with Hadley to hush up the murder – to Gus, who continued to use it as a hold over Tom, now returned from his Swiss hiatus and manager of a large bank. Gus has also been on the take from two Irish crime families and is using Tom's bank to launder their ill-gotten gains.
It all comes crashing down when one of the henchmen of the crime families is gunned down and an innocent school girl is killed in the cross-fire. Gus's soon, Chris, is appointed by the mayor, Parnell Flaherty, a candidate for the Senate seat also sought by Cabot Winslow, Grace's sister (it does get rather intertwined,) as special prosecutor to end the crime war between the two families. Gus, realizing that the only way he can help his son succeed is by revealing everything, warns the crime bosses that he is changing sides. This pressures Tom into killing two more young girls and the Sheridans and Winslows are soon revealed to be mired in corruption. Only Chris and Grace appear to have achieved some form of salvation through the efforts of Gus and Laura, Grace's mother, who realize that only through their sacrifice can the two children escape the insidious effects of bad marriages and corruption their families have become mired in.
It all sounds a bit coincidental and too intertwined, but Parker has skillfully woven a story that cannot be put down.
Conn Sheridan, the patriarch, is a young sniper for the IRA. He is assigned the assassination of an English politician. After being sold out by Hadley Winslow, his married lover, he escapes from British prison just before he is to be shot, and leaves for America. He becomes a cop, a rather corrupt one at that, whose son Gus inherits, or assumes, that corruptness but doesn't want it to singe his son Chris.
The story is told through a variety of perspectives, starting with conversations between Chris and his girlfriend Grace, the daughter of Tom Winslow, Hadley's son. Tom has a nsty secret. As a teenager, he had raped and killed a young girl, a crime that was covered up by Conn, who used the information to blackmail Hadley into resuming their affair. Conn passed along evidence of Tom's pedophilia – Tom had been sent to a private clinic in Switzerland as part of the deal with Hadley to hush up the murder – to Gus, who continued to use it as a hold over Tom, now returned from his Swiss hiatus and manager of a large bank. Gus has also been on the take from two Irish crime families and is using Tom's bank to launder their ill-gotten gains.
It all comes crashing down when one of the henchmen of the crime families is gunned down and an innocent school girl is killed in the cross-fire. Gus's soon, Chris, is appointed by the mayor, Parnell Flaherty, a candidate for the Senate seat also sought by Cabot Winslow, Grace's sister (it does get rather intertwined,) as special prosecutor to end the crime war between the two families. Gus, realizing that the only way he can help his son succeed is by revealing everything, warns the crime bosses that he is changing sides. This pressures Tom into killing two more young girls and the Sheridans and Winslows are soon revealed to be mired in corruption. Only Chris and Grace appear to have achieved some form of salvation through the efforts of Gus and Laura, Grace's mother, who realize that only through their sacrifice can the two children escape the insidious effects of bad marriages and corruption their families have become mired in.
It all sounds a bit coincidental and too intertwined, but Parker has skillfully woven a story that cannot be put down.
May 16, 2014
I've read so many RBP books, mostly the Spenser series, and I want and need to read Parker's books faster to get them off my shelf. (The shelf is sinking!)
Chose this one because it wasn't a Spenser and looked pretty interesting. Wish I could say it was.
RBP said he thought it was his best book written but I surely don't agree. The Godwulf Manuscript still resonates with me, the first in the Spenser series.
As I was reading All Our Yesterdays it occurred to me that Parker probably thought he was writing the Best American Novel of the 20th Century. But no, not even close and I really love Parker.
I read the description written with the book and that really says it all; it's full of what I think is contrived drama, links to family members that scream concocted, romance scenes that seem awkward and with forced descriptions and so on and so forth. (Well, one romance does seem sincere.)
The only thing that rang true was graft by Boston cops. I would say that graft was rampant in all big cities and probably most smaller cities in the 1920's, '30's and 1940's and who knows when it petered out, if it did.
I love Robert B. Parker. This book was ok but not his best effort, IMO. Sorry, Mr. Parker. RIP.
Chose this one because it wasn't a Spenser and looked pretty interesting. Wish I could say it was.
RBP said he thought it was his best book written but I surely don't agree. The Godwulf Manuscript still resonates with me, the first in the Spenser series.
