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Liam Mulligan #1
Rogue Island
2011 Edgar Award Winner for Best First Novel
Liam Mulligan is as old school as a newspaper man gets. His beat is Providence, Rhode Island, and he knows every street and alley. He knows the priests and prostitutes, the cops and street thugs. He knows the mobsters and politicians—who are pretty much one and the same.
Someone is systematically burning down the neighborhood Mulligan grew up in, people he knows and loves are perishing in the flames, and the public is on the verge of panic. With the whole city of Providence on his back, Mulligan must weed through a wildly colorful array of characters to find the truth.
Liam Mulligan is as old school as a newspaper man gets. His beat is Providence, Rhode Island, and he knows every street and alley. He knows the priests and prostitutes, the cops and street thugs. He knows the mobsters and politicians—who are pretty much one and the same.
Someone is systematically burning down the neighborhood Mulligan grew up in, people he knows and loves are perishing in the flames, and the public is on the verge of panic. With the whole city of Providence on his back, Mulligan must weed through a wildly colorful array of characters to find the truth.
304 pages, Hardcover
First published October 12, 2010
71 people are currently reading
1445 people want to read
About the author
Bruce DeSilva
10 books208 followersBruce DeSilva grew up in a tiny Massachusetts mill town where the mill closed when he was ten. He had an austere childhood bereft of iPods, X-Boxes, and all the other cool stuff that hadn’t been invented yet. In this parochial little town, metaphors and alliteration were also in short supply. Nevertheless, his crime fiction has won the Edgar and Macavity Awards; has been listed as a finalist for the Shamus, Anthony, and Barry Awards; and has been published in ten foreign languages. His short stories have appeared in Akashic Press's award-winning noir anthologies. He has reviewed books for The New York Times Sunday Book Review and Publishers Weekly, and his reviews for The Associated Press have appeared in hundreds of other publications. Previously, he was a journalist for forty years, most recently as writing coach world-wide for AP, editing stories that won nearly every major journalism prize including the Pulitzer. He and his wife, the poet Patricia Smith, live in New Jersey with two enormous dogs named Brady and Rondo.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 305 reviews
September 12, 2017
An Edgar Award winner for Best First Novel? Seriously? Must have been a weak year for debut crime books.
Mulligan is a newspaper reporter covering a string of arsons in the Mount Hope area of Providence, Rhode Island. Since the arson cops are completely inept, it looks like Mulligan will have to solve the crime as he dodges fluff assignments from his editor, deals with a bitchy ex-wife, romances his new girlfriend, and bemoans the state of the newspaper industry.
I had three big problems with this book. First, our hero is a newspaper reporter. If you’re going to have your protagonist’s occupation be something obsolete at least make it something offbeat like a steamboat captain or video store rental clerk because the idea that a newspaper would allow a reporter to run around spending all his time on one story is so unrealistic that I couldn't suspend disbelief long enough to buy into it.
The second issue is how the author portrays his Rhode Island setting. I generally like it when someone sets a crime novel somewhere other than New York or L.A., but Mulligan’s narration is filled with constant references that are supposed to make the reader think that the political corruption, weather, and road conditions are incredibly bad in Rhode Island. I hate to break this to Mulligan, but the only other places that deal with the same type of problems are FREAKIN’ EVERYWHERE! Everyone’s government is crap, the roads suck, and we’ve all got shitty weather. Well, maybe not San Diego, but you get the point. The idea that Rhode Island is somehow special because of these factors had me rolling my eyes repeatedly.
The worst problem in the book is our narrator Mulligan. DeSilva obviously set out to create a quirky main character in the tradition of ‘80s movies like Fletch or Beverly Hills Cop. Mulligan is a 40 year old smart ass reporter who lives in a shitty apartment with no furniture or cooking utensils. He ignores his ulcer while living on a diet of cigars, beer, and diner food. He doesn’t allow anyone to use his first name, and he rolls around in a beat up old Ford Bronco he calls Secretariat. (Get it? Get it? Oh, the hilarity.) He’s got a crazy ex-wife who calls him constantly to curse him out, and she got custody of the dog he claims to love. Despite being middle-aged and broke he somehow attracts a stream of younger women including his incredibly hot 20-something girlfriend and fellow reporter.
I probably could have lived with all this and chalked it up to just lazy character development that substitutes quirks for actual emotions, but the worst part is that the Mulligan is a Red Sox fan. He’s one of those types who constantly wears hats and jerseys (Much like how the Chevy Chase version of Fletch loved the Lakers.) and feels the need to repeatedly express his love for the Sox while also subjecting the readers to constant recaps of all the games he watches over the course of the novel. Red Sox fans may care. I don't.
I kind of liked the offbeat ending but overall was disappointed with this.
Mulligan is a newspaper reporter covering a string of arsons in the Mount Hope area of Providence, Rhode Island. Since the arson cops are completely inept, it looks like Mulligan will have to solve the crime as he dodges fluff assignments from his editor, deals with a bitchy ex-wife, romances his new girlfriend, and bemoans the state of the newspaper industry.
I had three big problems with this book. First, our hero is a newspaper reporter. If you’re going to have your protagonist’s occupation be something obsolete at least make it something offbeat like a steamboat captain or video store rental clerk because the idea that a newspaper would allow a reporter to run around spending all his time on one story is so unrealistic that I couldn't suspend disbelief long enough to buy into it.
The second issue is how the author portrays his Rhode Island setting. I generally like it when someone sets a crime novel somewhere other than New York or L.A., but Mulligan’s narration is filled with constant references that are supposed to make the reader think that the political corruption, weather, and road conditions are incredibly bad in Rhode Island. I hate to break this to Mulligan, but the only other places that deal with the same type of problems are FREAKIN’ EVERYWHERE! Everyone’s government is crap, the roads suck, and we’ve all got shitty weather. Well, maybe not San Diego, but you get the point. The idea that Rhode Island is somehow special because of these factors had me rolling my eyes repeatedly.
The worst problem in the book is our narrator Mulligan. DeSilva obviously set out to create a quirky main character in the tradition of ‘80s movies like Fletch or Beverly Hills Cop. Mulligan is a 40 year old smart ass reporter who lives in a shitty apartment with no furniture or cooking utensils. He ignores his ulcer while living on a diet of cigars, beer, and diner food. He doesn’t allow anyone to use his first name, and he rolls around in a beat up old Ford Bronco he calls Secretariat. (Get it? Get it? Oh, the hilarity.) He’s got a crazy ex-wife who calls him constantly to curse him out, and she got custody of the dog he claims to love. Despite being middle-aged and broke he somehow attracts a stream of younger women including his incredibly hot 20-something girlfriend and fellow reporter.
I probably could have lived with all this and chalked it up to just lazy character development that substitutes quirks for actual emotions, but the worst part is that the Mulligan is a Red Sox fan. He’s one of those types who constantly wears hats and jerseys (Much like how the Chevy Chase version of Fletch loved the Lakers.) and feels the need to repeatedly express his love for the Sox while also subjecting the readers to constant recaps of all the games he watches over the course of the novel. Red Sox fans may care. I don't.
I kind of liked the offbeat ending but overall was disappointed with this.
June 25, 2019
Thanks to my real life mystery book club for picking this for the month. I have not heard of the writer, Bruce DeSilva or about the series. It was great to read something completely unexpected and unknown!
Rogue Island had some good things about the book and plot
AND…
things that didn’t work for me. I just can’t rate this any higher.
On to the good points...
I liked the overall plot of Rogue Island with a weary, sarcastic investigative reporter named Liam Mulligan. Mulligan is trying to find out who’s behind all the arsons in his old neighborhood of Mount Hope. This is set in Providence, Rhode Island and I definitely like the setting of the book.
In Mount Hope, someone is going around and torching homes. People are dying, kids are getting hurt and the fire fighters have no idea who the arson is.
Enter Liam Mulligan.
Can this reporter find out who’s doing this by working his anonymous sources and patrolling the streets of Providence?
I liked the ending and how the arsons were solved. It felt very Providence and mafia like to me. This book is not for the light hearted. There’s racial slang, there’s a mob like feel to the book and it’s definitely gritty at times.
I liked where Bruce DeSilva wanted to take this character and the overall noir vibe of the book. It had a Sin City vibe for me but there were times it just didn’t work.
Here's why...
I don’t think Liam Mulligan is going to be that irresistible to multiple ladies that he can just snap his fingers and attract ‘em all!
For god sakes, he doesn’t have any furniture in his place besides a bed, works all the time, can’t quit talking about the Red Sox and can never be serious.
His constant sarcastic comments ended up working against me in the long run. I never felt that he was sad or mad about the fires and deaths.
And before all my guy friends on here start throwing darts at me, I like sports. His constant Red Sox dialogue took away from the overall plot though.
And the one major thing that bothered me the most about this character is this.
