Valentino Pier

At the start of Edgar-finalist Coleman’s cliché-ridden sequel to Dirty Work, New York City gumshoe Gulliver Dowd, acutely aware of his physical deformities, offers to help Ellis Torres, a 10-year-old street kid, find a missing dog, appropriately named Ugly. Gulliver easily masters that challenge, but things get more complicated when Ellis is beaten into a coma. Dowd resolves to find justice for the boy, and also hopes to recharge his nonexistent love life by hooking up with an attractive assistant at the veterinarian’s office where he had Ugly treated. The short sentences and dependent clauses rapidly become tiresome (“There was a knock at the door. Ugly didn’t like that. He stirred. Walked to the door. Growled a low, steady growl”). Characters respond to danger with inappropriate wisecracks that further diminish any sense of plausibility. And certain passages will have readers just scratching their heads in confusion. Agent: David Hale Smith, Inkwell Management. (Sept.)