City of Strangers

Jack Liffey #6

by John Shannon

In the sixth novel of this best-selling private-eye series, Jack Liffey probes the complex ethnic mix—Muslim, Jewish, Baha'i, Christian, and secular—of the Persian communities in Los Angeles. A gripping tale that confronts youthful idealism with perfervid fundamentalism, it lands bright, earnest Fariborz Bayat, who has gone missing from an elite L.A. high school with three other Persian-American boys, in a cell of Arab terrorists. Hired to find the boys, Liffey finds himself in a nightmare, unless he and Fariborz can thwart the cell's plot to set off a dirty bomb full of radioactive waste high over L.A.

Genres: Mystery

256 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2003

About the author

John Shannon is a contemporary American author, lately of detective fiction. He began his career with four well-reviewed novels in the 1970s and 1980s, then in 1996 launched the Jack Liffey mystery series. He cites as his literary influences Raymond Chandler, Graham Greene, Robert Stone and Jim Harrison.

Reviews

[Carla]

Well-written, more action-adventure than noir, about a lost “Persian-American” high-schooler. The author’s views of L.A. vivid; but gruesome violence dragged on the novel. One scene involved violence against animals.

[Marsha Valance · Rating 3 out of 5]

One of my 20 best mysteries read in 2003.

[Lukasz Pruski · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.75 stars, really. A very readable book. Well-written, tightly plotted, with likeable characters. A lot of the action takes place in locations that I know (wide border zone of Tijuana-San Diego), and I agree that the places and the people are portrayed with a high degree of authenticity. The book contains some really well-written, lyrical fragments, which I enjoyed reading just for the pleasure of the language.

However, I have also found totally idiotic pop-psychology fragments, and some dialogues and events as ridiculously improbable as popular shows on TV. Then, when I read the ending, it hit me: it is not really a novel, it is a treatment for an episode of a TV series, plus some bonus literature that can be filtered out :)

Anyway, I will now look for Mr. Shannon's earlier books, some of which are described as "widely acclaimed" and "highly praised."

[Dewayne Stark · Rating 3 out of 5]

my third Liffey book and very similar to the other two. Street names, junky cars, mature women, book names and art talk and plenty of illegals. Kids wiser that their ages and private schools. Only a few mentions of Pedro in this one. I get my books at the San Pedro library and they may have the whole Liffey series on their shelfs.

[Carol · Rating 4 out of 5]

A Jack Liffey mystery. Action takes place in and around LA and Tijuana. Well written; interesting characters. I was upset by animal cruelty that occurs during the story, but aware that this type of behavior happens much too often.