Honestly, if authors want me to feel ANYTHING for their characters, they need a better formula.
100% sarcasm + 0% emotion = Nothing
80% sarcasm + 20% emotion = You’ll make me feel something! Anything.
Just make a character a bit more vulnerable and you’ve got the reader by the balls or girl parts.
And back to one of my earlier complaints, if you write about baseball and the Red Sox for half of the book, I’m deducting a star. I'm not reading a sports book, I'm reading a crime mystery.
All of the Red Sox and baseball took from the overall pacing and suspense of Rogue Island. It felt like filler. I just wanted Mulligan to talk about the arsons again or even how he was feeling with his old neighborhood going up in flames!
Recommended to fans that like crime mysteries and “noir” like books.
Rogue Island had some good things about the book and plot
AND…
things that didn’t work for me. I just can’t rate this any higher.
On to the good points...
I liked the overall plot of Rogue Island with a weary, sarcastic investigative reporter named Liam Mulligan. Mulligan is trying to find out who’s behind all the arsons in his old neighborhood of Mount Hope. This is set in Providence, Rhode Island and I definitely like the setting of the book.
In Mount Hope, someone is going around and torching homes. People are dying, kids are getting hurt and the fire fighters have no idea who the arson is.
Enter Liam Mulligan.
Can this reporter find out who’s doing this by working his anonymous sources and patrolling the streets of Providence?
I liked the ending and how the arsons were solved. It felt very Providence and mafia like to me. This book is not for the light hearted. There’s racial slang, there’s a mob like feel to the book and it’s definitely gritty at times.
I liked where Bruce DeSilva wanted to take this character and the overall noir vibe of the book. It had a Sin City vibe for me but there were times it just didn’t work.
Here's why...
I don’t think Liam Mulligan is going to be that irresistible to multiple ladies that he can just snap his fingers and attract ‘em all!
For god sakes, he doesn’t have any furniture in his place besides a bed, works all the time, can’t quit talking about the Red Sox and can never be serious.
His constant sarcastic comments ended up working against me in the long run. I never felt that he was sad or mad about the fires and deaths.
And before all my guy friends on here start throwing darts at me, I like sports. His constant Red Sox dialogue took away from the overall plot though.
And the one major thing that bothered me the most about this character is this.
Honestly, if authors want me to feel ANYTHING for their characters, they need a better formula.
100% sarcasm + 0% emotion = Nothing
80% sarcasm + 20% emotion = You’ll make me feel something! Anything.
Just make a character a bit more vulnerable and you’ve got the reader by the balls or girl parts.
And back to one of my earlier complaints, if you write about baseball and the Red Sox for half of the book, I’m deducting a star. I'm not reading a sports book, I'm reading a crime mystery.
All of the Red Sox and baseball took from the overall pacing and suspense of Rogue Island. It felt like filler. I just wanted Mulligan to talk about the arsons again or even how he was feeling with his old neighborhood going up in flames!
Recommended to fans that like crime mysteries and “noir” like books.
April 30, 2011
An arsonist is hard at work, burning down homes in the Mount Hope neighborhood of Providence, Rode Island. People are dying and a town is terrorized. Local reporter Liam Mulligan grew up in this neighborhood and so he's taking this whole thing personally. Not content simply to report the story, Mulligan injects himself into the investigation, determined to stop the arsonist before he or she can claim any additional victims.
It's a good thing he does, because the local authorities are inept and clueless. Mulligan spends his days searching for a motive for the crimes while at the same time attempting to duck the lame, "feel-good" stories that his editor keeps throwing his way. By night, Mulligan patrols the mean streets in his beat-up SUV, hoping to catch the arsonist in the act. Along the way, he will antagonize a lot of powerful and important people and wind up putting his own life at risk.
DeSilva, who was for forty years a reporter in Providence himself, has drawn a very detailed portrait of Rhode Island and of the culture that dominates the state. The setting feels right on, as do DeSilva's observations of the corruption and nepotism that are so prominent in "Rogues Island." He's also populated the book with a number of fully-rounded characters in addition to the main protagonist, and the setting and the characters are the major strengths of the book.
"Rogues Island" has received a lot of high praise from some very well-known crime fiction writers, including Dennis Lehane, Harlan Coben, and others. It also just won the Edgar Award for Best First Novel by an American author, so who am I to quibble? But I will anyhow. I enjoyed this book, but I would have enjoyed it a lot more if DeSilva could have settled on writing either a tense, gripping crime novel or a somehwat humorous mystery. Instead he tries to have it both ways.
Liam Mulligan is a major-league smart-ass, which is certainly fine with me. He's also a huge Red Sox fan, and I don't necessarily mind that either. He's enormously appealing to women and is in the midst of a new relationship with a woman that any reader will recognize as trouble virtually from the git-go. But Mulligan, perhaps blinded by the excellent sex, fails to see for way too long what the rest of us notice immediately. He also has an almost ex-wife who constantly calls to harrass him. The first time she does this, it's sort of amusing, but by the third or fourth time she does it, you're already sick to death of it. Mulligan is also another one of those crime fiction protagonists who has to announce his selection every time he slips a new CD into the player, apparently to impress us with his excellent musical taste.
For my money, the book tries just a bit too hard to be cute. And I found it jarring to read the graphic descriptions of charred bodies being pulled from one fire after another juxtaposed with the attempts at light humor. It's like there are two very different books struggling to emerge here. Either one or the other would have been fine, but combining the two approaches didn't quite work for me. As I said, this is a pretty good book, but IMHO it could have been even better if DeSilva would have settled for one approach or the other.
It's a good thing he does, because the local authorities are inept and clueless. Mulligan spends his days searching for a motive for the crimes while at the same time attempting to duck the lame, "feel-good" stories that his editor keeps throwing his way. By night, Mulligan patrols the mean streets in his beat-up SUV, hoping to catch the arsonist in the act. Along the way, he will antagonize a lot of powerful and important people and wind up putting his own life at risk.
DeSilva, who was for forty years a reporter in Providence himself, has drawn a very detailed portrait of Rhode Island and of the culture that dominates the state. The setting feels right on, as do DeSilva's observations of the corruption and nepotism that are so prominent in "Rogues Island." He's also populated the book with a number of fully-rounded characters in addition to the main protagonist, and the setting and the characters are the major strengths of the book.
"Rogues Island" has received a lot of high praise from some very well-known crime fiction writers, including Dennis Lehane, Harlan Coben, and others. It also just won the Edgar Award for Best First Novel by an American author, so who am I to quibble? But I will anyhow. I enjoyed this book, but I would have enjoyed it a lot more if DeSilva could have settled on writing either a tense, gripping crime novel or a somehwat humorous mystery. Instead he tries to have it both ways.
Liam Mulligan is a major-league smart-ass, which is certainly fine with me. He's also a huge Red Sox fan, and I don't necessarily mind that either. He's enormously appealing to women and is in the midst of a new relationship with a woman that any reader will recognize as trouble virtually from the git-go. But Mulligan, perhaps blinded by the excellent sex, fails to see for way too long what the rest of us notice immediately. He also has an almost ex-wife who constantly calls to harrass him. The first time she does this, it's sort of amusing, but by the third or fourth time she does it, you're already sick to death of it. Mulligan is also another one of those crime fiction protagonists who has to announce his selection every time he slips a new CD into the player, apparently to impress us with his excellent musical taste.
For my money, the book tries just a bit too hard to be cute. And I found it jarring to read the graphic descriptions of charred bodies being pulled from one fire after another juxtaposed with the attempts at light humor. It's like there are two very different books struggling to emerge here. Either one or the other would have been fine, but combining the two approaches didn't quite work for me. As I said, this is a pretty good book, but IMHO it could have been even better if DeSilva would have settled for one approach or the other.
October 24, 2010
The good stuff and the not-so-good stuff run nearly neck-and-neck in the debut novel from Bruce DeSilva, well-known in the mystery-book community for his reviews for the Associated Press, his longtime employer.
The good stuff: The story lopes along at a energetic pace, lean and leathery and limber, never stopping too long to gaze at its own navel the way many debut novels do. The dialogue is another strong point, crisp and crackling, and cut with Cutty Sark and crusty wit. And the story is steeped in the sort of authenticity about its setting that someone can write only if they've occupied a place like drunk occupies his favorite barstool. DeSilva knows the territory of Providence, Rhode Island like the salesmen in "The Music Man" know theirs.
The not-so-good stuff: "Rogue Island" seems to be less a novel meant to be taken on its own merits than a self-conscious homage to the mystery writers DeSilva most admires. There's a lot of gratuitous name-checking, a lot of inside baseball amid the baseball, and a lot of hewing to tired archetypes in the hardboiled genre. The central character is an in-the-doghouse investigative reporter whose weariness and cynicism (not to mention his perspectives on his profession) seem more like the burned-out barstool bloviations of a man of retirement age than of a writer who's not yet forty.
