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Eureka
Eureka. It’s what you say when you strike gold. It’s also a town in California where the truth might be buried forever.In New York Times bestselling author William Diehl’s thrilling, accomplished new novel, the seamy past of America’s most glamorous state lies in this deceptively peaceful area, one hundred miles north of Los Angeles. It was the lawless place from which young, rugged Thomas Culhane escaped to fight World War I. Now it’s a place where, two decades later, police detective Zeke Bannon investigates a death that seems a sad accident.Until you look a bit closer.The year is 1941. Verna Wilensky has been electrocuted in her bathtub, leaving a lower-middle-class life, no survivors, and a bank account packed with almost a hundred thousand dollars. Mysterious checks have consistently come to her for more than twenty years, most drawn from a bank in San Pietro, a town once known as Eureka.Eureka was a town that used to be a bootlegger’s paradise and a gangster’s dream. Now it is the rebuilt metropolis where Sheriff Thomas Culhane is launching a bid to be the golden state’s next governor. But something just might threaten his ambitions. As Bannon digs deeper into Wilensky’s demise, he unearths a decades-old secret that starts in a shootout, builds to a bloodbath, and could end up within the upper echelons of California’s elite, forever changing the destiny of a state.Rich in historical detail, complex in its connection between past and present, and filled with the nonstop action that are the hallmarks of this modern master, Eureka is an epic achievement of storytelling and suspense–William Diehl’s most extraordinary novel yet.From the Hardcover edition.
320 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2002
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309 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 66 reviews
October 9, 2023
A reasonable plot, some nice characters (including the dog, Rosie), a very readable book. The language is ok, also the dialogues. A little bit of humor and romance.
If you ask me, that is a "must read" one!
If you ask me, that is a "must read" one!
March 30, 2010
A 1940's homicide detective works a murder case, the roots of which,
go back to a tough little California town in the 1920's. Another good
story by Diehl. This guy is one of my favorite authors.
go back to a tough little California town in the 1920's. Another good
story by Diehl. This guy is one of my favorite authors.
May 27, 2021
Ο Γουίλιαμ Ντιλ έχει γράψει καμιά δεκαριά ενδιαφέροντα μυθιστορήματα, αλλά στα ελληνικά έχουν μεταφραστεί μονάχα τρία (αυτό, καθώς και δυο ψυχολογικά/δικαστικά θρίλερ). Διαβάζοντας και απολαμβάνοντας το "Η πόλη του χρυσού", σκέφτηκα ότι θα ήταν ωραίο να είχαν μεταφραστεί και κάποια άλλα δικά του, όπως το "Sharky's Machine" (που έχει γίνει και ταινία), το "Thai Horse", το "27" ή το "Chameleon", γιατί το βιβλίο αυτό με άφησε ιδιαίτερα ικανοποιημένο, και όσο να 'ναι θα ήθελα να διαβάσω πολλά άλλα μυθιστορήματά του. Το βιβλίο το είχα στο περίμενε για πολύ καιρό, αλλά είπα να το διαβάσω τώρα, γιατί είχα όρεξη για ένα θρίλερ με νουάρ αισθητική, που να διαδραματίζεται πολλές δεκαετίες πίσω στον χρόνο, κάπου στις Ηνωμένες Πολιτείες. Πέρασα εξαιρετικά την ώρα μου, απόλαυσα ένα πραγματικά περιπετειώδες και συναρπαστικό θρίλερ, με δράση, μυστήριο και ανατροπές, χωρίς να του λείπουν η ένταση και η αγωνία σε πολλά σημεία της πλοκής. Και, ειλικρινά, το μέγεθος του δεν με κούρασε καθόλου, δεν ένιωσα ότι ο συγγραφέας πολυλογούσε και ότι ξέφευγε από την ιστορία του, σίγουρα με κράτησε στην τσίτα από την αρχή μέχρι το τέλος. Η γραφή μου φάνηκε πολύ καλή, ευκολοδιάβαστη και εθιστική, με ρεαλιστικές περιγραφές και φυσικούς διαλόγους, σίγουρα βοήθησε με τη σειρά της στη γρήγορη ανάγνωση του βιβλίου. Και η ατμόσφαιρα είναι εξαιρετική, κάτι σημαντικό για μένα όσον αφορά τα θρίλερ μυστηρίου. Εντάξει, τέλειο μυθιστόρημα δεν είναι, εγώ πάντως το βρήκα ιδανικό ανάγνωσμα για τις ζεστές μέρες που διανύουμε.
