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Blue Gowanus: An El Buscador Noir
"Imaginative, Intriguing, Prophetic. Hartnett at his best!" –Joe Edd Morris, author of The Prison
Escaping an assassination attempt, the underground figure El Buscador lands in Brooklyn’s Gowanus, home of a toxic canal. His mortal adversary, developer Timothy Tolland, has proposed for Gowanus a magnificent canal district, featuring humpbacked bridges, majestic ramps, and inspired industrial architecture.
Distrustful of Tolland’s intentions, El Buscador works to undermine the project. Soon, he understands that the only way to succeed is to become the thing that he hates. Complicating his maneuvers is the presence of an eight-foot sturgeon that has made the contaminated canal its new home. Nicknamed the Gwaken, the sturgeon draws great interest in Gowanus, adding to the carnival atmosphere of a community indulging in new-age Ganja desserts and frequenting a shady establishment that serves Brooklyn’s worst pizza.
Secret meetings, floods, and the opening of long hidden channels lead to a spectacular climax along a canal whose toxicity can lead either to its resurrection or to its demise.
Escaping an assassination attempt, the underground figure El Buscador lands in Brooklyn’s Gowanus, home of a toxic canal. His mortal adversary, developer Timothy Tolland, has proposed for Gowanus a magnificent canal district, featuring humpbacked bridges, majestic ramps, and inspired industrial architecture.
Distrustful of Tolland’s intentions, El Buscador works to undermine the project. Soon, he understands that the only way to succeed is to become the thing that he hates. Complicating his maneuvers is the presence of an eight-foot sturgeon that has made the contaminated canal its new home. Nicknamed the Gwaken, the sturgeon draws great interest in Gowanus, adding to the carnival atmosphere of a community indulging in new-age Ganja desserts and frequenting a shady establishment that serves Brooklyn’s worst pizza.
Secret meetings, floods, and the opening of long hidden channels lead to a spectacular climax along a canal whose toxicity can lead either to its resurrection or to its demise.
242 pages, Kindle Edition
Published September 17, 2020
2 people are currently reading
5 people want to read
About the author
Michael Hartnett
47 books36 followersMichael Hartnett (Irish: Mícheál Ó hAirtnéide) was an Irish poet who wrote in both English and Irish. He was one of the most significant voices in late 20th-century Irish writing and has been called "Munster's de facto poet laureate".
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November 14, 2020I couldn't resist reading more adventures of El Buscador, New York City's notorious tour guide of New York City's underbelly and the thorn in the side of Trump lookalike, developer Timothy Tolland.
Author Michael Harnett has crafted El Buscador into one of his most memorable characters. El Buscador, who lives in abandoned underground buildings, finds himself in dire straits as his newest novel, Blue Gowanus, gets underway. In Harnett's The Blue Rat, El Buscador managed to torpedo Tolland's grand skyscraper plans. At the beginning of Blue Gowanus, Tolland has sent his goons to kill Buscador.
The tour guide escapes to Brooklyn's Gowanus neighborhood, home of a toxic canal. There El Buscador learns Tolland has grand plans for Gowanus. The crooked developer plans to turn Gowanus into a magnificent canal district planned by a world-renowned architect.
The heart of Blue Gowanus centers on El Buscador's efforts to uncover the truth in regard to Tolland's plans for Gowanus and, if necessary, thwart them. He enlists a host of allies to help him implement his evolving plans. I adore his friends, many holdovers from The Blue Rat. They're memorable, quirky characters. Harnett's characters remind me of John Steinbeck's characters made famous in Cannery Row, Of Mice and Men, and the Grapes of Wrath. They'll stay with you long after you've put his novels back in your bookcase.
Harnett's plots are always full of twists and turns. The settings are as quirky as the author's characters. A pizza joint that serves the worst-tasting pizza in New York City. A tavern famous for its fighting pit where dogs slaughter blue-dyed rats. A polluted canal that's home to a prehistoric-like fish.
I love Harnett's writing style...it's witty, humorous, and best of all, he thumbs his nose at staid writing rules on POV. What do I mean. He loves to break the rules...he's creative.