But Mulligan has to be under forty so he can indulge the unappealing narcissism of having two hot twentysomething newsroom women drool all over him (and a third who probably wants him but the passion remains wordless, for added dramatic heft; three guesses as to her fate). And a gorgeous wife who appears to hate him for no real reason, for the trite unearned-sympathy factor. There's the usual I'm-just-a-good-old-boy-from-the-neighborhood-who-can-rub-shoulders-with-good-guys-and-bad-guys-with-equal-ease convention found in hundreds of hardboiled predecessors, the asshole co-workers (though having the city editor turn out to be conscientious hard worker was a nice and unexpected touch) and the time-for-the-hero-to-go-technically-unethically-rogue moments. In the end, I felt as though I was still searching for reasons to like Mulligan, and to root for him.
The mystery itself was involving, but the mechanics of it were puzzling in places, and I get the feeling that DeSilva expected the reader to take certain developments on faith and trust him to lead the reader in the right direction. When he goes out of his way to establish how corrupt every functionary in Rhode Island is, as well as the state itself, the reveal of the bad guys (two of whom aren't even established characters) proves to pack a fairly weak punch. To wit: When everybody's bad, does "really bad" stand out all that much?
On the whole, "Rogue Island" was a fun little bedside read, a serviceable genre entry with a handful of charms. I'm glad DeSilva, in his sixties, got his shot at writing a novel in the vein of the novels he's long reviewed and admired. Now, with word that a second Mulligan story is in the works, it's time for him to write a better one. One that stands on more on its own merits and less on its pedigree.
The good stuff: The story lopes along at a energetic pace, lean and leathery and limber, never stopping too long to gaze at its own navel the way many debut novels do. The dialogue is another strong point, crisp and crackling, and cut with Cutty Sark and crusty wit. And the story is steeped in the sort of authenticity about its setting that someone can write only if they've occupied a place like drunk occupies his favorite barstool. DeSilva knows the territory of Providence, Rhode Island like the salesmen in "The Music Man" know theirs.
The not-so-good stuff: "Rogue Island" seems to be less a novel meant to be taken on its own merits than a self-conscious homage to the mystery writers DeSilva most admires. There's a lot of gratuitous name-checking, a lot of inside baseball amid the baseball, and a lot of hewing to tired archetypes in the hardboiled genre. The central character is an in-the-doghouse investigative reporter whose weariness and cynicism (not to mention his perspectives on his profession) seem more like the burned-out barstool bloviations of a man of retirement age than of a writer who's not yet forty.
But Mulligan has to be under forty so he can indulge the unappealing narcissism of having two hot twentysomething newsroom women drool all over him (and a third who probably wants him but the passion remains wordless, for added dramatic heft; three guesses as to her fate). And a gorgeous wife who appears to hate him for no real reason, for the trite unearned-sympathy factor. There's the usual I'm-just-a-good-old-boy-from-the-neighborhood-who-can-rub-shoulders-with-good-guys-and-bad-guys-with-equal-ease convention found in hundreds of hardboiled predecessors, the asshole co-workers (though having the city editor turn out to be conscientious hard worker was a nice and unexpected touch) and the time-for-the-hero-to-go-technically-unethically-rogue moments. In the end, I felt as though I was still searching for reasons to like Mulligan, and to root for him.
The mystery itself was involving, but the mechanics of it were puzzling in places, and I get the feeling that DeSilva expected the reader to take certain developments on faith and trust him to lead the reader in the right direction. When he goes out of his way to establish how corrupt every functionary in Rhode Island is, as well as the state itself, the reveal of the bad guys (two of whom aren't even established characters) proves to pack a fairly weak punch. To wit: When everybody's bad, does "really bad" stand out all that much?
On the whole, "Rogue Island" was a fun little bedside read, a serviceable genre entry with a handful of charms. I'm glad DeSilva, in his sixties, got his shot at writing a novel in the vein of the novels he's long reviewed and admired. Now, with word that a second Mulligan story is in the works, it's time for him to write a better one. One that stands on more on its own merits and less on its pedigree.
June 10, 2016
I really enjoyed reading this book. It is full of cynical wisecracks about corruption in Providence, Rhode Island. Liam Mulligan is a newspaper reporter who is determined to find the arsonist burning houses and other buildings in Providence. People are dying, including 2 children. His comments about corruption are humorous and sad:
"Graft, Rhode Island's leading service industry, is widely misunderstood ... Those of us who live here know it comes in two varieties, good and bad, just like cholesterol. "
Good graft is fat free. It's biodegradable."
He does solve the arson case, getting beat up a couple of times in the process.
I borrowed this book from the library. It was recommended by Miss M, a Goodreads friend.
"Graft, Rhode Island's leading service industry, is widely misunderstood ... Those of us who live here know it comes in two varieties, good and bad, just like cholesterol. "
Good graft is fat free. It's biodegradable."
He does solve the arson case, getting beat up a couple of times in the process.
I borrowed this book from the library. It was recommended by Miss M, a Goodreads friend.
July 28, 2012
Blue collar, slightly downtrodden, Providence, RI is the setting for Bruce DeSilva’s Edgar Award winning first novel. Arson rocks newspaper reporter Liam Mulligan’s old neighborhood and as panic begins to set in Mulligan uses his life-long contacts among the locals to find the truth and see justice served.
Wonderful setting and great characters that all seemed very authentic plus a complex story with a terrific ending. My one complaint was with the overall balance of the book. It seemed DeSilva struggled to decide between a gritty crime novel and a more light-hearted, humorous mystery. Still, it was an interesting look into the politics and culture of “Rogue Island” and I’ll look for the next one in the series.
Wonderful setting and great characters that all seemed very authentic plus a complex story with a terrific ending. My one complaint was with the overall balance of the book. It seemed DeSilva struggled to decide between a gritty crime novel and a more light-hearted, humorous mystery. Still, it was an interesting look into the politics and culture of “Rogue Island” and I’ll look for the next one in the series.
July 23, 2011
While this was a decent enough debut I was expecting a bit more since it won the Edgar for best first mystery this year. The best part of the book was the Providence setting and the various descriptions of inner workings of the state. The plot started off well but the lead character took his time putting the pieces together and the pace was bogged down by the never ending listing of the lead character's musical choices (including all of his cell phone ring tones).
May 5, 2012
Bruce DeSilva has produced a well-written, well-edited but only mildly entertaining noir novel featuring a hero so obviously modeled on himself that it gets in the way of the story. The author succumbs to one of my pet peeves in these debut novels -- he inflicts his personal tastes and preferences on the reader in lieu of doing any genuine characterization.
DeSilva's author photo features him with a big stogie and his fictional hero Liam Mulligan distinguishes himself every few pages by "firing up" or "sparking up" a "cuban" with virtually everyone he talks to. In fact, it appears the secret to being a successful investigative reporter is to develop a cigar-smoker's network. Not that Mulligan is notably successful in his investigation although there are intimations of past glory (a 10-year-old Pulitzer gets a passing mention). We don't really know much about Mulligan in fact -- how old he is, what he looks like, or what he likes besides cigars and the Red Sox (and women) -- except that he never grew up.
Like most of the other characters in this book, Mulligan borders on caricature, and caricatures that are decades out of date. It's almost jarring when a cell phone is mentioned. The newsroom rivalries, the bookie, the strip joint are all pushed just a bit beyond the point where you want to suspend disbelief that people really talk and act like that.
But perhaps Providence, R.I. is really like that. We are told that DeSilva had a 41-year career as a newspaperman, so he must know. He does of course lament the decline and fall of newspapers and, after telling us what an irremediable mix of crime and corruption his hometown is, wants us to believe it will be worse off when the newspaper is gone.
As to the story itself: The plot about a serial arsonist torching buildings in a narrowly restricted neighborhood is fairly predictable. What little suspense there is tends to get lost in all the cigar-smoking, adolescent fumbling, and other childish antics of our ageless hero.
It's a little hard to understand how this book won the Edgar Award for Best First Novel. DeSilva makes it clear in his acknowledgments that he cultivated a dozen established crime fiction authors as he wrote the book, so perhaps that is part of the explanation. It tells you something about how literary awards get awarded.
For me, this novel is further evidence that self-published works can easily compete for readers' favor. Personally, I found Capriati's Blood -- written by another veteran newspaperman, Lawrence DeMaria -- a much better read. It was leaner, more credible, less predictable and equally effective in conveying a sense of place (Staten Island in this case) as this Edgar Award winner from Tom Doherty's Forge imprint.
