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Hayden Glass #2
Beat
LAPD Robbery-Homicide Detective Hayden Glass has always had trouble controlling his urges. No longer trolling the streets looking for working girls, he has a new obsession--the Internet. Infatuated with a woman he finds on a website, Hayden Glass's sex addiction drags him to San Francisco and into a web of corruption and crime. Glass's search for this woman leads him to a massive sex slave trade, run by the Russian mafia and protected by a group of powerful and corrupt San Francisco cops. Glass gets co-opted by the FBI to aid in their investigation...but his presence is doing much more harm than good.
336 pages, Paperback
First published September 1, 2010
1 person is currently reading
65 people want to read
About the author
Stephen Jay Schwartz
8 books22 followersSTEPHEN JAY SCHWARTZ grew up in New Mexico and traveled the United States extensively before settling down in Los Angeles. There he became the Director of Development for Wolfgang Petersen, helping develop films such as Outbreak and Air Force One.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 37 reviews
December 1, 2010
Second in a series of police procedurals (very loosely defined) after Boulevard, this book can’t truly be called “noir” as there is a semblance of hope at the end, but it’s about as black as one can get.
Hayden Glass, an LAPD Robbery-Homicide detective is a sex addict. After witnessing the abduction of a hooker whom he thought liked him (he learns later what an act it was,) and with whom he thought he was in love (he has difficulty separating love from lust) he follows her abductors to San Francisco where he becomes mired in a morass of crooked cops, really evil Russian mobster/pimps, and the FBI, all of whom have differing motives for getting the girl back. It seems she was a witness to a murder that would implicate a high-ranking police officer. The mobsters want her for blackmail and the Feebs need her to bring down the crooked cops. Hayden feels impelled to save her, although his motives are anything but pure. Toward the end of the novel, one of the Russians makes this clear, “Would you like to know what you are to me, Detective? You’re my demographic. You’re the reason these girls exist. I simply supply the demand. If there weren’t a market for this, I wouldn’t be here. You’re the market. I can’t believe you don’t get that. You’ve got to be the stupidest son of a bitch I’ve ever—”
If you are in any way offended by explicit sex or extreme violence, avoid this book. I’m not, but did find the gory finale excessive if not unbelievable. Still, Schwartz has created a very sympathetic and tormented character. It will be fascinating to watch him develop in what I hope will be a long-running series.
Hayden Glass, an LAPD Robbery-Homicide detective is a sex addict. After witnessing the abduction of a hooker whom he thought liked him (he learns later what an act it was,) and with whom he thought he was in love (he has difficulty separating love from lust) he follows her abductors to San Francisco where he becomes mired in a morass of crooked cops, really evil Russian mobster/pimps, and the FBI, all of whom have differing motives for getting the girl back. It seems she was a witness to a murder that would implicate a high-ranking police officer. The mobsters want her for blackmail and the Feebs need her to bring down the crooked cops. Hayden feels impelled to save her, although his motives are anything but pure. Toward the end of the novel, one of the Russians makes this clear, “Would you like to know what you are to me, Detective? You’re my demographic. You’re the reason these girls exist. I simply supply the demand. If there weren’t a market for this, I wouldn’t be here. You’re the market. I can’t believe you don’t get that. You’ve got to be the stupidest son of a bitch I’ve ever—”
If you are in any way offended by explicit sex or extreme violence, avoid this book. I’m not, but did find the gory finale excessive if not unbelievable. Still, Schwartz has created a very sympathetic and tormented character. It will be fascinating to watch him develop in what I hope will be a long-running series.
October 8, 2010
Let me first say this -- you have to have thick skin to deal with this book. It's laden with sexually graphic detail and language since the primary character is a homicide detective with an addiction to sex. Generally speaking, he's not opposed to internet porn, prostitutes, and the like. (Is this a trend for what I've been reading this week...?)
Hayden Glass is an LAPD homicide detective and in the prior book, he's encountered some fairly gruesome situations in which he's looked at as a hero by the public, but his file is completely sealed. Only he and a few others know what he really did. He's got some time off right now (forced medical leave), and he's making use of it by finding someone he really likes...who he happens to have met through an internet porn site, and then met in real life after obsessively traveling to San Francisco. He is a "recovering" sex addict, after all.
Cora is the girl he's met online, and he likes her a lot. He thinks there's more between them, and maybe so. Not only does he like her, but she happens to be a primary link to a sex slave trade that's run by the Russian mafia. But right now, she's gone missing after being brutally taken from Hayden right in front of him, and he wasn't able to do anything about it.
If you can get past the graphic subject matter and those first few pages particularly (literally, page two would make Tiger Woods blush), then you're in for a well written mystery/suspense/thriller. Although it's gritty and disturbing, Stephen Jay Schwartz finesses the images to keep you thoroughly unsettled but racing to find out who's behind the corruption supporting the sex slave trade, and more importantly, where Cora is. It's also a fascinating portrayal of a character who has a debilitating and ruling addiction that he's at the early stages of overcoming. Fans of Stephen Jay Schwartz and his character, Hayden Glass, won't be disappointed.