With irritating cataracts and a laptop hard drive that decided to die, it took me longer than anticipated to read The Blue Gowanus. I'm glad I stuck with it. Harnett never disappoints.
Author Michael Harnett has crafted El Buscador into one of his most memorable characters. El Buscador, who lives in abandoned underground buildings, finds himself in dire straits as his newest novel, Blue Gowanus, gets underway. In Harnett's The Blue Rat, El Buscador managed to torpedo Tolland's grand skyscraper plans. At the beginning of Blue Gowanus, Tolland has sent his goons to kill Buscador.
The tour guide escapes to Brooklyn's Gowanus neighborhood, home of a toxic canal. There El Buscador learns Tolland has grand plans for Gowanus. The crooked developer plans to turn Gowanus into a magnificent canal district planned by a world-renowned architect.
The heart of Blue Gowanus centers on El Buscador's efforts to uncover the truth in regard to Tolland's plans for Gowanus and, if necessary, thwart them. He enlists a host of allies to help him implement his evolving plans. I adore his friends, many holdovers from The Blue Rat. They're memorable, quirky characters. Harnett's characters remind me of John Steinbeck's characters made famous in Cannery Row, Of Mice and Men, and the Grapes of Wrath. They'll stay with you long after you've put his novels back in your bookcase.
Harnett's plots are always full of twists and turns. The settings are as quirky as the author's characters. A pizza joint that serves the worst-tasting pizza in New York City. A tavern famous for its fighting pit where dogs slaughter blue-dyed rats. A polluted canal that's home to a prehistoric-like fish.
I love Harnett's writing style...it's witty, humorous, and best of all, he thumbs his nose at staid writing rules on POV. What do I mean. He loves to break the rules...he's creative.
With irritating cataracts and a laptop hard drive that decided to die, it took me longer than anticipated to read The Blue Gowanus. I'm glad I stuck with it. Harnett never disappoints.
January 23, 2021
The Tourguide is back!
I've been impatiently waiting for the sequel of Michael Hartnett's brilliant book The Blue Rat and was excited to finally hold Blue Gowanus in my hands.
I was not disappointed, on the contrary, Blue Gowanus turned out almost more fun than the first book.
In book 1 El Buscador, aka The Tourguide and his gang of illustrious friends managed to stop the real estate mogul Tolland from his sinister plans. But Tolland isn't beaten yet and simply has moved from Manhattan to Brooklyn to continue building his empire. But El Buscador follows him there, determined to stop his arch-nemesis from achieving his plans once again...
Although the Tourguide is the hero of the story, Blue Gowanus is clearly an ensemble piece, populated with a bunch of quirky and unique characters.
We meet all characters from book 1 again; newspaper editor Mavis, hipster-reporter Pratt, wheelchairbound hacker Jeanne and of course Tolland.
In addition, the author introduces two characters which I instantly loved: Nancy and Jojo who run New York's worst pizzeria, which is surprisingly popular in Gowanus' hipster circles.
The author says about himself that he loves his hometown New York, and it's visible and feelable on every page of the book.
No matter if you've ever been to the Big Apple or not, you will have a lot of fun following the Tourguide and letting him show you his city.
Now I'm impatiently waiting for the next installment...
I've been impatiently waiting for the sequel of Michael Hartnett's brilliant book The Blue Rat and was excited to finally hold Blue Gowanus in my hands.
I was not disappointed, on the contrary, Blue Gowanus turned out almost more fun than the first book.
In book 1 El Buscador, aka The Tourguide and his gang of illustrious friends managed to stop the real estate mogul Tolland from his sinister plans. But Tolland isn't beaten yet and simply has moved from Manhattan to Brooklyn to continue building his empire. But El Buscador follows him there, determined to stop his arch-nemesis from achieving his plans once again...
Although the Tourguide is the hero of the story, Blue Gowanus is clearly an ensemble piece, populated with a bunch of quirky and unique characters.
We meet all characters from book 1 again; newspaper editor Mavis, hipster-reporter Pratt, wheelchairbound hacker Jeanne and of course Tolland.