October 22, 2018
I liked the book mainly because I liked the character Brodie. The rest of the characters in the book like him also, except the gangsters and bad guys because Brodie is one of the good guys. He is a larger than life hero, imperfect but perfectly imperfect. He doesn't get an easy ride through life.
It starts when Brodie, Ben, Isabel and Delilah are young teens and best friends. It ends when they are all old. The detective in the story, Bannon, starts his investigation when a woman is found dead in her bathtub in L.A.. At this point Brodie and his friends are middle-aged but the clues lead us back in time to the town formerly called Eureka, CA. where Brodie is sheriff and running for Governor. It had a story line that kept pulling me along despite the long-winded descriptions of people, places and things interspersed with fierce gun battles and regular fisticuffs. I knew that eventually the author would reveal all.
It starts when Brodie, Ben, Isabel and Delilah are young teens and best friends. It ends when they are all old. The detective in the story, Bannon, starts his investigation when a woman is found dead in her bathtub in L.A.. At this point Brodie and his friends are middle-aged but the clues lead us back in time to the town formerly called Eureka, CA. where Brodie is sheriff and running for Governor. It had a story line that kept pulling me along despite the long-winded descriptions of people, places and things interspersed with fierce gun battles and regular fisticuffs. I knew that eventually the author would reveal all.
August 12, 2013
Interesting setting (California, mainly in the first half of the 20th century), interesting time frame (covering from the end of the gunfighter era to the end of WWII), somewhat interesting characters, if rather too perfect (this is an issue I have with Diehl in other books too - see, Martin Vail in Primal Fear/Show of Evil/Reign in Hell.) Everyone is heroic, or fantastically attractive, or dazzlingly good at what they do. (Except the bad guys, who drop before the heroes' hail of bullets just like they'd read the script in advance.)
August 2, 2018
It took me a long time to get through this because I would set it down for long periods of time before picking it up again. When I was reading it, however, I did not feel like it dragged. I found it interesting and would read an hour or more at a time. Here's the most fascinating thing about the story: It is part gumshoe, part western, part romance, part mobster all rolled into one. Now, that's kinda a hard idea to wrap your head around, but William Diehl did it!
October 4, 2018
Eureka has more appeal for me because it has a historical setting, though this only partly obscures other problems. The book is mainly set in 1941 California. But it begins with a few chapters of 1900, a few of 1918, and one of 1945. This is the author's nervous belief that we may not be paying attention: he could easily have integrated the old story in the current story without resorting to chapters of disjointed time.
Everything else has buts, too. The story has a nice noir feel: tough guys, good and bad, cops and gangsters, hustling reporters, but there is gruesome, modern medical science to character trauma.
The plot is complex, spanning generations and half a century, from the last of the wild-west days to modern, Hollywoodish California. But the complexity and subtlety aren't really available to the reader until the very end, when everybody with a solid interest is dead and the last, dying character from the old days explains it. The protagonist is a detective, for Chrissakes. Could he have done some more detecting? Much of his investigation seems to alternate between bull-doggishly pursuing leads that appear to make no sense and lucking into right answers without logic. Why does the head bad guy try to kill the hero, midway through? We never find out because it makes no sense, other than the author wanted some more action and wanted the hero to change his focus.
All in all an interesting but somewhat-scatterbrained mystery.
Everything else has buts, too. The story has a nice noir feel: tough guys, good and bad, cops and gangsters, hustling reporters, but there is gruesome, modern medical science to character trauma.
The plot is complex, spanning generations and half a century, from the last of the wild-west days to modern, Hollywoodish California. But the complexity and subtlety aren't really available to the reader until the very end, when everybody with a solid interest is dead and the last, dying character from the old days explains it. The protagonist is a detective, for Chrissakes. Could he have done some more detecting? Much of his investigation seems to alternate between bull-doggishly pursuing leads that appear to make no sense and lucking into right answers without logic. Why does the head bad guy try to kill the hero, midway through? We never find out because it makes no sense, other than the author wanted some more action and wanted the hero to change his focus.