This is the second book for the Hayden Glass character, but you can read this as a stand alone. There's enough references and background provided to not make you confused and wonder what happened in the first book, but only enough to make you want to go pick it up and read it.
Hayden Glass is an LAPD homicide detective and in the prior book, he's encountered some fairly gruesome situations in which he's looked at as a hero by the public, but his file is completely sealed. Only he and a few others know what he really did. He's got some time off right now (forced medical leave), and he's making use of it by finding someone he really likes...who he happens to have met through an internet porn site, and then met in real life after obsessively traveling to San Francisco. He is a "recovering" sex addict, after all.
Cora is the girl he's met online, and he likes her a lot. He thinks there's more between them, and maybe so. Not only does he like her, but she happens to be a primary link to a sex slave trade that's run by the Russian mafia. But right now, she's gone missing after being brutally taken from Hayden right in front of him, and he wasn't able to do anything about it.
If you can get past the graphic subject matter and those first few pages particularly (literally, page two would make Tiger Woods blush), then you're in for a well written mystery/suspense/thriller. Although it's gritty and disturbing, Stephen Jay Schwartz finesses the images to keep you thoroughly unsettled but racing to find out who's behind the corruption supporting the sex slave trade, and more importantly, where Cora is. It's also a fascinating portrayal of a character who has a debilitating and ruling addiction that he's at the early stages of overcoming. Fans of Stephen Jay Schwartz and his character, Hayden Glass, won't be disappointed.
This is the second book for the Hayden Glass character, but you can read this as a stand alone. There's enough references and background provided to not make you confused and wonder what happened in the first book, but only enough to make you want to go pick it up and read it.
June 11, 2011
Beat pulled me in and yanked me through on a ride that I couldn't get off of, even if I wanted to. The main character, Hayden, is both despicable and loveable. He has a sex addiction that has evolved from hookers to internet porn, and it rides him hard throughout the novel. Even though he is a sex addict, he falls for sex slave Cora, and vows to rescue her from her brutal captors.
I read this book in about twenty-four hours. I started it one night and put it down only to sleep, and carted it around with me all throughout the next day, hardly able to tear my eyes from it -- even during a few grisly parts that even I had a slightly hard time reading, and I'm an avid horror-with-gore fan.
Aside from the novel's plot and pace, I love Stephen Jay Schwartz's style of writing. He writes in both complete and fragmented sentences that set the beat of the novel and keep you itching for the next word and the next.
I give this book five freaking stars, and am sad to have to give it back to the library.
I read this book in about twenty-four hours. I started it one night and put it down only to sleep, and carted it around with me all throughout the next day, hardly able to tear my eyes from it -- even during a few grisly parts that even I had a slightly hard time reading, and I'm an avid horror-with-gore fan.
Aside from the novel's plot and pace, I love Stephen Jay Schwartz's style of writing. He writes in both complete and fragmented sentences that set the beat of the novel and keep you itching for the next word and the next.
I give this book five freaking stars, and am sad to have to give it back to the library.
September 19, 2020
If you read the first book, you know what you're in for style-wise with this one. Hayden is still recovering from the events in the first book and this time his addiction takes him to San Francisco and the underground sex clubs and those who work and protect them. Again this is a procedural with very gritty violence, sex and characters of questionable morals. As good as the first one, 4 stars. Unfortunately it seems like this is the end of the line for this character and author as this is from 2010 and I see nothing since, perhaps the style is too dark for a wider audience.
October 1, 2010
I wonder what would happen if you crossed a great crime-writer like Michael Connelly with a writer of gritty suspense movies set in the sexual underworld—something with crime and rather graphic and dark sexuality, I expect; something like Beat. I’d already read author Stephen Jay Schwartz’s short story Crossing the Line about a young LA cop assigned to vice, who learns the dark and practical way why one particular prostitute can never be arrested. When I read of Detective Hayden Glass’s sex addiction on the back cover of The Beat, I knew what to expect. But the front cover quote from Michael Connelly is just as telling, describing Beat as a great original take on detective fiction. It has a dark and gritty mystery, a powerfully convincing protagonist, a steamy underbelly running through San Francisco and internet porn, and a hard-fought-for hope. I hope it might make a good movie one day, but the novel’s written with such convincing description, I feel like I’ve already seen it. Stephen Jay Schwartz is deservedly a Los Angeles Time Bestselling Author.