In addition, the author introduces two characters which I instantly loved: Nancy and Jojo who run New York's worst pizzeria, which is surprisingly popular in Gowanus' hipster circles.
The author says about himself that he loves his hometown New York, and it's visible and feelable on every page of the book.
No matter if you've ever been to the Big Apple or not, you will have a lot of fun following the Tourguide and letting him show you his city.
Now I'm impatiently waiting for the next installment...
July 31, 2023
For fans of The Blue Rat, you will love Blue Gowanus.
Our intrepid neo-noir hero from The Blue Rat is back, and he has a new playground—the Gowanus Canal in New York. Author Michael Hartnett's descriptions paint the Gowanus Canal as a little rough on the senses with its rundown businesses and fetid water. However, one of Hartnett’s many gifts as a writer is his ability to make the settings of this series as vivid as the characters. Through El Buscador’s eyes, the reader gets to appreciate and even enjoy spending time in the rundown Brooklyn waterway and its surroundings.
Protagonist El Buscador returns along with several of his cohorts from The Blue Rat, including former reporter Pratt, newspaper editor and love interest Mavis, and the wily Thackeray—as well as El Buscador’s nemesis, Timothy Terrance Tolland. Tolland is forever looking to recreate New York in his own image with buildings designed more to be monuments to his own self-perceived greatness than to the richness of the city and its inhabitants. His latest scheme is to use a pretense to shove through a project in the Gowanus Canal district. But not if El Buscador has anything to say about it.
Taken together, The Blue Rat and Blue Gowanus provide an interesting insight: If you want to understand what happens at the surface level of society—the part you see in the light of day—you must dig deep. In the case of the Blue Rat, El Buscador masters the forgotten roots of New York, many of which lie literally underground. In Blue Gowanus, clues lie in the waters of the canal and the business owners and residents on its shore that serve almost as New York’s subconscious mind. The city's pollution and forgotten trash seem to find their way into the canal, turning it into more of a receptacle for toxic waste than the vibrant shipping pathway it once was. As Hartnett writes, when the discarded items of big city living make their way into the canal, that “marks the end of the line because there is nowhere else for them to go if they’ve arrived at the dead end of Gowanus.”
For the cynical, like Tolland, the Gowanus distrcit is a place to further plunder whatever value it has left. For El Buscador, it is a place of imagination—enter one of the book’s new characters, a renegade sturgeon who braves the toxic waters like an ancient thought trying to break through into a modern mind; and another character who finds artistic inspiration in the canal, aptly named Pygmalion. For El Buscador, the canal that some see as irredeemable is a place of potential rebirth.
It's also important to note that Blue Gowanus has a humorous undertone throughout, which makes the machinations of Tolland, as well as El Buscador’s counter-machinations, a joy to read from beginning to end. So, grab your fedora, three fingers of brandy, and your copy of Blue Gowanus, and get ready for a great story with a twisting and turning plot, quirky characters galore, and a view of the Gowanus Canal that only Michael Hartnett can make sparkle with intrigue and fun.
Our intrepid neo-noir hero from The Blue Rat is back, and he has a new playground—the Gowanus Canal in New York. Author Michael Hartnett's descriptions paint the Gowanus Canal as a little rough on the senses with its rundown businesses and fetid water. However, one of Hartnett’s many gifts as a writer is his ability to make the settings of this series as vivid as the characters. Through El Buscador’s eyes, the reader gets to appreciate and even enjoy spending time in the rundown Brooklyn waterway and its surroundings.
Protagonist El Buscador returns along with several of his cohorts from The Blue Rat, including former reporter Pratt, newspaper editor and love interest Mavis, and the wily Thackeray—as well as El Buscador’s nemesis, Timothy Terrance Tolland. Tolland is forever looking to recreate New York in his own image with buildings designed more to be monuments to his own self-perceived greatness than to the richness of the city and its inhabitants. His latest scheme is to use a pretense to shove through a project in the Gowanus Canal district. But not if El Buscador has anything to say about it.