As I was reading All Our Yesterdays it occurred to me that Parker probably thought he was writing the Best American Novel of the 20th Century. But no, not even close and I really love Parker.
I read the description written with the book and that really says it all; it's full of what I think is contrived drama, links to family members that scream concocted, romance scenes that seem awkward and with forced descriptions and so on and so forth. (Well, one romance does seem sincere.)
The only thing that rang true was graft by Boston cops. I would say that graft was rampant in all big cities and probably most smaller cities in the 1920's, '30's and 1940's and who knows when it petered out, if it did.
I love Robert B. Parker. This book was ok but not his best effort, IMO. Sorry, Mr. Parker. RIP.
December 20, 2016
I have always loved Robert B Parker's Spenser novels. This book is a huge departure from his other work. I enjoyed it's complexity and can understand why he felt it was his best work.
December 21, 2020
A soap opera, but a really interesting one.
November 27, 2021
Every Robert B.Parker novel is a testament to his craft and talents. This stand-alone novel starts at the close of WWI and the "troubles"in Ireland. Three generations of this family move into the modern world and work to shed the anger of betrayal and frustration. In Boston, Parker always comes into his own as he describes the world of the Boston Irish with a keen eye and dead on accuracy. I can never get enough of his plots and characters.
abandoned
November 1, 2018I think I may have read this book before. I'm not entirely sure, but how many books have I read about the Irish Revolution? In either case, it didn't grab me so I'm moving on.
June 5, 2017
Excellent
Narration covers three, or is it four, generations of intertwined families in a most absorbing and realistic way...I could 'feel' the emotions!
Narration covers three, or is it four, generations of intertwined families in a most absorbing and realistic way...I could 'feel' the emotions!
October 29, 2018
Not your mommas's Robert B Parker. This is not a Spenser, Stone or Sunny Randall book. It stands alone. It is not a book I would have chosen if it wasn't a Parker book. Sex, violence and the language...whew! It was somewhat gratuitous but in a way that would be natural for a thug. The story starts with Conn Sheridan, who is a prominent member of the IRA. After Bloody Sunday, and being turned in to the English by his lover Hadley Winslow, he escapes to America and thus begins the saga of the Sheridon and Winslow families. Three generations intertwined through the decades. Though it isn't my normal type of book, it was well written. I was captivated early on, and each evening couldn't wait to sit down and read it. I read that Parker felt it was his best book. I say it was his most detailed, heaviest and most well written but certainly not my favorite. There was none of the wit of the Spencer series which I thoroughly enjoy. The chapters were short which I love. Other than that, there was no other similaritiy to any Parker book I have ever read, (50 plus). I recommend the book if you want a good read. If you are looking for a typical Parker book, this isn't it.
April 9, 2017
I'm re-reading all of Parker. I have about 36 books to go. I thought I was going to hate this, because at first glance it seemed to be about Ireland and "the troubles" and I wasn't in the mood to wade through "that," but in truth it's a multi-generational story where only a very little at the beginning is set in Ireland, while the rest is set in Boston past and present If anything, it shows how families can affect your life for better or no for generations in how we go back and deal with old issues. A really compelling book.
July 30, 2011
WOW-- I Loved it-- This has to be one of Parker's best!!-- He spans several decades - of a family- and associated characters-- in a compelling-rough saga-- of intertwining lives-intrigue--and suspense-- He even manages to throw in a couple of moral lessons for us as well--
Do read it-- especially if you like Robert Parker
Do read it-- especially if you like Robert Parker
July 5, 2013
A ho-hum mystery/drama story with extremely predictable endings which is absolutely littered with sex and profanity. I do not recommend this book at all.
February 6, 2017
Interesting way to tell the story
Very interesting plot and the historical part of the story catches up to the current time. It was an interesting way to tell the story
Very interesting plot and the historical part of the story catches up to the current time. It was an interesting way to tell the story
April 3, 2018
Great story once I absorbed the characters and their intertwined lives.