The abused women caught up in vice-torn San Francisco are only one side to this story. Protagonist Glass is a wounded soul himself, with dark secrets never wholly revealed, and a berserker anger that lies just a short way in his past (and future too perhaps). Rewarded with a medal for his valiant capture of a violent criminal, he’s also consigned to the psychiatrist’s couch for the destruction he wrought, and for his sex addiction. A cop with a beat of his own and demons to beat, Glass has not really fallen; he just falling with style he thinks, till the girl he believes he loves disappears and her captors fail to kill him. Now the search is on. Who owns whom? Whose money buys which influence? And who’s on the take?
The story is an exciting roller coaster ride as Glass follows clues, falls behind, finds hope and betrays it again. But the ride leads ever forward with Glass climbing higher after each deeper fall, till a final violent conclusion and surprise decision open the door to peaceful respite. Not a pleasant man, Glass is convincingly real and well worth saving; he has a wounded honesty that really pulls the reader to his side. Not an easy read, Beat is a powerful evocative novel of dark crime, graphic violence, and surprising depth. I’m really glad I was given the chance to read and review it for the author’s Blog Tour.
The abused women caught up in vice-torn San Francisco are only one side to this story. Protagonist Glass is a wounded soul himself, with dark secrets never wholly revealed, and a berserker anger that lies just a short way in his past (and future too perhaps). Rewarded with a medal for his valiant capture of a violent criminal, he’s also consigned to the psychiatrist’s couch for the destruction he wrought, and for his sex addiction. A cop with a beat of his own and demons to beat, Glass has not really fallen; he just falling with style he thinks, till the girl he believes he loves disappears and her captors fail to kill him. Now the search is on. Who owns whom? Whose money buys which influence? And who’s on the take?
The story is an exciting roller coaster ride as Glass follows clues, falls behind, finds hope and betrays it again. But the ride leads ever forward with Glass climbing higher after each deeper fall, till a final violent conclusion and surprise decision open the door to peaceful respite. Not a pleasant man, Glass is convincingly real and well worth saving; he has a wounded honesty that really pulls the reader to his side. Not an easy read, Beat is a powerful evocative novel of dark crime, graphic violence, and surprising depth. I’m really glad I was given the chance to read and review it for the author’s Blog Tour.
October 12, 2010
Beat has the makings of a typical detective novel in many ways. It has the usual ingredients, the detective of course, a complicated case and a chase with some action thrown in. What is probably different from most detective novels is the protagonist Hayden Glass.
Hayden Glass is a LAPD detective who is currently on a leave or a forced medical leave and is undergoing therapy for sex addiction. One day, after he has been clean for around 2 months he enters a video chat room after surfing a sex site for days. He enters the chat and sees a prostitute called Cora whom he instantly becomes obsessed with. After a few months of relentlessly “meeting” her online, she disappears. He follows her to San Francisco where she told him she lived and tracks her down in a hotel room.
2 heavy-set Russian guys enter the room, beat him up, rape Cora and take her with them. What follows is Hayden’s chase to find Cora. In the process he gets involved with the San Francisco Police department, the FBI and the Russian mafia with their underground sex trade.
I found the premise different and interesting with the writing flowing smoothly as well. There was a little too much Detective Jargon which I found a little difficult to follow as first but got used to later. Besides it just shows how much research and preparation the author has done. The sense of place is also very strong in Beat. I could picture the alleys and the night life of San Fransisco within the pages.
I found Hayden Glass most interesting. He revealed various shades as the novel progressed, becoming a sex addict to a detective, to a man who would risk anything for a girl, to an almost nice person at the end. He was not a black and white caricature detectives are usually portrayed as.
I wish I had read the first book Boulevard though. Beat could be called a stand alone novel but reading the first one would have given me a little more glimpse into Hayden’s life and character since most of the issues he carried with him came from the first book. Beat is not very heavy on action. It’s more of Hayden chasing the girl Cora and then uncovering various things on the way. It was a bit slow for my taste but the end more or less made up for it.
Note: A lot of violence.
Hayden Glass is a LAPD detective who is currently on a leave or a forced medical leave and is undergoing therapy for sex addiction. One day, after he has been clean for around 2 months he enters a video chat room after surfing a sex site for days. He enters the chat and sees a prostitute called Cora whom he instantly becomes obsessed with. After a few months of relentlessly “meeting” her online, she disappears. He follows her to San Francisco where she told him she lived and tracks her down in a hotel room.
2 heavy-set Russian guys enter the room, beat him up, rape Cora and take her with them. What follows is Hayden’s chase to find Cora. In the process he gets involved with the San Francisco Police department, the FBI and the Russian mafia with their underground sex trade.
I found the premise different and interesting with the writing flowing smoothly as well. There was a little too much Detective Jargon which I found a little difficult to follow as first but got used to later. Besides it just shows how much research and preparation the author has done. The sense of place is also very strong in Beat. I could picture the alleys and the night life of San Fransisco within the pages.