DeSilva's author photo features him with a big stogie and his fictional hero Liam Mulligan distinguishes himself every few pages by "firing up" or "sparking up" a "cuban" with virtually everyone he talks to. In fact, it appears the secret to being a successful investigative reporter is to develop a cigar-smoker's network. Not that Mulligan is notably successful in his investigation although there are intimations of past glory (a 10-year-old Pulitzer gets a passing mention). We don't really know much about Mulligan in fact -- how old he is, what he looks like, or what he likes besides cigars and the Red Sox (and women) -- except that he never grew up.
Like most of the other characters in this book, Mulligan borders on caricature, and caricatures that are decades out of date. It's almost jarring when a cell phone is mentioned. The newsroom rivalries, the bookie, the strip joint are all pushed just a bit beyond the point where you want to suspend disbelief that people really talk and act like that.
But perhaps Providence, R.I. is really like that. We are told that DeSilva had a 41-year career as a newspaperman, so he must know. He does of course lament the decline and fall of newspapers and, after telling us what an irremediable mix of crime and corruption his hometown is, wants us to believe it will be worse off when the newspaper is gone.
As to the story itself: The plot about a serial arsonist torching buildings in a narrowly restricted neighborhood is fairly predictable. What little suspense there is tends to get lost in all the cigar-smoking, adolescent fumbling, and other childish antics of our ageless hero.
It's a little hard to understand how this book won the Edgar Award for Best First Novel. DeSilva makes it clear in his acknowledgments that he cultivated a dozen established crime fiction authors as he wrote the book, so perhaps that is part of the explanation. It tells you something about how literary awards get awarded.
For me, this novel is further evidence that self-published works can easily compete for readers' favor. Personally, I found Capriati's Blood -- written by another veteran newspaperman, Lawrence DeMaria -- a much better read. It was leaner, more credible, less predictable and equally effective in conveying a sense of place (Staten Island in this case) as this Edgar Award winner from Tom Doherty's Forge imprint.
April 28, 2015
Liam Mulligan is an investigative journalist for the Providence Journal disguised as a beat reported with direction from his editor to write human interest dog stories. Liam however, is basically a poor man's Woodward and Bernstein with a much better sense of humor who's driven to investigate a series of arson fires in his old neighborhood. Liam is also a cigar smoking, old school reporter with a variety of friends and associates throughout the city including cops, firemen, mafia bad guys, mafia good guys, crooked lawyers and a variety of lazy and / or corrupt city officials who either love him, hate him or just wish he'd go away. In any case, he's on the job in spite of rampant big city newspaper layoff's and official and unofficial threats to back away from the story.
This is funny, well written crime fiction sporting great characters, a quick pace and a sense of humor that I very much enjoyed. I plan to read Bruce DeSilva's other three Rhode Island based mystery's ASAP. Read this book and you will too!
This is funny, well written crime fiction sporting great characters, a quick pace and a sense of humor that I very much enjoyed. I plan to read Bruce DeSilva's other three Rhode Island based mystery's ASAP. Read this book and you will too!
February 3, 2013
Update 1 month later - I'm upgrading from 3.5 to 4.5. I find I look back on the experience of listening to this with a real appreication and I'm looking forward to the next one. I almost wrote the author to find out the name of a band Mulligan listens to because I liked all the others so much and hadn't heard of one of them. And I wanted to pressure him to include Popa Chubby in the next one. Then I realized that was a bit moronic and curbed the desire.
Maybe this book would get 3.5 stars from me, if that was an option. But I rounded up not down, because I enjoyed this. I actually got it on Audible, not audio CD but that wasn't an option for some reason. When I want to relax, I read this sort of mystery. I'd but DeSilva in the same category as Chris Knopf, and Chris Grabenstein and Laura Lipmann.
It was hard to decide how many stars to give this book. I never know with genre if you just compare it to other books of the genre or to every book you've read. Here I did the former.
Jeff Woodman, as always showed up and gave a great performance. He came up with a charming New England accent. I'm not from New England, but it (the accent) rang true enough for me.
DeSilva keeps the action coming. He involves you in the wants, needs and shortcomings of his main character. And when the next book comes I'm going to read it too.
Finally, Mulligan has the best taste in music of any fictional character I know. The few bands I hadn't heard of I'm searching out based on the merits of all the ones I did know.
Maybe this book would get 3.5 stars from me, if that was an option. But I rounded up not down, because I enjoyed this. I actually got it on Audible, not audio CD but that wasn't an option for some reason. When I want to relax, I read this sort of mystery. I'd but DeSilva in the same category as Chris Knopf, and Chris Grabenstein and Laura Lipmann.
It was hard to decide how many stars to give this book. I never know with genre if you just compare it to other books of the genre or to every book you've read. Here I did the former.
Jeff Woodman, as always showed up and gave a great performance. He came up with a charming New England accent. I'm not from New England, but it (the accent) rang true enough for me.
DeSilva keeps the action coming. He involves you in the wants, needs and shortcomings of his main character. And when the next book comes I'm going to read it too.
Finally, Mulligan has the best taste in music of any fictional character I know. The few bands I hadn't heard of I'm searching out based on the merits of all the ones I did know.
July 6, 2020
I enjoy these Liam Mulligan novels! After reading the second in the series, I went back and read the first, almost like a prequel. It was interesting to follow Mulligan on this investigation, which didn’t feel as over the top with some of the local references as the second one did at times. DeSilva really made me feel as though I was following one of those noir detectives of yesteryear, where solving the case feels less relevant than the journey itself.
Update: turns out I read the third book first. Everything else applies!
Update: turns out I read the third book first. Everything else applies!
November 3, 2016
First Sentence: A plow had buried the hydrant under five feet of snow, and it took the crew of Engine Company NO. 6 nearly fifteen minutes to find it and dig it out.
Newspaperman Liam Mulligan is a true son on Providence, RI. His beat isn’t the elite. It’s the crooks, mobsters, and hookers, as well as the police and fire departments. Now, someone is starting fires in his old neighborhood. First, it’s just empty buildings. Until it’s not. Mulligan wants to know who, and what, is behind it. Trying to get the answers may cost him his life.
DeSilva’s opening is not only heartbreaking, but the implications are terrifying. Seven arson fires with a half-mile in three months is no accident.
It’s hard to tell about other places, but if one is from the East Coast--meaning from New Jersey to Boston’s North Shore--this book is very recognizable, and very effective. Providence is a small, tight community, especially amongst those who have been there for generations, and you feel that. “When a Rhode Islander needs something he can’t flat out steal, there are two ways to get it. …Chances are, in a state this small, you know somebody who can help. … No? Then you have the option of offering a small gratuity. Graft, Rhode Island’s leading service industry, is widely misunderstood by citizens of states you can’t stroll across on your lunch break. Those of us who live here know that it comes in two varieties, good and bad, just like cholesterol.”
DeSilva’s characters are very real. There are good guys, bad guys, and many who are varying shades of grey. Mulligan, Rosie, the first female fire chief, and Edward Anthony Mason IV, son of the newspaper’s owner and referred to as “Thanks-Dad” by Mulligan, are definitely the good guys. You enjoy them and worry about them. DeSilva’s prognostication of the newspaper industry is depressing and one we’ve come to see.
The language is what one would expect to find among people of this rank so if one is profanity-adverse, this is not the book for you. However, if you like sarcasm and well-done narration that occasionally makes you chuckle, one should enjoy this. A side note is that DeSilva incorporates his wife’s poem and his daughter’s name into the story. Yes, it does pay to read the author notes.
DeSilva’s descriptions are so effective—“I heard the fire before I felt it, the flames sounding like a thousand flags snapping in the wind. I felt it before I saw it, the head like a backhand slap from the devil.” History buffs will appreciate the historical information that runs through the story.
“Rogue Island” has humor and a bit of romance, but the underlying crimes are very serious and have heart-breaking consequences. In the end, it is a story of trust, betrayal and justice, realized in an unorthodox way.
ROGUE ISLAND (Lic Inv/Jour-Liam Mulligan- Providence, RI-Contemp) – G+
DeSilva, Bruce – 1st in series
Forge – 2010
Newspaperman Liam Mulligan is a true son on Providence, RI. His beat isn’t the elite. It’s the crooks, mobsters, and hookers, as well as the police and fire departments. Now, someone is starting fires in his old neighborhood. First, it’s just empty buildings. Until it’s not. Mulligan wants to know who, and what, is behind it. Trying to get the answers may cost him his life.
DeSilva’s opening is not only heartbreaking, but the implications are terrifying. Seven arson fires with a half-mile in three months is no accident.
It’s hard to tell about other places, but if one is from the East Coast--meaning from New Jersey to Boston’s North Shore--this book is very recognizable, and very effective. Providence is a small, tight community, especially amongst those who have been there for generations, and you feel that. “When a Rhode Islander needs something he can’t flat out steal, there are two ways to get it. …Chances are, in a state this small, you know somebody who can help. … No? Then you have the option of offering a small gratuity. Graft, Rhode Island’s leading service industry, is widely misunderstood by citizens of states you can’t stroll across on your lunch break. Those of us who live here know that it comes in two varieties, good and bad, just like cholesterol.”