All in all an interesting but somewhat-scatterbrained mystery.
August 21, 2012
This book tries to do too much. The author wasn't sure which period he really wanted to write about and then sort of slammed them all together in a mish-mash of events that were a mixed bag. He starts off in the early 20th century, eventually moving to World War I, the Roaring 20's and then spends most of the time in the early 1940's. Granted, the mystery does go back quite a ways and SOME of the information\story had to be told in order for the author to treat the reader fairly.
The mystery itself is decent and the characters are all well-drawn and carefully and uniquely presented. There is a mystery about a decades old shootout that isn't what one can expect, though the author does a good job of dropping some clues for the reader.
Instead, the author creates a slam bang action novel with a mystery bringing on the action. The action is good, but there's a bit too much of it, causing me to feel that the author may have been getting paid by the word or the chapter-- yes. some of it felt like filler material.
Finally, either the author was attempting to use a ficitonal town (that had a real-life town's name) in California, or was so confused about California geography that he caused some real confusion in my mind. Eureka is above San Francisco, not on the Central Coast, I think.. and to have it somehow set in the general vicinity of San Luis Obispo and Santa Maria was very, very confusing to me. The town later had its name changed to San Pietro, and I can't find that in a google search.
The author seems to have a few anachronistic things to say. In one place he speaks of re-training a dog as "Reprogramming" which I am not certain was a phrase a 1940ish Cop would use.
It was allright, but nothing to recommend to other readers.
The mystery itself is decent and the characters are all well-drawn and carefully and uniquely presented. There is a mystery about a decades old shootout that isn't what one can expect, though the author does a good job of dropping some clues for the reader.
Instead, the author creates a slam bang action novel with a mystery bringing on the action. The action is good, but there's a bit too much of it, causing me to feel that the author may have been getting paid by the word or the chapter-- yes. some of it felt like filler material.
Finally, either the author was attempting to use a ficitonal town (that had a real-life town's name) in California, or was so confused about California geography that he caused some real confusion in my mind. Eureka is above San Francisco, not on the Central Coast, I think.. and to have it somehow set in the general vicinity of San Luis Obispo and Santa Maria was very, very confusing to me. The town later had its name changed to San Pietro, and I can't find that in a google search.
The author seems to have a few anachronistic things to say. In one place he speaks of re-training a dog as "Reprogramming" which I am not certain was a phrase a 1940ish Cop would use.
It was allright, but nothing to recommend to other readers.
February 9, 2011
I haven't read A William Diehl book since the conclusion of the Martin Vail series in 1997. I have had this book on my shelf for some time, and now regret not having read it sooner. The action was relentless, the plot twisted this way and that (although some of it was predictable), and I really liked the characters. Sadly, because of the author's death in 2006, I don't figure I'll get to see these characters again.
July 19, 2010
Lots of interesting World War One history as background. Excellent character development and fast moving plot. I liked it!
July 6, 2019
Reads like Raymond Chandler, a real 1940's detective story. Diehl's imagery is so good that I felt like I was watching an old black and white movie the whole time I read this. Loved it!
December 29, 2021
A quote on the back cover, from Rocky Mountain News, evokes Hammett and Ellroy, but I would include my pseudo-Great Uncle Raymond (ChANdler). The narrative is broken up between the turn of the 19th/20th century, a French WWI battlefield, a 1945 hospital bed and a 1946 epilogue. I was not only fascinated by the intense noirish plot, but by all of the lingo and allusions.
I consider myself a 20th century historian, thanks to two grandfathers who were in Europe in "The Great War", one as one of the last mounted cavalrymen (!), the other an ambulance driver ala e. e. cummings, Hemingway & Dos Passos; two older parents (32 y/o at my birth, 35 at my brother's); and a lifetime that began 56 days short of being a Baby Boomer.
I really liked the WWI part as I have an insatiable appetite for its history, having been (mostly) satiated on WWII after becoming a USS Normandy (CG-60) plankowner. It was a stunning part of an already electrifying novel.
My regret? I am only coming to Mr. Diehl after his demise. I am certain that my late Pops read at least some of his books, especially "Sharky's Machine", but Pops was gone by the time that this one was printed.