I found Hayden Glass most interesting. He revealed various shades as the novel progressed, becoming a sex addict to a detective, to a man who would risk anything for a girl, to an almost nice person at the end. He was not a black and white caricature detectives are usually portrayed as.
I wish I had read the first book Boulevard though. Beat could be called a stand alone novel but reading the first one would have given me a little more glimpse into Hayden’s life and character since most of the issues he carried with him came from the first book. Beat is not very heavy on action. It’s more of Hayden chasing the girl Cora and then uncovering various things on the way. It was a bit slow for my taste but the end more or less made up for it.
Note: A lot of violence.
September 29, 2010
Well while I was reading my latest 'Beat', I have found that I am also going to give you a chance to win one of two of this book. I was taken with Hayden Glass who is not only a robbery homicide detective with the LAPD but has his own problem with trolling the internet looking for a fix for his addiction. Yes, like too many, he has fallen prey to his own job and is addicted to pornography. (Yes, you see that word here.) Like too many, this is an area that is pushed away from the surface and looked at only in the dark corners where no one is. But because of that, so many horrors can happen. Glass discovers that he has fallen into the trap of becoming involved and worrying about the object of his obsession. He finds a labyrinthine of crime rings and corruption in the sex-slave trade of San Francisco. And feels he has to not only save the girls involved. But better yet, he has to get a handle on his own addiction in order to be of any help to anyone else. It is hard enough to battle the demons outside but to do battle with the inner demons at the same time is a harder task.
I so enjoyed that this did not gloss over the parts of life we tend to ignore. But instead brought to life the humanity of our own deep obsessions. Weather it be to sex, food, love....whatever....there is so much that we want to be able to obtain. Often doing more harm to ourselves in the long run. Hayden Glass may be a hard nose cop but he is also human. And like us, wants to succeed in his own wars.
Stephen Jay Schwartz has done a great job of making Hayden Glass a full character. I think you would be drawn into his novel as much as I was.
November 1, 2010
Better than his first book, Boulevard, and that was pretty good, too!
April 20, 2011
Intense from the get-go.
January 16, 2019
Excellent follow up sequel to "Boulevard". Traditionally the 2nd novel is considered not as good as the first-this was not the case. Hayden is back dealing with his own demons while diving head first into sex trafficking and exploitation. He is a rogue detective in a different city fighting against corruption while having to depend on new and old faces while trying to keep his own addictions in check. He makes a lot of growth within this novel. I would LOVE to see a third in the series!
February 3, 2018
Beat and the first book in this series Boulevard are not easy hangs. They bring us face to face with sex addiction in a way no other book I have encountered has. There is a darkness to this story that seems overwhelming at times but I haven't seen addiction handled this well in a book since Lawrence Block's Eight Million Ways to Die.
December 28, 2017
twisted tale about a cop with his own addictions.
June 16, 2020
Another brilliant story in the second installment of the Hayden Glass series. He is now a "must-read" author for this reader. Peek into the underbelly of Hollywood's grit. Fantastic read!!!
October 28, 2010
I have to say this was a tough one for me. I am giving this 4 out 5 stars for a number of good reasons. The biggest one is that Stephen jay Schwartz knows how to write a taunt thriller. Here is the synopsis of the novel: ”LAPD robbery-homicide detective Hayden Glass has trouble controlling his urges. No longer trolling the streets looking for working girls, he has a new obsession-the internet. Infatuated with a woman he finds on a website, Hayden Glass’s sex addition drags him to San Francisco and into a web of corruption and crime.
Glass’s search for this woman leads him to a massive sex slave trade run by the Russian mafia and protected by a group of powerful and corrupt San Francisco cops. Glass gets co-opted by the FBI to aid in their investigation… but his presence is doing much more harm than good.”
Here is the issue for me with the one star; the content for me is just a little out there. I understand the character needs to have some type of fatal flaw or he would be just to perfect a character, but the nature of his addition just rubs me the wrong way a bit. The thing for me that pushes all that aside and makes the novel worth the read is Schwartz’s ability to put together a really good crime story, and make that the focus of the novel with his sexual proclivity being the undercurrent. I am not that naive to think that people don’t have their proclivities, I am happily married with eight wonderful children, people say we have proclivities. But I digress, you get the point, or at least I hope that you do as I dance around my uncomfortable feelings about Hayden Glass’s addictions.
When you boil down Beat and you remove the characters issues, you have a very good crime novel, filled with action and raw emotion that resonates throughout. For me it came down to a line from the movie Happy Gilmore, “block out the bad, in with the good.” I think if you want to ride the bull after reading this novel, do so with the knowledge that Stephen Jay Schwartz has given his character a twisted, bent, addiction and I mean this in a very nice way. Don’t pass this novel by. If you are a fan of this genre, pick it up and go for the ride.