Taken together, The Blue Rat and Blue Gowanus provide an interesting insight: If you want to understand what happens at the surface level of society—the part you see in the light of day—you must dig deep. In the case of the Blue Rat, El Buscador masters the forgotten roots of New York, many of which lie literally underground. In Blue Gowanus, clues lie in the waters of the canal and the business owners and residents on its shore that serve almost as New York’s subconscious mind. The city's pollution and forgotten trash seem to find their way into the canal, turning it into more of a receptacle for toxic waste than the vibrant shipping pathway it once was. As Hartnett writes, when the discarded items of big city living make their way into the canal, that “marks the end of the line because there is nowhere else for them to go if they’ve arrived at the dead end of Gowanus.”
For the cynical, like Tolland, the Gowanus distrcit is a place to further plunder whatever value it has left. For El Buscador, it is a place of imagination—enter one of the book’s new characters, a renegade sturgeon who braves the toxic waters like an ancient thought trying to break through into a modern mind; and another character who finds artistic inspiration in the canal, aptly named Pygmalion. For El Buscador, the canal that some see as irredeemable is a place of potential rebirth.
It's also important to note that Blue Gowanus has a humorous undertone throughout, which makes the machinations of Tolland, as well as El Buscador’s counter-machinations, a joy to read from beginning to end. So, grab your fedora, three fingers of brandy, and your copy of Blue Gowanus, and get ready for a great story with a twisting and turning plot, quirky characters galore, and a view of the Gowanus Canal that only Michael Hartnett can make sparkle with intrigue and fun.
May 5, 2021
El Buscador Rides Again! - I thoroughly enjoyed The Blue Gowanus by Michael Harnett. What’s not to like? Our intrepid protagonist, El Buscador, known as The Tour Guide in the delightful
preceding novel The Blue Rat, is being hunted by his arch enemy, egomaniac real estate mogul Terrence Tolland’s hired thugs. Their task is simple enough- to do away with our mysterious urban hero, who has been a thorn in Tolland’s side for years. In this crisp and lively narrative The Blue Gowanus begins where The Blue Rat ended, yet this book can be read as a stand alone adventure. Foiling the architectural plans of Tolland, El Buscador is forced to find new headquarters in of all places: Gowanus! A section of Brooklyn featuring toxic waste, a canal of dubious liquid matter, and a giant creature swimming in the canal that local residents dubbed The Gwaken.
The cast of characters helping El Buscador include the return of Mavis Wellington, editor of the Herald, and El Buscador’s contemporary love interest, Nate Pratt, former star reporter of the Herald, now protege of The Tour Guide, and still collecting blue rats, Jeanne, his old love, and the usual suspects like Melville, Coppa and Thackery, and a graffiti artist known as Pygmalion of Gowanus. On the run, and no longer tucked away in the Bat Cave, the abandoned City Hall subway station in Manhattan, El Buscador must find new digs in the borough of Brooklyn, specifically Gowanus. The writing is clever, witty and just plain entertaining and the way El Buscador gets into and out of impossible situations is a farce. Find out how the worst ever pizza joint in the city, Una Nonna stays in business and what certain people will do to try to end it’s existence. Find out the mystery of the Gwaken in the canal of Gowanus and find out if real estate mogul Tolland’s new plans for the borough succeed and why El Buscador appears to sing it’s praises. Is El Buscador’s real plan to foil Tolland once again? Will El Buscador survive? Or is this legendary New York character facing certain doom. Find out. Read and enjoy The Blue Gowanus.
preceding novel The Blue Rat, is being hunted by his arch enemy, egomaniac real estate mogul Terrence Tolland’s hired thugs. Their task is simple enough- to do away with our mysterious urban hero, who has been a thorn in Tolland’s side for years. In this crisp and lively narrative The Blue Gowanus begins where The Blue Rat ended, yet this book can be read as a stand alone adventure. Foiling the architectural plans of Tolland, El Buscador is forced to find new headquarters in of all places: Gowanus! A section of Brooklyn featuring toxic waste, a canal of dubious liquid matter, and a giant creature swimming in the canal that local residents dubbed The Gwaken.
