Hard Knocks

Talk radio host Carr’s solid fiction debut places its protagonist, Jack Reilly, a disgraced ex-cop turned PI and freelance political fixer, in the same intertwined worlds of Boston organized crime and machine politics explored by the author’s two nonfiction books, The Brothers Bulger and Hitman. A contract hit on ex-con Bucky Bennett leaves Jack the last person to have spoken to the smalltime criminal, who had just told him about finding incriminating financial documents while raiding a bank’s safety deposit boxes. Under pressure from both Det. Mike “Plain View” Evans and gangsters Knocko Nugent and Tony Miami, Jack finds unlikely allies in Boston Herald reporter Katy Bemis and veteran politico Delbert Raymond “Slip” Crowley in uncovering the murder’s connection to Boston’s political establishment. Colorfully corrupt characters and hard-charging storytelling should please some genre fans, but others may find that Jack’s function as the author’s mouthpiece to vent about the city’s changing demographics leaves an aftertaste too bitter even for noir. (Jan.)