What are you reading today? Check us out and become our friend on Facebook & Linkedin. Go to Goodreads and become our friend there and suggest books for us to read and post on. You can also follow us on Twitter, and the Gelati’s Scoop Facebook Fan Page. Did you know you can shop directly on Amazon by clicking the Gelati’s Store Tab on our blog? Thanks for stopping by today; We will see you tomorrow. Have a great day. http://www.gelatisscoop.blogspot.com
Glass’s search for this woman leads him to a massive sex slave trade run by the Russian mafia and protected by a group of powerful and corrupt San Francisco cops. Glass gets co-opted by the FBI to aid in their investigation… but his presence is doing much more harm than good.”
Here is the issue for me with the one star; the content for me is just a little out there. I understand the character needs to have some type of fatal flaw or he would be just to perfect a character, but the nature of his addition just rubs me the wrong way a bit. The thing for me that pushes all that aside and makes the novel worth the read is Schwartz’s ability to put together a really good crime story, and make that the focus of the novel with his sexual proclivity being the undercurrent. I am not that naive to think that people don’t have their proclivities, I am happily married with eight wonderful children, people say we have proclivities. But I digress, you get the point, or at least I hope that you do as I dance around my uncomfortable feelings about Hayden Glass’s addictions.
When you boil down Beat and you remove the characters issues, you have a very good crime novel, filled with action and raw emotion that resonates throughout. For me it came down to a line from the movie Happy Gilmore, “block out the bad, in with the good.” I think if you want to ride the bull after reading this novel, do so with the knowledge that Stephen Jay Schwartz has given his character a twisted, bent, addiction and I mean this in a very nice way. Don’t pass this novel by. If you are a fan of this genre, pick it up and go for the ride.
What are you reading today? Check us out and become our friend on Facebook & Linkedin. Go to Goodreads and become our friend there and suggest books for us to read and post on. You can also follow us on Twitter, and the Gelati’s Scoop Facebook Fan Page. Did you know you can shop directly on Amazon by clicking the Gelati’s Store Tab on our blog? Thanks for stopping by today; We will see you tomorrow. Have a great day. http://www.gelatisscoop.blogspot.com
November 15, 2010
As far as I have read, generally detectives have to be good, they can be thick-headed, full of attitude, but never have I read of a detective having sex addiction and that definitely warrants the presence of lot of sexual scenes and bad/foul language in this book. Hayden Glass is an LAPD detective who is on a forced medical leave following some real bad things he has done in the previous book, which only a few others know about. He is being treated for his sex – addiction and he is really working on it. He is even given it a name, Rufus (that really cracked me up).
But how can a person really fight an addiction like this?! He frequents porn-sites thinking that this was better than the real thing, and he won’t be addicted. He however falls when Rufus meets Cora, and that’s where his therapy goes into the bin. He starts regularly visiting Cora on the sites, then he starts meeting her up in real life in San Fransisco. He even starts taking money from people who owed him a favor to stay at SA for more days so that he can be with Cora.
But everything goes wrong, when suddenly one day Cora vanishes. And then when he finds her, Cora and he are violently attacked by a couple of Russian guys who rape Cora and take her away. What Hayden does not know earlier is that Cora would become the link between him and this huge network of sex slave trade.
I wish I had read Boulevard, the 1st in this series – just to know more about Hayden. There is obviously a scarred past that has made him the way he is. You know after the first few pages, there was no way I wanted to like Hayden, I mean this was supposed to be the good guy, the hero, right? But as much as I wanted to hate him, after a fourth of the novel was past me – in no time – I started liking him. He fights his obsession every minute of his life and that is something that speaks volumes about his character.
There is action everytime, there is no dull moment in this book- it sets a pace and keeps it moving. After I got over the graphic stuff, I was just glued to it. It is pretty evident that Stephen Jay Schwartz has done lot of research on LAPD, SAPD and FBI, more so on the sex slave trade. There is even a girl who is picked from Calcutta (India), so you can have an idea how wide spread this trade really would be.
This is a well written suspense thriller. You won’t be disappointed with this one.
But how can a person really fight an addiction like this?! He frequents porn-sites thinking that this was better than the real thing, and he won’t be addicted. He however falls when Rufus meets Cora, and that’s where his therapy goes into the bin. He starts regularly visiting Cora on the sites, then he starts meeting her up in real life in San Fransisco. He even starts taking money from people who owed him a favor to stay at SA for more days so that he can be with Cora.
But everything goes wrong, when suddenly one day Cora vanishes. And then when he finds her, Cora and he are violently attacked by a couple of Russian guys who rape Cora and take her away. What Hayden does not know earlier is that Cora would become the link between him and this huge network of sex slave trade.
I wish I had read Boulevard, the 1st in this series – just to know more about Hayden. There is obviously a scarred past that has made him the way he is. You know after the first few pages, there was no way I wanted to like Hayden, I mean this was supposed to be the good guy, the hero, right? But as much as I wanted to hate him, after a fourth of the novel was past me – in no time – I started liking him. He fights his obsession every minute of his life and that is something that speaks volumes about his character.