The cast of characters helping El Buscador include the return of Mavis Wellington, editor of the Herald, and El Buscador’s contemporary love interest, Nate Pratt, former star reporter of the Herald, now protege of The Tour Guide, and still collecting blue rats, Jeanne, his old love, and the usual suspects like Melville, Coppa and Thackery, and a graffiti artist known as Pygmalion of Gowanus. On the run, and no longer tucked away in the Bat Cave, the abandoned City Hall subway station in Manhattan, El Buscador must find new digs in the borough of Brooklyn, specifically Gowanus. The writing is clever, witty and just plain entertaining and the way El Buscador gets into and out of impossible situations is a farce. Find out how the worst ever pizza joint in the city, Una Nonna stays in business and what certain people will do to try to end it’s existence. Find out the mystery of the Gwaken in the canal of Gowanus and find out if real estate mogul Tolland’s new plans for the borough succeed and why El Buscador appears to sing it’s praises. Is El Buscador’s real plan to foil Tolland once again? Will El Buscador survive? Or is this legendary New York character facing certain doom. Find out. Read and enjoy The Blue Gowanus.
September 27, 2020
El Buscador and the Day-Lighted Creek.
Blue Gowanus by Michael Hartnett, is the continued story of the Tour Guide, aka El Buscador, and his skirmishes with Timothy Terrance Tolland, the capricious New York City developer who has targeted the well-known and quite septic Gowanus Canal section of the City for a complete renovation. If the renovation is done in the manner shown by the advertised design, the renovation will create a Venice-like beauty spot and new envy of the World.
Due to the antics of El Buscador as detailed in the first book in the Michael Hartnett series entitled “The Blue Rat”, the embarrassed and pissed off Tolland has placed a bounty on our hero’s head. In order to save his own skin from gun-toting ambushers lurking around every dark corner, El Buscador must help Tolland create public support for the Gowanus Project. Needless to say, the Tour Guide sacrifices his personal integrity and public reputation by joining forces with his previous foe.
The book is filled with more twists and turns, both above ground and below ground, than you can imagine. Characters for the first book are back in full force to help El Buscador, including Mavis, Tanvi, Edmond J. Coppa, rat collector, Pratt, and triple spy, Thackeray. The new character, Pygmalion, a unique and playful artist who decorates some Gowanus walls, is a nice addition.
As usual, Michael Hartnett works the English language as a painter plies his trade with brushes and palette, mixing his paints to create the proper hue. Get ready for a plethora of words and phrases. The book starts slow and builds speed as the chapters unfold. This tempo appears to be on purpose and designed by Hartnett to build the reader’s anticipation for the point in the story when the other shoe drops. And it no doubt will.
I rate the book, Blue Gowanus, as an overall 5 out of 5.
Blue Gowanus by Michael Hartnett, is the continued story of the Tour Guide, aka El Buscador, and his skirmishes with Timothy Terrance Tolland, the capricious New York City developer who has targeted the well-known and quite septic Gowanus Canal section of the City for a complete renovation. If the renovation is done in the manner shown by the advertised design, the renovation will create a Venice-like beauty spot and new envy of the World.
Due to the antics of El Buscador as detailed in the first book in the Michael Hartnett series entitled “The Blue Rat”, the embarrassed and pissed off Tolland has placed a bounty on our hero’s head. In order to save his own skin from gun-toting ambushers lurking around every dark corner, El Buscador must help Tolland create public support for the Gowanus Project. Needless to say, the Tour Guide sacrifices his personal integrity and public reputation by joining forces with his previous foe.
The book is filled with more twists and turns, both above ground and below ground, than you can imagine. Characters for the first book are back in full force to help El Buscador, including Mavis, Tanvi, Edmond J. Coppa, rat collector, Pratt, and triple spy, Thackeray. The new character, Pygmalion, a unique and playful artist who decorates some Gowanus walls, is a nice addition.
As usual, Michael Hartnett works the English language as a painter plies his trade with brushes and palette, mixing his paints to create the proper hue. Get ready for a plethora of words and phrases. The book starts slow and builds speed as the chapters unfold. This tempo appears to be on purpose and designed by Hartnett to build the reader’s anticipation for the point in the story when the other shoe drops. And it no doubt will.
