Home Body: A Jack McMorrow Mystery (A Jack McMorrow Mystery, 8) - Softcover

Gerry Boyle began his writing career in newspapers, which he calls the "best training ground ever." After graduating from Colby College, Gerry knocked around, taking stints as a roofer, a postman, and a manuscript reader in New York. However, Boyle soon realized that he preferred his adopted northern state to the bustle of Manhattan. His first reporting job was in the paper mill town of Rumford, Maine. After a few months, he moved on to the (Waterville) Morning Sentinel, where editors learned quickly that he worked best when left to his own devices, and Boyle learned that the line between upstanding citizen and outlaw is a fine one, indeed. His experiences as a reporter inspired his first novel, Deadline, published in 1993. He continues to write gritty, authentic mysteries featuring his signature character, Jack McMorrow.

If not quite as well paced as others in the series, Boyle's intense, suspense-filled eighth book (after 2003's Pretty Dead) to feature freelance journalist Jack McMorrow nicely captures the mood of rural Maine, where violence seethes beneath the placid surface of rock-strewn woods and decrepit small towns. On a trip to Portland from his country cabin, McMorrow and his pregnant lover, social worker Roxanne Masterson, prevent a street gang from attacking Rocky, a teenage runaway who eludes them. Later, McMorrow spots and tries to help Rocky who, like a bead of quicksilver, slippery and impossible to hold down, slips away again. As the story progresses, McMorrow finds and loses the troubled boy eight times, trying the reader's patience. But with each repetition Boyle increases the tension as McMorrow delves into the dark underworld of street teens, gradually gaining Rocky's trust and learning hints of a frightening family secret that may be linked to three suspicious deaths. A white-knuckle chase leads to a nightmarish finale. Boyle shows how good deeds are suspect in a society of stalkers and prey.
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