DeSilva’s characters are very real. There are good guys, bad guys, and many who are varying shades of grey. Mulligan, Rosie, the first female fire chief, and Edward Anthony Mason IV, son of the newspaper’s owner and referred to as “Thanks-Dad” by Mulligan, are definitely the good guys. You enjoy them and worry about them. DeSilva’s prognostication of the newspaper industry is depressing and one we’ve come to see.
The language is what one would expect to find among people of this rank so if one is profanity-adverse, this is not the book for you. However, if you like sarcasm and well-done narration that occasionally makes you chuckle, one should enjoy this. A side note is that DeSilva incorporates his wife’s poem and his daughter’s name into the story. Yes, it does pay to read the author notes.
DeSilva’s descriptions are so effective—“I heard the fire before I felt it, the flames sounding like a thousand flags snapping in the wind. I felt it before I saw it, the head like a backhand slap from the devil.” History buffs will appreciate the historical information that runs through the story.
“Rogue Island” has humor and a bit of romance, but the underlying crimes are very serious and have heart-breaking consequences. In the end, it is a story of trust, betrayal and justice, realized in an unorthodox way.
ROGUE ISLAND (Lic Inv/Jour-Liam Mulligan- Providence, RI-Contemp) – G+
DeSilva, Bruce – 1st in series
Forge – 2010
May 8, 2011
If you like fast-paced crime thrillers with a rich sense of of atmosphere and a strong male protagonist, this is the book for you -- just don't expect too much from the plot. Set in a richly detailed grimy Providence, RI, the story follows newspaper reporter Mulligan ("just Mulligan") as he pokes his nose into an outbreak of arson in the city's run-down Mount Hope neighborhood. Meanwhile, the separated-and-nearly-divorced Mulligan is also embarking on a new relationship with the paper's beautiful courthouse reporter while fending off the attentions of the paper's hot photo-lab lady.
The book largely succeeds as an example of using the crime genre as a vehicle for presenting social history -- the reader learns about Providence's sordid past and present as Mulligan rolls around its streets and various local haunts form the backdrops for scenes. It's very reminiscent of aspects of George Pelecanos's crime novels set in and around Washington, D.C., which deliver a much more richly authentic history of the city and its inhabitants than any guide or history book. The whole reason I picked up the book is that I have two good friends who've settled in the Providence, and I was looking to get a little more sense of the city. In that respect, the book is quite good (although the constant Red Sox boosterism gets exceedingly tiresome).
Unfortunately, as a mystery/crime story the book is much less successful. The motive for the arson is easily guessed at, and when a hint regarding who might stand to benefit is given, it sticks out like a sore thumb. However, since the story requires some action, it delays the intrepid reporter hero from vigorously pursuing the obvious paper trail that will lead him to the motive and perpetrators. I'm not the kind of reader who likes to try and "figure out" a story along the way, I prefer to get immersed and let the story take me along for the ride. But this was a rare case where I kept waiting and waiting for the protagonist to take the obvious step that would lead him to the obvious culprit, and when he finally does, it's fairly underwhelming.
There are a few other missteps, for example the author cheezily inserting a mention of his wife's book of poetry into the story in a way that felt completely forced. I also found Mulligan's tough-reporter-meets-wise-guy patter just a bit too over-the-top at times. Partway through the book, a new character is introduced in a kind of "Odd Couple" partnership role that feels a bit forced. On the whole, I can write these off as the normal flaws of a first novel, and I'll definitely be checking out the next in the series for the local color, I just hope that the plot is much stronger.
The book largely succeeds as an example of using the crime genre as a vehicle for presenting social history -- the reader learns about Providence's sordid past and present as Mulligan rolls around its streets and various local haunts form the backdrops for scenes. It's very reminiscent of aspects of George Pelecanos's crime novels set in and around Washington, D.C., which deliver a much more richly authentic history of the city and its inhabitants than any guide or history book. The whole reason I picked up the book is that I have two good friends who've settled in the Providence, and I was looking to get a little more sense of the city. In that respect, the book is quite good (although the constant Red Sox boosterism gets exceedingly tiresome).
Unfortunately, as a mystery/crime story the book is much less successful. The motive for the arson is easily guessed at, and when a hint regarding who might stand to benefit is given, it sticks out like a sore thumb. However, since the story requires some action, it delays the intrepid reporter hero from vigorously pursuing the obvious paper trail that will lead him to the motive and perpetrators. I'm not the kind of reader who likes to try and "figure out" a story along the way, I prefer to get immersed and let the story take me along for the ride. But this was a rare case where I kept waiting and waiting for the protagonist to take the obvious step that would lead him to the obvious culprit, and when he finally does, it's fairly underwhelming.
There are a few other missteps, for example the author cheezily inserting a mention of his wife's book of poetry into the story in a way that felt completely forced. I also found Mulligan's tough-reporter-meets-wise-guy patter just a bit too over-the-top at times. Partway through the book, a new character is introduced in a kind of "Odd Couple" partnership role that feels a bit forced. On the whole, I can write these off as the normal flaws of a first novel, and I'll definitely be checking out the next in the series for the local color, I just hope that the plot is much stronger.
July 14, 2011
I picked this up because it's set in Providence, and I thought it would be interesting to read a mystery set in our new hometown.
The plot was pretty standard, and DeSilva definitely worked the hard-boiled investigative reporter for all it was worth. You could practically hear Bogart's laconic drawl in the dialog, and Spillane's world-weary gumshoe in the narrative. It was a little hokey, but not too bad once you settle into the rhythm, although that rhythm is often broken by DeSilva's too-frequent use of the word 'said.'
The story centers around a reporter trying to find a connection between a series of housefires in the Mount Hope neighborhood of Providence. At the same time, he's dealing with a mentally unstable ex-wife (aren't all ex-wives crazy?), a new girlfriend, an old family friend who may be a suspect, and animosity in the fire department. Liam Mulligan, the reporter in question, is well acquainted with Providence, having grown up there, and seems to have a love/hate relationship with it. His Providence is gritty, corrupt and sliding into oblivion.
I listened to the audiobook, and it was unintentionally hilarious. The reader spoke unnaturally slowly with maddeningly long pauses between lines. This is a man who takes his commas seriously.
"Who is it?"
I said.
"Never mind,"
she said.
Also absurd was the reader's obvious unfamiliarity with local names and places. Perhaps Providence's most famous (or infamous) political figure is former Mayor Vincent "Buddy" Cianci. It's pronounced "See-ANN-see." Buddy's name shows up several times in the book, and he managed to mispronounce it in a different way every time. "Kee-AHN-kee," "Kee-ANN-kee," "SEE-ahn-kee," and so on.
I'm not likely to be asked to read a book for audio publication, but if I ever am - or if you ever are - please take the time to familiarize yourself with any words you haven't seen before. Note that local place names and proper names may have pronunciations that vary from the apparent.
The plot was pretty standard, and DeSilva definitely worked the hard-boiled investigative reporter for all it was worth. You could practically hear Bogart's laconic drawl in the dialog, and Spillane's world-weary gumshoe in the narrative. It was a little hokey, but not too bad once you settle into the rhythm, although that rhythm is often broken by DeSilva's too-frequent use of the word 'said.'
The story centers around a reporter trying to find a connection between a series of housefires in the Mount Hope neighborhood of Providence. At the same time, he's dealing with a mentally unstable ex-wife (aren't all ex-wives crazy?), a new girlfriend, an old family friend who may be a suspect, and animosity in the fire department. Liam Mulligan, the reporter in question, is well acquainted with Providence, having grown up there, and seems to have a love/hate relationship with it. His Providence is gritty, corrupt and sliding into oblivion.
I listened to the audiobook, and it was unintentionally hilarious. The reader spoke unnaturally slowly with maddeningly long pauses between lines. This is a man who takes his commas seriously.
"Who is it?"
I said.
"Never mind,"
she said.
Also absurd was the reader's obvious unfamiliarity with local names and places. Perhaps Providence's most famous (or infamous) political figure is former Mayor Vincent "Buddy" Cianci. It's pronounced "See-ANN-see." Buddy's name shows up several times in the book, and he managed to mispronounce it in a different way every time. "Kee-AHN-kee," "Kee-ANN-kee," "SEE-ahn-kee," and so on.
I'm not likely to be asked to read a book for audio publication, but if I ever am - or if you ever are - please take the time to familiarize yourself with any words you haven't seen before. Note that local place names and proper names may have pronunciations that vary from the apparent.
December 11, 2014
A solid 4 stars
I would not have guessed this was a debut novel. Well written and well paced.