I rate the book, Blue Gowanus, as an overall 5 out of 5.
October 14, 2020
Michael Hartnett is an author who thrives on taking readers to places they’d never see without his guidance. In “Fools in the Magic Kingdom,” he took us behind the fanciful facades of Disney World. In “The Blue Rat,” he took us to unseen streams, forgotten tombs and smarmy rat pits below the sidewalks of New York. And now, in “Blue Gowanus,” he takes us to the dankest and darkest part of Brooklyn: the Gowanus district.
Gowanus is a dumping-ground district dominated by a canal so potently polluted that it has been designated as a Superfund cleanup site, but it’s a many years away from being clean. To the astonishment of the district’s human population, a creature that looks like a leftover from the Pleistocene Age manages to survive in the toxic purple muck of the canal. Called Gwaken by its many watchers, the creature is identified as an eight-foot-long sturgeon.
The action beside the canal revolves around former New York City tour guide El Buscador, who is on the run from a group of Russians employed to kill him by millionaire developer Timothy Terrance Tolland. In “The Blue Rat,” El Buscador, with the help of The Herald, foiled a Tolland development plan designed by the firm of Lud, Gib and Nirob (read those names backwards and see what you get.) Now El Buscador is dodging the Russian hit team while using the ruse of favoring a new Tolland development plan for Gowanus while scheming to destroy it.
Fueled by pizza pies made by the world’s worst pizza makers, El Buscador leads a team of diverse characters through a complex and sometimes nearly unfathomable plot to ruin Tolland’s name in Gowanus. It is a fast, furious and funny chase conceived by an author with a keen sense of humor and a delightful way of playing with words.
Gowanus is a dumping-ground district dominated by a canal so potently polluted that it has been designated as a Superfund cleanup site, but it’s a many years away from being clean. To the astonishment of the district’s human population, a creature that looks like a leftover from the Pleistocene Age manages to survive in the toxic purple muck of the canal. Called Gwaken by its many watchers, the creature is identified as an eight-foot-long sturgeon.
The action beside the canal revolves around former New York City tour guide El Buscador, who is on the run from a group of Russians employed to kill him by millionaire developer Timothy Terrance Tolland. In “The Blue Rat,” El Buscador, with the help of The Herald, foiled a Tolland development plan designed by the firm of Lud, Gib and Nirob (read those names backwards and see what you get.) Now El Buscador is dodging the Russian hit team while using the ruse of favoring a new Tolland development plan for Gowanus while scheming to destroy it.
Fueled by pizza pies made by the world’s worst pizza makers, El Buscador leads a team of diverse characters through a complex and sometimes nearly unfathomable plot to ruin Tolland’s name in Gowanus. It is a fast, furious and funny chase conceived by an author with a keen sense of humor and a delightful way of playing with words.
October 1, 2020
El Buscador has to leave the deserted subway station in Manhattan where he has lived for a dozen years while giving underground tours, because his arch enemy, Tolland, a builder of architectural monstrosities, is trying to kill him for interfering with Tolland's projects. El Buscador goes to Brooklyn, now homeless, where the polluted Gowanus Canal is located. Tolland is actually working on a construction project here also, which he says will beautify the area near the canal, but El Buscador doesn't believe it. El Buscador has many friends who help him discredit Tolland, sometimes to their sorrow. His friends who work in the newspaper business can publish articles about Tolland, but they can also come under attack. Being the friend of El Buscador is dangerous. Then there is a husband and wife team who own a shop and make terrible pizza, but why are they so reluctant to improve their situation? A new friend is a graffiti artist who paints large pictures of strange creatures on brick walls near the canal. However, the canal, itself, has drawn curious searchers because it may house such a creature the size of a large fish, possibly a sturgeon, which has been nicknamed the Gwaken. Everybody, including Tolland, is interested in it. What about Ganja Ganache, which is Brooklyn's newest thing in gourmet weed? El Buscador's old love, Jeanne, is now crippled and living in Manhattan, and he visits her even though he could end up dead in the process. The author masterfully paints a vivid word picture of the setting, the characters, and what is essentially the ancient battle of good versus evil. Amid the chaos, everybody will have fun reading this book.