There is action everytime, there is no dull moment in this book- it sets a pace and keeps it moving. After I got over the graphic stuff, I was just glued to it. It is pretty evident that Stephen Jay Schwartz has done lot of research on LAPD, SAPD and FBI, more so on the sex slave trade. There is even a girl who is picked from Calcutta (India), so you can have an idea how wide spread this trade really would be.
This is a well written suspense thriller. You won’t be disappointed with this one.
May 20, 2019
I feel the pain...
I've known about Stephen Jay Schwartz's gritty detective novels for awhile now. I remember when his debut novel Boulevard was released, but somehow I've missed out until now.
I picked up "Beat" unexpectedly at the store about a month ago. I saw the book and just happened to flip to one of the gritty scenes in the book and I knew I wanted to read it.
Schwartz's main character LAPD robbery homicide detective Hayden Glass is one for the ages. He's likeable, but no where near flawless. Actually he's a mess, he has a sex addiction.
The characters are great, the writing is great in this novel. There were a few plot twists that I really never imagined in the book, but overall I kept wanting more. Schwartz sucks you in at the beginning with the character Cora and much like Glass, you want more.
Schwartz does a good job of making the reader want more, I found myself reading just one more chapter, then one more to find the next big scene.
One reviewer mentions in their review that Sean Penn would play a great Hayden Glass, I agree completely. This book could definitely be made into a movie, although it would lose alot of its magic trying to just get an "R" rating.
This book isn't for the squeamish, the first few chapters will surely turn away readers who aren't ready for this type of ride.
I do plan to read "Boulevard" now that I'm a Hayden Glass fan and I hope Schwartz will continue to keep writing more.
Highly recommended for noir (with a dark sexual twist) fans!
I've known about Stephen Jay Schwartz's gritty detective novels for awhile now. I remember when his debut novel Boulevard was released, but somehow I've missed out until now.
I picked up "Beat" unexpectedly at the store about a month ago. I saw the book and just happened to flip to one of the gritty scenes in the book and I knew I wanted to read it.
Schwartz's main character LAPD robbery homicide detective Hayden Glass is one for the ages. He's likeable, but no where near flawless. Actually he's a mess, he has a sex addiction.
The characters are great, the writing is great in this novel. There were a few plot twists that I really never imagined in the book, but overall I kept wanting more. Schwartz sucks you in at the beginning with the character Cora and much like Glass, you want more.
Schwartz does a good job of making the reader want more, I found myself reading just one more chapter, then one more to find the next big scene.
One reviewer mentions in their review that Sean Penn would play a great Hayden Glass, I agree completely. This book could definitely be made into a movie, although it would lose alot of its magic trying to just get an "R" rating.
This book isn't for the squeamish, the first few chapters will surely turn away readers who aren't ready for this type of ride.
I do plan to read "Boulevard" now that I'm a Hayden Glass fan and I hope Schwartz will continue to keep writing more.
Highly recommended for noir (with a dark sexual twist) fans!
September 28, 2010
There are three types of addicts…the outer, middle and inner circles. The outer do the light stuff, more dabbing into trying things. The middle are the people do spend a little more time and money focusing on their addictions. Lastly there is the inner circle. These are the hard core people. LAPD homicide detective Hayden Glass is in the middle circle. Hayden’s addiction is sex or porn. Hayden is just about to log off his computer when he sees a link that advertisings real live women. Hayden logs on and this is where Hayden meets Cora.
Hayden tracks Cora down. The next thing Hayden knows, two men come storming into the room and accost Hayden. When Hayden awakes Cora is gone. Hayden soon discovers that he has stumbled upon a large sex ring that is run by the Russian mafia. The FBI asks Hayden for his assistance. There is no turning back for Hayden now. The only question left is…will Hayden make it out alive?
While I liked this book for its gritty story line and though as nails character in Hayden, there was a few times there I felt for me that the intensity levels dropped some. I thought Mr. Schwartz showed the down and dirty side of law enforcement. Hayden is a strong character. Unfortunately, he wasn’t strong enough to keep my interest all the way until the end. This book started out strong but then lost some of its speed in the middle but ended on a high note. I could picture this book being turning into a movie. Beat takes a licking but keeps on ticking.
Hayden tracks Cora down. The next thing Hayden knows, two men come storming into the room and accost Hayden. When Hayden awakes Cora is gone. Hayden soon discovers that he has stumbled upon a large sex ring that is run by the Russian mafia. The FBI asks Hayden for his assistance. There is no turning back for Hayden now. The only question left is…will Hayden make it out alive?