Oh, yeah, the best place to dust for fingerprints is the toilet handle since nobody goes while wearing gloves. This must have been a favorite of Diehl's since it has shown up severally. 8=)
I consider myself a 20th century historian, thanks to two grandfathers who were in Europe in "The Great War", one as one of the last mounted cavalrymen (!), the other an ambulance driver ala e. e. cummings, Hemingway & Dos Passos; two older parents (32 y/o at my birth, 35 at my brother's); and a lifetime that began 56 days short of being a Baby Boomer.
I really liked the WWI part as I have an insatiable appetite for its history, having been (mostly) satiated on WWII after becoming a USS Normandy (CG-60) plankowner. It was a stunning part of an already electrifying novel.
My regret? I am only coming to Mr. Diehl after his demise. I am certain that my late Pops read at least some of his books, especially "Sharky's Machine", but Pops was gone by the time that this one was printed.
Oh, yeah, the best place to dust for fingerprints is the toilet handle since nobody goes while wearing gloves. This must have been a favorite of Diehl's since it has shown up severally. 8=)
May 6, 2021
This was the first William Diehl novel I have read and it was quite the introduction! I am a fan of crime fiction as well as historical novels and this book was a great combination of both. Found MOST of the characters to be well imagined and written and the book only had nominal 40's style noir tropes. Fun book to read and I will most certainly dig into Mr. Diehls catalogue.
Recommend this one.
Recommend this one.
June 19, 2017
Interesting twist to the mystery set in two time frames, but I don't think all the pieces quite fit together (though it's very possible I wasn't following closely, as I read it while in the hospital). Still very well-written and suspenseful, good character development. First time for this author, but will look for more of his books.
March 15, 2020
I am a history buff and this book accurately covered the times from 1900-1946. Add in a California murder thriller and I'd swear it's a Michael Connelly book with Harry Bosch going back in time. Even includes the popular music of the day.
The first William Diehl book I've read, but will be reading all the rest after this amazing read.
The first William Diehl book I've read, but will be reading all the rest after this amazing read.
December 21, 2021
I generally steer clear of novels set in other than contemporary times but one of my web book friends gave this a strong recommendation and I am so glad he did. The story goes from 1900 through 1945 and follows the people of a small California town. A woman found dead in her bath in 1941 leads to a trail through the history of this small town. The book grips from word one to the end.
June 6, 2023
This had everything that I enjoy in a book. Even the hard-boiled detective character. I usually don't get into a book that takes me from a character's childhood through his/her/their life span, but I didn't mind at all reading about this man's life. Plus it wasn't always through the same POV, so I didn't know if in the 2nd part of his life he turned corrupt or not. You have to read this!!
October 8, 2020
Excellent mystery, takes place in 1900, 1919, 1941, 1946.
War hero want to clean up his childhood town, woman dies down south in Los Angeles, is the woman from Eureka, and if so why was she killed, and why now.
Find this book, it is definitely worth it.
War hero want to clean up his childhood town, woman dies down south in Los Angeles, is the woman from Eureka, and if so why was she killed, and why now.
Find this book, it is definitely worth it.
November 26, 2017
First time w William Diehl, an excellent author. I will look for more of his work. Set in the beginning of the 20th century a great gumshoe detective novel
March 4, 2019
Fine genre fiction, which sounds like low praise but it is not; stuff this readable is hard to write.
August 3, 2019
I really enjoyed this book. The characters, the story, I didn't expect the ending. Good read!
September 21, 2019
Quit reading it. Not my genre and too slow getting me hooked.
October 14, 2019
One of my 17 best mysteries read in 2002.
May 15, 2020
This one took me several days to read, which is unusual. I just couldn't get engaged for some reason.
May 18, 2021
Didn't finish
February 13, 2022
Read in 2002. Compelling crime novel.
May 29, 2023
Multi-layered, multigenerational, multi-fun to read!
December 23, 2021
Not the type of book I’d normally pick up, but I was enticed by the title that’s the monicker for my hometown. Was a surprisingly good and easy read - Ann interesting story that had me guessing until the end. Deserves a read!
July 2, 2018
Disappointed that it's not about the actual town of Eureka.
mountain-loop
November 13, 20192
Displaying 1 - 30 of 66 reviews