July 6, 2025
I love when an author creates a setting and cast of characters so quirky and compelling, we love spending time with them. In Blue Gowanus, the reader has the joy of following the characters we met in The Blue Rat as they embark on another grimy, sewer-infused adventure.
Once again, the Tour Guide/El Buscador matches wits with the toxic narcissist developer Timothy Terence Tolland as they wrestle for the soul of the city. In the guise of a simple gonzo-noir thriller, the author explores the idea that the creation of myths can support or destroy what makes a place special. While Tolland creates self-aggrandizing myths that both he and his admirers end up believing, while El Buscador works tirelessly (and often in vain) to unearth the truth about the skeezy developer’s impact on the city. In that sense, this book reminds me of The City We Became by NK Jemison. Beyond the New York City setting, both books assert that a city has a spirit as fragile as the ecosystem and just as precious. And protecting that spirit requires an unflagging determination to combat the forces of capitalist excess. Good thing for NYC El Buscador is on the case.
Once again, the Tour Guide/El Buscador matches wits with the toxic narcissist developer Timothy Terence Tolland as they wrestle for the soul of the city. In the guise of a simple gonzo-noir thriller, the author explores the idea that the creation of myths can support or destroy what makes a place special. While Tolland creates self-aggrandizing myths that both he and his admirers end up believing, while El Buscador works tirelessly (and often in vain) to unearth the truth about the skeezy developer’s impact on the city. In that sense, this book reminds me of The City We Became by NK Jemison. Beyond the New York City setting, both books assert that a city has a spirit as fragile as the ecosystem and just as precious. And protecting that spirit requires an unflagging determination to combat the forces of capitalist excess. Good thing for NYC El Buscador is on the case.
September 30, 2020
Blue Gowanus, the continuing tale of El Buscador's duel with the self-important real estate magnate Timothy Terrance Tolland, follows gleefully in the footsteps of The Blue Rat, with sharp dialogue, clever plot twists, and a great love of New York City and its boroughs.
Having staved off Tolland's abomination in the first book, El Buscador must now stop the magnate's foray into the Gowanus district in Brooklyn. This predicament is heightened by a price on his head, obsequience to his hated enemy, and a fish of ancient lore. Needless to say, El Buscador has his hands full, but El Buscador is a clever fellow, and smart enough to know this won't be a one man show. That his compatriots aren't as thrilled, speaks to the work El Buscador must do if he is to stop Tolland a second time.
Michael Harnett does a wonderful job of keeping the pace lively, and the wit sharp. There are other enchantments I'll leave for the readers to discover, save a trip to the city, which they might desire after finishing the book. Here's hoping there's a book 3.
Having staved off Tolland's abomination in the first book, El Buscador must now stop the magnate's foray into the Gowanus district in Brooklyn. This predicament is heightened by a price on his head, obsequience to his hated enemy, and a fish of ancient lore. Needless to say, El Buscador has his hands full, but El Buscador is a clever fellow, and smart enough to know this won't be a one man show. That his compatriots aren't as thrilled, speaks to the work El Buscador must do if he is to stop Tolland a second time.
Michael Harnett does a wonderful job of keeping the pace lively, and the wit sharp. There are other enchantments I'll leave for the readers to discover, save a trip to the city, which they might desire after finishing the book. Here's hoping there's a book 3.
November 1, 2020
In his followup to The Blue Rat, Michael Hartnett once again delivers a wonderful story in his unique, pleasing style.
The layered plot begins with El Buscador escaping henchmen of New York developer Timothy Terrence Tolland. He's forced to relocate, landing in Brooklyn, where he meets a cast of new characters and reunites with those from The Blue Rat. Though the setting is new, El Buscador is once again hellbent on ruining Toliver's plans. But this story takes some remarkable turns, and the twists make it impossible to put down.