While I liked this book for its gritty story line and though as nails character in Hayden, there was a few times there I felt for me that the intensity levels dropped some. I thought Mr. Schwartz showed the down and dirty side of law enforcement. Hayden is a strong character. Unfortunately, he wasn’t strong enough to keep my interest all the way until the end. This book started out strong but then lost some of its speed in the middle but ended on a high note. I could picture this book being turning into a movie. Beat takes a licking but keeps on ticking.
October 9, 2010
LAPD Robbery-Homicide Detective Hayden Glass has always had trouble controlling his urges. No longer trolling the streets looking for working girls, he has a new obsession--the Internet. Infatuated with a woman he finds on a website, Hayden Glass's sex addiction drags him to San Francisco and into a web of corruption and crime.
Glass’s search for this woman leads him to a massive sex slave trade, run by the Russian mafia and protected by a group of powerful and corrupt San Francisco cops. Glass gets co-opted by the FBI to aid in their investigation...but his presence is doing much more harm than good. Good Reads
This is an interesting and sometimes difficult read. Not for the faint at heart.I admit that I often had a hard time giving sex addiction the same weight as other addictions. Hayden Glass however is an interesting representation of people who have this problem. When Hayden is drawn into this investigaton his main concern is Cora. She is one of his most frequently downloaded images. As the investigation gets mre and ore heated Hayden puts himself in physical and emotional dangers. This is a High intensity action drama with a twist. Despite being the second in a series the book is very easy to follow. A difficult but exciting read.
Thanks for Tor/Forge for giving me the opportunity to read this book.
Glass’s search for this woman leads him to a massive sex slave trade, run by the Russian mafia and protected by a group of powerful and corrupt San Francisco cops. Glass gets co-opted by the FBI to aid in their investigation...but his presence is doing much more harm than good. Good Reads
This is an interesting and sometimes difficult read. Not for the faint at heart.I admit that I often had a hard time giving sex addiction the same weight as other addictions. Hayden Glass however is an interesting representation of people who have this problem. When Hayden is drawn into this investigaton his main concern is Cora. She is one of his most frequently downloaded images. As the investigation gets mre and ore heated Hayden puts himself in physical and emotional dangers. This is a High intensity action drama with a twist. Despite being the second in a series the book is very easy to follow. A difficult but exciting read.
Thanks for Tor/Forge for giving me the opportunity to read this book.
December 29, 2011
Not as good as Boulevard!
The dark, noir feel and Hayden Glass' internal struglle which made Boulevard interesting and unique, are here but it gets a bit muddled as the tone of the book shifts abruptly.
The most effective points are the scenes
were Hayden enters the grimey underworld of sex clubs/prostitution and
reflects on his own weaknesses and demons. The scene where he visits a "John school" and realizes he is no different than the cynical, callous men who are attending as part of their penalty for a soliciting arrest.
However, the scene is followed by a visit to the local FBI office which is rather unrealistic and over the top. I am sorry but I highly doubt any Federal office building has mahogany tables and lamb skin leather seats in their conference rooms. I know that this seems like a small detail, but the whole scene is one of many that do not fit with the tone of the book.
Similar scene is where Hayden and Glass have drinks while planning an
assault on strip club run by the Russian mob. The scenes rely heavily on dialogue which is just not as strong as the author's descriptions.
The novel also has a couple shoot-out scenes which remind more of the climax of a Crais novel rather than the more noir (ala James Ellroy) style of Schwartz's earlier novel.
The dark, noir feel and Hayden Glass' internal struglle which made Boulevard interesting and unique, are here but it gets a bit muddled as the tone of the book shifts abruptly.
The most effective points are the scenes
were Hayden enters the grimey underworld of sex clubs/prostitution and
reflects on his own weaknesses and demons. The scene where he visits a "John school" and realizes he is no different than the cynical, callous men who are attending as part of their penalty for a soliciting arrest.
However, the scene is followed by a visit to the local FBI office which is rather unrealistic and over the top. I am sorry but I highly doubt any Federal office building has mahogany tables and lamb skin leather seats in their conference rooms. I know that this seems like a small detail, but the whole scene is one of many that do not fit with the tone of the book.
Similar scene is where Hayden and Glass have drinks while planning an
assault on strip club run by the Russian mob. The scenes rely heavily on dialogue which is just not as strong as the author's descriptions.
The novel also has a couple shoot-out scenes which remind more of the climax of a Crais novel rather than the more noir (ala James Ellroy) style of Schwartz's earlier novel.
November 5, 2010
Stephen Schwartz's pulp novel Beat mixes the surprising nature of its explicit sexual and violent content with an ending that somehow feels too choreographed and too cinematically-minded for the rest of the book. Having creating Hayden Glass, a gritty, believable police detective with a predilection for drugs and a clinical diagnosis of sexual addiction, Schwartz sinks him headfirst into San Francisco's world of sex trafficking -- a business in which the detective has sometimes been a willing participant. All of this is excellent, gritty noir, and feels like an alternate, pulpier angle on Andrew Vachss's highly stylized Burke, series. But it's the conclusion that breaks the spell, creating an ending that while satisfying in parts could be replaced with the denouement of any half-baked Hollywood action film. As the Glass series goes forward, here's hoping Schwartz finds a better model to mimic for his original and engrossing cast of characters.