May 31, 2021
This is a story about three generations of families. The Sheridan's an Irish family when Conn immigrates to Boston because is is accused (and guilty) of murder for the Irish cause. He meets Hadley Winslow in Ireland who is married to an older WASP and member of high Boston society. While in Dublin, Conn pushes for her to leave her husband and Hadley turns him in. In America, Conn marries a girl he knocks up and thus comes the second generation, Gus. Conn is a good cop, mostly; but he just wanders through life with his only love being Gus. The Winslow's have one son, Tommy. He is a pedophile and he attends Harvard. He kills a girl and Conn catches him. He makes a deal, sex once a week in exchange for Tommy's freedom. Tommy goes to Switzerland and is cured. Gus joins the police force on his return from the Korean War and marries a good Catholic. He blackmails Tommy and takes bribes. There marriage produces Chris. Gus like Conn is in a bad marriage and survives with his love for the boy. Tommy marries Laura and they produce Cabot and Grace. Chris and Grace but Chris is just plodding along life like his father and grandfather. Grace wants more. Basically, this is a story about love, what is it and how do you find it. It is over a backdrop of mob violence and three murders of young girls. This one may have hit a little to close for comfort. It is a different Robert Parker novel, but he still moves his novel with good conversation.
July 12, 2023
finished 11th july 2023 good read three stars i liked it kindle library loaner and i've been on a parker robert b bender now for the last twenty or more stories read availability at the digital library the deciding factor have other reads have been on hold since march but since there is a pecking order at the library other members can cut in line ahead of me c'est la vie...this one isn't a spenser story...story about three or more generations of bog trotting irishmen the line settling in boston...and of course they become cops. and the free enterprise system allows the exchange of money...long as no one says anything. and since the protagonists are men there's three generations of lineage of a woman involved with the first bog trotting irishman...who went to prison so on so forth. these characters stand out for being faithful to no one but themselves and the reader witnesses decades of self aggrandizement. verily. hallelujah. an entertaining read. there is nothing new under the sun.
February 19, 2023
Robert Parker wrote this semi-autobiographical novel telling the story of 3 generations of Sheridan men starting in Dublin and ending in Boston. The men are the strong silent types so typical of Parker men starting with Conn who resists the British, and falls in love with a wealthy, married, American nurse volunteer who turns him in and he goes to jail. They both end up in America where the next generation continues with Gus- a bent cop. Finally comes Chris Sheridan who manages to get into Boston Politics. Gus and Chris help clean up the Irish mobs, and Chris completes the story circle by falling in love with the granddaughter of that American woman.
It's really slow in the middle with long chapters of sex, a few chapters on crime and payoffs.
It's really slow in the middle with long chapters of sex, a few chapters on crime and payoffs.
October 20, 2022
Two families intertwined, through three generations, in relationships and conflicts since Irish "troubles" in the 1920s. Setting moves to Boston early on. The characters are developed, with their many flaws and goodnesses, in a way which has you sympathizing with them even when they act badly. There is interesting insight into politics and corruption in Boston government, police force, and criminal organizations. This was a good story.
April 22, 2024
A little on the dark side and I was sure there would be a spark of memory at some point that I had, in fact, read this book years ago but nope. Robert Parker at his story telling best with plot twists and messiness that shows the darker side of humans and the art of being human
A good reminder that a life well lived is hard work and not everyone is up for the task. Good read
A good reminder that a life well lived is hard work and not everyone is up for the task. Good read
June 18, 2018
I enjoyed htis story that took you through two generations of Boston detectives who made very poor choices in both their personal laves and their careers. Maybe the third generaton can finally come to terms with their mistakes and hope to have a good future for himself.
August 14, 2021
This was a really interesting read about how three generations of Irish men have many connections and parallels. The father and son bond is the only one that truly exists for the most part. And even that relationship is strained.
February 24, 2022
This is the only Robert Parker book that I can say I didn't enjoy. I struggled to finish and wasn't impressed with the story or the writing. Unusual as Parker is one of my favorite authors. The generational tie is between two families was somewhat difficult to track and uninteresting.
February 3, 2017
Not horrible, but not awful. Usually I like books with short chapters, but I felt this one maybe jumped around a bit too much.
November 3, 2018
Different characters. 3 generational. A bit confusing with police graft, murder, money laundering, etc.
Almost 500 pages so not his usual fast read.
Almost 500 pages so not his usual fast read.
February 25, 2019
Generational and delightful
A lot more depth than Parker 's other characters and writings.
Watching each generation covering for the previous one until the end.
A lot more depth than Parker 's other characters and writings.
Watching each generation covering for the previous one until the end.
April 4, 2019
Great story of three generations involving so much more than just another cop book. I would have love to see Parker write more books like this.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 103 reviews