In the story, a serial arsonist is terrorizing the city. Building are burning and people are dying. Arson is not exactly compelling crime fiction. In this case, it didn't matter as the characters were very entertaining and you knew the story was going to get more involved.
After about 3/4 the book was a 3 star book but the last quarter provided some interesting and unexpected plot twists. Had the final outcome been a bit more clever it may have been 4.5 stars.
Overall, a superb novel and a favourite of 2013.
I would not have guessed this was a debut novel. Well written and well paced.
In the story, a serial arsonist is terrorizing the city. Building are burning and people are dying. Arson is not exactly compelling crime fiction. In this case, it didn't matter as the characters were very entertaining and you knew the story was going to get more involved.
After about 3/4 the book was a 3 star book but the last quarter provided some interesting and unexpected plot twists. Had the final outcome been a bit more clever it may have been 4.5 stars.
Overall, a superb novel and a favourite of 2013.
September 12, 2017
The lead character is sort of like Demille's Corey or Parker's Spenser, but not very funny. The whole thing is OK but nothing special. For a recent book, the constant glorification of tobacco is nuts.
September 6, 2012
A JON AND HIS MA BOOK CLUB SELECTION
A mad arsonist blazes a trail through Providence, R.I., focusing on the low-income immigrant neighborhood of Mount Hope, former home of reporter Liam Mulligan. Mulligan is a newspaperman -- emphasis on the paper -- who's so old-school he still smears ink all over everything he touches. The city's arson investigators are too fat, lazy and incompetent, so Mulligan takes it upon himself to track the killer firebug. And that's about it as far as plot goes in former AP newsman Bruce DeSilva's crime fiction debut, "Rogue Island."
In the course of his journalistic crusading, Mulligan interacts with a progression of stereotypes from decades past: the Italian goombah ("Aaay, Vinnie!" "Fuhgeddaboudit."), the long-suffering editor (think Perry White or J. Jonah Jameson), the screeching shrew of an obscenity-spewing ex-wife and various hot women who naturally all want to sleep with Mulligan. He attends funerals for the arsonist's victims where DeSilva's attempts at unearned pathos fall flat. It's hard to feel anything for the dead when, by DeSilva's own accounting, the only people who live in Rhode Island are cartoon characters. It would be like mourning Wile E. Coyote. Later in the book, DeSilva displays a profoundly dysfunctional sense of irony when Mulligan smirks at a cliche-ridden broadcast from the local TV news airheads. "Who the hell writes that crap?" he wonders.
Mulligan isn't the only thing old-school about "Rogue Island." DeSilva spent 40-odd years working in the news media, and it's obvious he misses the pre-Internet days of print journalism: when grizzled old veterans did almost as much drinking and smoking at their desks as they did writing; when people communicated in complete sentences that often exceeded 140 characters; when everyone not shepherding late editions congregated after work at the nearby "newspaper bar" until closing, then went home with whomever. I don't blame him. I came into the biz at the tail end of that era and was lucky enough to learn my trade under those grizzled old vets. In many ways, those days were much more interesting and colorful than today's sterile, corporate newsrooms. Unfortunately, that time is gone, and it's not coming back. If DeSilva wanted to cling to the past, he should have set his novel in the past. Or he should have made a more serious attempt at addressing the newsroom dichotomy between the slow but accurate newspaper relics and the leap-before-you-look Twitterverse. Cramming his story into a modern framework makes it seem anachronistic and out of touch, less of a realistic, gripping thriller and more of an empty exercise in homage to the many crime writers DeSilva checks by name throughout his text.
Inevitably, I suppose, the second novel featuring Liam Mulligan came out shortly after I bought "Rogue Island." That is one modern aspect of DeSilva's writing: Everything's a franchise in the mystery genre these days. Standalone crime novels are becoming a rarity as characters return again and again for repeat performances. If I'd known "Rogue Island" was the inaugural volume of the Continuing Adventures of Liam Mulligan, I doubt I would've picked it up.
Like many series characters, Liam Mulligan has a bad case of the smartypants. Since the days when Raymond Chandler's Philip Marlowe antagonized cops, clients and crooks alike with his razor one-liners, fictional detectives have been moonlighting as stand-up comics. The big difference is that Marlowe was genuinely witty, his dialog an absolute joy to read. Many of his sleuthing progeny are merely asking for a slap upside the head. When I began to hear mental rimshots every time Mulligan dropped a line, I started rooting for the bad guys to beat him harder.
Even I am not totally immune to the franchise detective, but my series character dance card has long since been filled by the likes of Dave Robicheaux, Kenzie and Gennaro, Hap and Leonard, Burke, Parker and too many others. Anyone who wants to be added to that list had better impress me with their originality or mad writing skills. "Rogue Island" is strictly stock, forgoing believable characters in favor of archetypes from an old B&W on Turner Classic Movies. If DeSilva is just going to rehash the classics, why should I bother? I still have plenty of the originals in my to-read piles.
I realize I'm the one being anachronistic and out of touch in my prejudice against this brand of mysteries. If franchise heroes didn't sell, there wouldn't be so dadgum many of them being written and published. Readers like them. They eat up every installment, then clamor for more adventures featuring their favorite crimefighter, stories told in a comforting first person that ensures nothing too terribly awful will happen and that guarantees there will be another sequel.
DeSilva's broad sense of humor is certain to appeal to many of those mystery fans:
"Seems that last week, the mayor's probable opponent in next fall's election had legally changed her name from Angelina V. Rico to Angelina V. aRico so she would be listed first alphabetically on the ballot. But yesterday, Mayor Rocco D. Carozza legally changed his name to Rocco D. aaaaCarozza."
If that made you laugh, I have good news for you: There's two novels' worth of "more where that came from" for you to look forward to. If, on the other hand, that made you roll your eyes and heave a sigh, chances are that, like me, you are a humorless bastard who needs to look for his kicks elsewhere. Ma admits the book made her laugh a few times, but "there were more cringes than grins." We also could have done without DeSilva's clumsy attempts to shill for his wife's crummy poetry by shoehorning it in where it doesn't belong.
There are armies of readers who live on a steady diet of the kind of easy reading DeSilva serves up. It's not that he's a bad writer. He's quite competent at what he does, but what he does is of no interest to me personally.
A mad arsonist blazes a trail through Providence, R.I., focusing on the low-income immigrant neighborhood of Mount Hope, former home of reporter Liam Mulligan. Mulligan is a newspaperman -- emphasis on the paper -- who's so old-school he still smears ink all over everything he touches. The city's arson investigators are too fat, lazy and incompetent, so Mulligan takes it upon himself to track the killer firebug. And that's about it as far as plot goes in former AP newsman Bruce DeSilva's crime fiction debut, "Rogue Island."
In the course of his journalistic crusading, Mulligan interacts with a progression of stereotypes from decades past: the Italian goombah ("Aaay, Vinnie!" "Fuhgeddaboudit."), the long-suffering editor (think Perry White or J. Jonah Jameson), the screeching shrew of an obscenity-spewing ex-wife and various hot women who naturally all want to sleep with Mulligan. He attends funerals for the arsonist's victims where DeSilva's attempts at unearned pathos fall flat. It's hard to feel anything for the dead when, by DeSilva's own accounting, the only people who live in Rhode Island are cartoon characters. It would be like mourning Wile E. Coyote. Later in the book, DeSilva displays a profoundly dysfunctional sense of irony when Mulligan smirks at a cliche-ridden broadcast from the local TV news airheads. "Who the hell writes that crap?" he wonders.
Mulligan isn't the only thing old-school about "Rogue Island." DeSilva spent 40-odd years working in the news media, and it's obvious he misses the pre-Internet days of print journalism: when grizzled old veterans did almost as much drinking and smoking at their desks as they did writing; when people communicated in complete sentences that often exceeded 140 characters; when everyone not shepherding late editions congregated after work at the nearby "newspaper bar" until closing, then went home with whomever. I don't blame him. I came into the biz at the tail end of that era and was lucky enough to learn my trade under those grizzled old vets. In many ways, those days were much more interesting and colorful than today's sterile, corporate newsrooms. Unfortunately, that time is gone, and it's not coming back. If DeSilva wanted to cling to the past, he should have set his novel in the past. Or he should have made a more serious attempt at addressing the newsroom dichotomy between the slow but accurate newspaper relics and the leap-before-you-look Twitterverse. Cramming his story into a modern framework makes it seem anachronistic and out of touch, less of a realistic, gripping thriller and more of an empty exercise in homage to the many crime writers DeSilva checks by name throughout his text.
Inevitably, I suppose, the second novel featuring Liam Mulligan came out shortly after I bought "Rogue Island." That is one modern aspect of DeSilva's writing: Everything's a franchise in the mystery genre these days. Standalone crime novels are becoming a rarity as characters return again and again for repeat performances. If I'd known "Rogue Island" was the inaugural volume of the Continuing Adventures of Liam Mulligan, I doubt I would've picked it up.