May 16, 2015
I saw Schwartz at the LA Book Festival and decided to look up his books. Found "Boulevard" at the local County library and found it interesting enough to then get "Beat at my local city library (which did not have #1, very annoying.) This book continues the adventures of Hayden Glass, an LAPD detective who follows his sexual obsession form the internet to San Francisco. This book needs a suspension of disbelief as Glass is beaten, shot, beaten again. I had to skim quite a bit of the violent and sexual scenes, they just became too much for me. So this is a warning. Russian mobsters, torture films, underage sex slaves, police corruption, with a possible happy ending!! Glad I finished it, but wheh, what a ride.
August 6, 2016
The blurb from the always excellent Michael Connelly roped me in, and my hopes were raised even higher by the impressive amount of research Schwartz did--I even know (slightly) one of his SFPD sources.
So much for research. The SFPD slang may be authentic, but the actual SF setting is poorly-realized and riddled with errors, the slavery-based sex industry model presented unrealistic and economicly unvialbe, the hero's "sex addicition" laughable, and the over-the-top action patently absurd even by normal genre standards. Suspension of disbelief is one thing; presuming the reader to be a moron is another entirely.
Mr. Connelly, you should be ashamed.
So much for research. The SFPD slang may be authentic, but the actual SF setting is poorly-realized and riddled with errors, the slavery-based sex industry model presented unrealistic and economicly unvialbe, the hero's "sex addicition" laughable, and the over-the-top action patently absurd even by normal genre standards. Suspension of disbelief is one thing; presuming the reader to be a moron is another entirely.
Mr. Connelly, you should be ashamed.
February 11, 2017
I wanted to like this book, I really did. I just found a so much of it to be very, very hard to swallow. It was told well but at this frenetic pace; so much so that it was hard to follow. Foreshadowing, foretelling, flashbacks, dream sequences--it was just too much to keep track of. It's more the way that the story was written rather than the content that I didn't enjoy. So, it's hard to know how I feel. I'm just glad to be done and glad to have finished the series. I doubt I'll invest time in Crossing the Line; though I also did say I wouldn't read this book after the first...
Ray Porter's excellent narration is what kept me going.
Ray Porter's excellent narration is what kept me going.
April 11, 2012
Got the book at my company's semi-annual "Free Book Day." I really wish both Goodreads and the book itself made it more clear that this was a sequel. While not absolutely essential that you read the first book, I think things would have been clearer had I read the first book. Also, fair warning, it is extremely violent and has a lot of sex (I enjoy mysteries and thrillers and this just had more sex than the books I usually read). Good subway reading, though be prepared for some wide eyes from your fellow passengers if they happen to glance over during a particularly juicy scene...
November 16, 2010
This is sequel to Boulevard, which I really liked. This is high-concept "homicide detective is also a sex addict" tale which leads to rescue of teenage prostitute from evil Russian thugs.
I lost interest as it moved to predictable "heroic" ending.
Warning: very explicit sex and graphic violence.
Enjoyed setting in San Francisco but there were some egrecious geographic errors (e.g. "Knob Hill", Berkeley Hills vs. Oakland Hills).
I lost interest as it moved to predictable "heroic" ending.
Warning: very explicit sex and graphic violence.
Enjoyed setting in San Francisco but there were some egrecious geographic errors (e.g. "Knob Hill", Berkeley Hills vs. Oakland Hills).
December 29, 2013
This was the first police thriller I have read in a while, and found it a refreshing and fun read. There were many, many problems with realism in the book, though, which made me think "Yeah, sure, like that would happen." Anyway, the background and theme of the book is human trafficking, a subject that should receive more attention from law enforcement and our society. So, there's that.
January 13, 2011
I won an ARC through The book Trib. This book was pretty graphic and has a lot of strong language in it. The characters are pretty believable and it is very excited thriller, just not strong enough for me to give it more than 3 stars.
May 6, 2011
The first book I have read by this author and I have to say that I am wanting to read the first novel featuring the Hayden Glass character. [return]As some have said this book contains both violence and sex. While this didn't take away from the book, for me, it may bother some.
September 28, 2013
Damn good, dark thriller. Probably not to everyone's taste, but I enjoyed the hell out of how it pushed the limits of the genre. Now I gotta go read the first one and wait for the third one. Get to writing, Mr. Schwartz.
May 12, 2015
A nasty, gritty story of an LAPD detective with little in the way of moral foundations caught up in the West Coast sex trade. Compellingly told, but certainly not for the faint of heart or weak of stomach. I will probably not be reading any more in the series.
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