Hartnett's character development is once again second to none, and there's somehow even more wit and humor this time around. With delightful allusions and imagery, Hartnett puts a funhouse mirror up to parts of Brooklyn, while also making you taste the grit and grime — a talent that will leave readers sorry their romp through the Gowanus has ended.
The layered plot begins with El Buscador escaping henchmen of New York developer Timothy Terrence Tolland. He's forced to relocate, landing in Brooklyn, where he meets a cast of new characters and reunites with those from The Blue Rat. Though the setting is new, El Buscador is once again hellbent on ruining Toliver's plans. But this story takes some remarkable turns, and the twists make it impossible to put down.
Hartnett's character development is once again second to none, and there's somehow even more wit and humor this time around. With delightful allusions and imagery, Hartnett puts a funhouse mirror up to parts of Brooklyn, while also making you taste the grit and grime — a talent that will leave readers sorry their romp through the Gowanus has ended.
September 29, 2020
Hide and Seek
Michael Hartnett delivers an engaging and entertaining story that involves a ruthless business tycoon and a man who seeks to expose his ulterior motives. El Buscador, a private tour guide who seems to know all the secret places in New York, becomes diverted by a new construction development in the Gowanus section of Brooklyn by the powerful Timothy Terrence Tolland, a narcissistic real estate mogul who stops at nothing to get what he wants. El Buscador smells a fish, literally and figuratively, and enlists a trusted band of friends to get the bottom of the plans. Hartnett presents an assortment of interesting and quirky characters, some witty dialogue, and enough twists and turns to keep readers hooked to the end.
Michael Hartnett delivers an engaging and entertaining story that involves a ruthless business tycoon and a man who seeks to expose his ulterior motives. El Buscador, a private tour guide who seems to know all the secret places in New York, becomes diverted by a new construction development in the Gowanus section of Brooklyn by the powerful Timothy Terrence Tolland, a narcissistic real estate mogul who stops at nothing to get what he wants. El Buscador smells a fish, literally and figuratively, and enlists a trusted band of friends to get the bottom of the plans. Hartnett presents an assortment of interesting and quirky characters, some witty dialogue, and enough twists and turns to keep readers hooked to the end.
November 12, 2021
Blue Gowanus is a witty and gritty sequel to Michael Hartnett’s earlier The Blue Rat. Hartnett uses as a baseline the near-insanity that’s part of living in New York City (greedy real estate tycoons, bad pizza, urban legends, bizarre cultural trends) and dials everything up a notch without exceeding the bounds of plausibility. You get the feeling everything in this book could or might actually (be) happen(ing), even when you know rationally that the likelihood of, let’s say, a giant sturgeon living in the Gowanus Canal lies on the far side of impossible. Hartnett’s a gifted stylist and an endlessly entertaining storyteller. More El Buscador, please!
June 30, 2021
The Blue Gowanus is a fast paced, thrilling addition to this series. The story was so well written and descriptive, I felt I was weaving my way through the streets and underbelly of New York City. I can only say that much like El Buscador, Hartnett must also have the, "soul of a poet." Hartnett is able to draw the reader into the story with his descriptive wordplay, while simultaneously introducing new key plot points and characters as the story unfolds in a seamless literary adventure that leaves the reader eager for another book. Well done!
October 3, 2020
What a great companion to his previous work, The Blue Rat. The setting of the underbelly in New York City is worth the read in Itself, but don’t be confused. The characters are the real winners here. They will haunt you later when you actually thought you dismissed them.
Michael Hartnett has done his due diligence in the exploration of New York City and is happy to share all of its warts and lesions. We can’t seem to get enough.
This is well worth the read.
Michael Hartnett has done his due diligence in the exploration of New York City and is happy to share all of its warts and lesions. We can’t seem to get enough.
This is well worth the read.
November 10, 2020
Michael Hartnett has done it again. A follow up to the great novel "The Blue Rat." Tolland the Real Estate Developer continues his battle with El Buscador. He is chasing him through the streets of Brooklyn in Film Noir fashion. This time he hires a sniper to scare him. He forces El Buscador to go to work for him but the tour guide has something else in mind. Satire, excitement, a giant sturgeon, Bad pizza and a spectacular ending. This is a must.
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