Like many series characters, Liam Mulligan has a bad case of the smartypants. Since the days when Raymond Chandler's Philip Marlowe antagonized cops, clients and crooks alike with his razor one-liners, fictional detectives have been moonlighting as stand-up comics. The big difference is that Marlowe was genuinely witty, his dialog an absolute joy to read. Many of his sleuthing progeny are merely asking for a slap upside the head. When I began to hear mental rimshots every time Mulligan dropped a line, I started rooting for the bad guys to beat him harder.
Even I am not totally immune to the franchise detective, but my series character dance card has long since been filled by the likes of Dave Robicheaux, Kenzie and Gennaro, Hap and Leonard, Burke, Parker and too many others. Anyone who wants to be added to that list had better impress me with their originality or mad writing skills. "Rogue Island" is strictly stock, forgoing believable characters in favor of archetypes from an old B&W on Turner Classic Movies. If DeSilva is just going to rehash the classics, why should I bother? I still have plenty of the originals in my to-read piles.
I realize I'm the one being anachronistic and out of touch in my prejudice against this brand of mysteries. If franchise heroes didn't sell, there wouldn't be so dadgum many of them being written and published. Readers like them. They eat up every installment, then clamor for more adventures featuring their favorite crimefighter, stories told in a comforting first person that ensures nothing too terribly awful will happen and that guarantees there will be another sequel.
DeSilva's broad sense of humor is certain to appeal to many of those mystery fans:
"Seems that last week, the mayor's probable opponent in next fall's election had legally changed her name from Angelina V. Rico to Angelina V. aRico so she would be listed first alphabetically on the ballot. But yesterday, Mayor Rocco D. Carozza legally changed his name to Rocco D. aaaaCarozza."
If that made you laugh, I have good news for you: There's two novels' worth of "more where that came from" for you to look forward to. If, on the other hand, that made you roll your eyes and heave a sigh, chances are that, like me, you are a humorless bastard who needs to look for his kicks elsewhere. Ma admits the book made her laugh a few times, but "there were more cringes than grins." We also could have done without DeSilva's clumsy attempts to shill for his wife's crummy poetry by shoehorning it in where it doesn't belong.
There are armies of readers who live on a steady diet of the kind of easy reading DeSilva serves up. It's not that he's a bad writer. He's quite competent at what he does, but what he does is of no interest to me personally.
August 24, 2024
Great book if you're a local Southern new Englander. The story speaks of many locations in RI and MA especially the Providence and I-95 area as well as several references to the Red Sox of the late 2000s early 2010s. So in that sense a fun read. The mystery itself which was an arson investigation easy to figure out I did by the 1st 100 pages or so, the chapters are very short so it's a good book for the easily distracted also a solid choice for a more novice reader as it's easy to follow.
March 12, 2012
I love this book and am looking forward to the next one. I especially liked the historical information about Rhode Isand and the politics and how he weaves Patricia Smith's poetry into the perfect part of the novel where Mulligan is in bed with his new love, co-reporter, Veronica. I am going to research to see if I can find the complete text online.
The book is full of witticisms mixed with humor in the style of Raymond Chandler, James Ellroy and the recently deceased, Robert Parker. Robert Parker took pride in being compared to Raymond Chandler too, like DeSilva. Parker even finished one of Chandler's last incomplete novels, "Poodle Springs."
DeSilva manages to throw in lines from famous movies, mentions some important literary tidbits and some great blues players. Blues happens to be my favorite music so this book jammed perfectly with my sensibilities. Poetic influences are evident in his descriptions, "I returned to my cubicle to find Edward Anthony Mason IV perched on the corner of my desk, looking now like he'd just stepped off a page of The Great Gatsby-narrow cover-girl waist, long legs encased in expensive black slacks, a blue silk tie that cost more than my entire wardrobe. He removed the Clark Gable fedora, exposing a head full of light-brown curls." Mulligan mentors a new reporter who studied at Columbia School of Journalism and whose family owns the paper Mulligan works for.
When a book makes you think, be sad and laugh plus be excited about what is going to happen next, it is a winner! Repartee is fast and delightful. The ex wife, Dorcas, who calls periodically to repeat the same words, "You! fucking! bastard!" is a reminder of that vindictive person we've all known and been lucky enough to escape from. Dorcas keeps the dog to use as a weapon to hurt him similarly to the way some folk use custody of children to battle in a divorce.
Rogue Island opened my eyes to the reporting world and how it's run, with the competition and cut throat backstabbers one has to work with, and I thought the Department of Education was bad! DeSilva is currently mentoring students at Columbia School of Journalism.
The book is full of witticisms mixed with humor in the style of Raymond Chandler, James Ellroy and the recently deceased, Robert Parker. Robert Parker took pride in being compared to Raymond Chandler too, like DeSilva. Parker even finished one of Chandler's last incomplete novels, "Poodle Springs."
DeSilva manages to throw in lines from famous movies, mentions some important literary tidbits and some great blues players. Blues happens to be my favorite music so this book jammed perfectly with my sensibilities. Poetic influences are evident in his descriptions, "I returned to my cubicle to find Edward Anthony Mason IV perched on the corner of my desk, looking now like he'd just stepped off a page of The Great Gatsby-narrow cover-girl waist, long legs encased in expensive black slacks, a blue silk tie that cost more than my entire wardrobe. He removed the Clark Gable fedora, exposing a head full of light-brown curls." Mulligan mentors a new reporter who studied at Columbia School of Journalism and whose family owns the paper Mulligan works for.
When a book makes you think, be sad and laugh plus be excited about what is going to happen next, it is a winner! Repartee is fast and delightful. The ex wife, Dorcas, who calls periodically to repeat the same words, "You! fucking! bastard!" is a reminder of that vindictive person we've all known and been lucky enough to escape from. Dorcas keeps the dog to use as a weapon to hurt him similarly to the way some folk use custody of children to battle in a divorce.
Rogue Island opened my eyes to the reporting world and how it's run, with the competition and cut throat backstabbers one has to work with, and I thought the Department of Education was bad! DeSilva is currently mentoring students at Columbia School of Journalism.
June 14, 2013
People are dying as many buildings in the Mount Hope area of Providence go up in flames. An arsonist is on the loose. People are terrified. The Arson Squad (dubbed, Dumb and Dumber) are both incompetent and ill equipped to stop the fatal fires. Investigative Reporter Liam Mulligan’s anger has reached its fevered pitch. It’s personal now. Mount Hope is where he grew up and he doesn’t like the fact that a firebug is reducing his childhood to ashes. No more is he just covering the story: he interjects himself into it along with his best buddy, Rosie who happens to the Fire Captain and Gloria who roams Mount Hope dark streets with her camera hoping to get the arsonist on film, And for all three, nothing will ever be the same. The arsonist makes sure of that fact. After all, he has killed before.
Former reporter, Bruce DeSilva, first novel is truly worthy of his 2011 Edgar Award for Best First Novel win. He has indeed made the late Evan Hunter (aka. Ed McBain) proud. He has created a wonderfully tenacious and complex protagonist that readers are immediately drawn to. His soon to be ex-wife provides comic relief needed in this tale. Mulligan is fully fleshed out as are the descriptions of the fictional Mount Hope. Rosie, the Amazon Fire Captain, can go weak in the knees for a certain man while warring with the fires. We feel Gloria’s vulnerability as she walks the cold streets of Mount Hope in search of the man or woman terrorizing the neighborhood while pining over a man who doesn’t love her. Only a seasoned reporter can deliver that depth of character and detail. Reporters are close observers; they have to be to put his readers in the scene of his stories. No detail is too small.
The only negative about this fine novel is the constant snipes about the Catholic Church. I get it: many authors don’t like and understand my Faith, but enough is enough.
Former reporter, Bruce DeSilva, first novel is truly worthy of his 2011 Edgar Award for Best First Novel win. He has indeed made the late Evan Hunter (aka. Ed McBain) proud. He has created a wonderfully tenacious and complex protagonist that readers are immediately drawn to. His soon to be ex-wife provides comic relief needed in this tale. Mulligan is fully fleshed out as are the descriptions of the fictional Mount Hope. Rosie, the Amazon Fire Captain, can go weak in the knees for a certain man while warring with the fires. We feel Gloria’s vulnerability as she walks the cold streets of Mount Hope in search of the man or woman terrorizing the neighborhood while pining over a man who doesn’t love her. Only a seasoned reporter can deliver that depth of character and detail. Reporters are close observers; they have to be to put his readers in the scene of his stories. No detail is too small.
The only negative about this fine novel is the constant snipes about the Catholic Church. I get it: many authors don’t like and understand my Faith, but enough is enough.
January 29, 2011
I read this book because it was a selection for our book club, Sista’s. The book was highly rated and my anticipation was high. The last two books I had read were dud’s and I was really looking forward to a good story. Boy was I disappointed. It never ceases to amaze me how the so-called experts will provide a review of a book and my experience with the book turns out to be completely the opposite.
Rogue Island was labeled a suspense and/or thriller. To me it was neither. The author, Bruce DeSilva, is an ex-reporter. You can tell by some of the language and the style of the book. I don’t understand why name dropping is supposed to add something to the story. Obviously the author thought it added something as he name drops constantly throughout the book. From clothing to people, it is everywhere. For me it was annoying. The book has the feel of an old Mickey Spillane novel. If I wanted to read an old Mickey Spillane novel I would have. I thought I was going to read something with some suspense something that I wouldn’t want to put down.
I made myself a promise that I would read every book I started. If I wasn’t required to read the book for the book club I would not have finished it. After finishing the book, I realized I could have stopped reading it and I wouldn’t have missed anything and would have been able to contribute to the discussion. The book starts and ends the same way – with a wimper.
Anyone looking for a book that keeps you on the edge of your seat should skip this one.
Rogue Island was labeled a suspense and/or thriller. To me it was neither. The author, Bruce DeSilva, is an ex-reporter. You can tell by some of the language and the style of the book. I don’t understand why name dropping is supposed to add something to the story. Obviously the author thought it added something as he name drops constantly throughout the book. From clothing to people, it is everywhere. For me it was annoying. The book has the feel of an old Mickey Spillane novel. If I wanted to read an old Mickey Spillane novel I would have. I thought I was going to read something with some suspense something that I wouldn’t want to put down.
I made myself a promise that I would read every book I started. If I wasn’t required to read the book for the book club I would not have finished it. After finishing the book, I realized I could have stopped reading it and I wouldn’t have missed anything and would have been able to contribute to the discussion. The book starts and ends the same way – with a wimper.
Anyone looking for a book that keeps you on the edge of your seat should skip this one.
September 13, 2014
A home town RI reporter try's to use his familiarity with the big players, politicians and thugs to help find out who is committing arson in a specific neighborhood. He is estranged from his wife, in love with another gal who he works with and has an old high school friend in love with him. Along with his complicated love life he has a half pint-tough guy after him to drop the investigation. This man who is a foot shorter than he is, keeps getting the best of him by catching him off guard.
I thought that this story was pretty good and then all was lost when too much information was put into a very fast ending. It lost its timing for me. That being said, the writing and characters were well developed.
I thought that this story was pretty good and then all was lost when too much information was put into a very fast ending. It lost its timing for me. That being said, the writing and characters were well developed.
July 13, 2011
a very nice 1st noir ish novel of newspaper reporter investigating a serial arsonist/murderer in his neighborhood. This won the Edgar Award for Best First Novel in 2011. Takes place in Providence RI and environs so there is lots of local color too, and Red Sox games, and food, and beer, and snow, and wiseguys and bent politicos, good dialog and fair sex.
January 14, 2016
Solid first mystery in a series. I hesitate to call this a cosy as it is fairly gritty but it does feature a nonprofessional "sleuth" in the shape of veteran newspaper reporter Liam Mulligan. I found the subplot about the decline of newspapers just as interesting as the mystery. The mystery isn't a murder mystery per se -- people died but mostly as a result of a series of arson fires.
January 3, 2015
Rogue Island was just okay. The plot lingers and there are really no surprises. There was little character development unless liking baseball adds layers and I just did not get it. The witty repartee and zingers got old. I just did not care whodunnit and found very little satisfaction in the end.
October 27, 2025
Objetivamente, bastante bien.
Subjetivamente, no he llegado a conectar.
La premisa y el desarrollo de la trama son bastante típicos, pero hay elementos originales que le otorgan enganche a la novela. Y está todo bastante bien llevado. Tiene un ritmo adecuado, ya que no es trepidante ni lento. Los giros, pese a que no le vuelan la cabeza a nadie, son lo suficientemente llamativos como para entretener. Hay mucha crítica social, y eso es algo que siempre agradezco.
Pero aquí viene mi principal problema, que es, al mismo tiempo, lo que considero que está mejor logrado en toda la novela, las cosas como son: la ambientación. Es sumamente estadounidense. No hay otra cosa que referencias a la cultura y sociedad actual de Estados Unidos, concretamente, de Rhode Island. Y ya no solo referencias: expresiones, comportamientos, elementos... La verdad es que me ha cargado demasiado todo esto.
Por no hablar de que la mayoría de datos de construcción para la ambientación me han dado igual, como las referencias al beisbol.
Encima, muchos comportamientos amorales están normalizados, como es el caso de cierto machismo sutil e interiorizado.
Paso, a continuación, al protagonista. La novela está narrada en primera persona, lo cual siempre es un acierto para este género. Por un lado me ha gustado su tono sarcástico; pero, por otro lado, me ha repateado esa constante actitud prepotente. No está mal construido, ni mucho menos. Tiene una personalidad definida y coherente. El problema es que yo no he empatizado con él y no me ha interesado su vida. Y, si no empatizas con el prota ni te interesa su vida, hay un problema.
El resto de personajes tampoco es que me hayan dicho mucho... Incluso ciertos comportamientos los veo forzados para que encajen en los acontecimientos de la trama. También considero que el propio final está algo forzado o, más bien, precipitado.
Aun así, lo dicho: las quejas dirigidas a este libro son, casi por completo, subjetivas. A quien le guste el género policíaco ambientado en Estados Unidos con corrupción de por medio: este es su libro. No obstante, no ha sido el mío.
Subjetivamente, no he llegado a conectar.
La premisa y el desarrollo de la trama son bastante típicos, pero hay elementos originales que le otorgan enganche a la novela. Y está todo bastante bien llevado. Tiene un ritmo adecuado, ya que no es trepidante ni lento. Los giros, pese a que no le vuelan la cabeza a nadie, son lo suficientemente llamativos como para entretener. Hay mucha crítica social, y eso es algo que siempre agradezco.
Pero aquí viene mi principal problema, que es, al mismo tiempo, lo que considero que está mejor logrado en toda la novela, las cosas como son: la ambientación. Es sumamente estadounidense. No hay otra cosa que referencias a la cultura y sociedad actual de Estados Unidos, concretamente, de Rhode Island. Y ya no solo referencias: expresiones, comportamientos, elementos... La verdad es que me ha cargado demasiado todo esto.
Por no hablar de que la mayoría de datos de construcción para la ambientación me han dado igual, como las referencias al beisbol.
Encima, muchos comportamientos amorales están normalizados, como es el caso de cierto machismo sutil e interiorizado.
Paso, a continuación, al protagonista. La novela está narrada en primera persona, lo cual siempre es un acierto para este género. Por un lado me ha gustado su tono sarcástico; pero, por otro lado, me ha repateado esa constante actitud prepotente. No está mal construido, ni mucho menos. Tiene una personalidad definida y coherente. El problema es que yo no he empatizado con él y no me ha interesado su vida. Y, si no empatizas con el prota ni te interesa su vida, hay un problema.
El resto de personajes tampoco es que me hayan dicho mucho... Incluso ciertos comportamientos los veo forzados para que encajen en los acontecimientos de la trama. También considero que el propio final está algo forzado o, más bien, precipitado.
Aun así, lo dicho: las quejas dirigidas a este libro son, casi por completo, subjetivas. A quien le guste el género policíaco ambientado en Estados Unidos con corrupción de por medio: este es su libro. No obstante, no ha sido el mío.
April 5, 2017
After happily stumbling onto the fifth book of the series, I am looking up the old ones to read. This was book #1, and it showed me two good things: DeSilva's writing was god from the start, and it improved a lot as he continued the series. Great fun.
Only one thing ruined this book for me: ANY Red Sox fanatic (which I am not, but Mulligan is) would 100% know how to spell a star pitcher's name. It's not "John" Lester, it's JON Lester. #CopyEditorFail
Only one thing ruined this book for me: ANY Red Sox fanatic (which I am not, but Mulligan is) would 100% know how to spell a star pitcher's name. It's not "John" Lester, it's JON Lester. #CopyEditorFail
September 9, 2019
3.5 rounded up to 4 stars. I'll admit to a bias in reading this book - I live in Rhode Island ("Rogue Island") and the author has really captured some of the quirks of this small state. The crime story is not that far-fetched (although it's much more what it was like in the last part of the 20th century and not quite so blatant now). So, this was a fun book to read, and it's a quick read.
Want to read
October 27, 2019Synopsis: Mulligan is an old school newspaper man. Someone is burning down his old Providence RI neighbourhood. Can he find answers?
March 9, 2020
I nice and easy read about a newspaper reporter trying to track down a serial arsonist.
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