Red Rain

Rating:
Summary: This is not a bad book
Review: ... This is not a "sensational" thriller - but it is awfully good.

I am more intrigued as to who "Michael Crow" is, - he obviously knows the craft of writing and I wish there was I way I could find out who he is...nonetheless, if this is his first effort into this genre, then I say, "Michael, job well done".

The plot is simple enough - but I do agree with the other reviewer - how could Vassily not know Luther was a cop? At the end of the day, the relationship between Vassily and Luther is what will keep you going, and all the gun play is mighty entertaining...

I found the end to come quickly, and thought that could've been deveoped more...also, I was hoping they would explore more about the little girl found in the woods that opened the book.

Either way, Mr. Crow leaves the door WIDE open for many more sequels. It is a very entertaining read - great for a coast-to-coast flight.

If you tell us who you are Mr. Crow, I will support your other books. Cheers !

Rating:
Summary: The mysterious Michael Crow has arrived...
Review: I can't tell you very much about Michael Crow, other than that is not the real name of the award winning writer who wrote Red Rain, but I can tell you about Red Rain, the highest rated book of the year to date and an "E Ticket" ride from beginning to end. The speculation within the mystery writers community as to who is Michael Crow is now overshadowing a great read and increasing the value of any signed edition. And to mention on the QT this is the first in a series of two books with a movie deal in the working.

Now all the frosting aside and down to the real dessert, this book grabbed ahold of me from the very beginning where we meet the lead character, Luther Ewing, who passes for Indian as in American warpaint and all, but who is the child of mixed blood, a veteran of the Gulf War and ex-mercenary, and now a narcotics cop fighting the good fight. Luther's past all of a sudden no longer is in the past and his journey is what this whole book is about. Crow has created a dark hero in Luther Ewing, with real problems real aggression that people can relate to. I eagerly await the next chapter and I dare say, so will you.

Rating:
Summary: not in Connelly's league
Review: I recently decided to read a paperback I've had kicking around for awhile... Red Rain by Michael Crow. This is a crime thriller with a very gritty edge to it. Good in some ways, not so hot in others...

The basic plot is this... Luther Ewing, a cop, ends up running across a Russian mobster who he apparently fought next to in some war action. The Russian is pushing drugs into his area, and Ewing decides to run undercover to get close to him and shut down the ring. The problem is that he has to do this outside the bounds of normal law enforcement to protect a number of cops from getting killed by the ex-Spetnaz employed by the Russian. Plenty of people in the drug world and law enforcement circles start getting assasinated, and Ewing has to kill or be killed. There are a few side stories too, but I'll leave it at that.

Now, the book is written in a first person style. The main character is half-Vietnamese, half-black, and takes medication to control brain damage from a bullet wound he suffered. He's a trained killer, so his emotional side is less than touchy-feely. There's a darkness and edge to the writing that matches the character and makes it a compelling read. What I don't like is that much of the background of the different characters is only alluded to during the story. If this were a second or third novel with the main character, I could understand it. But this is the first one, and I would have expected a bit more character development along the way. I wasn't always sure where the story was going or why certain things were happening.

So... Stylistically, it's an interesting read. From just a pure story viewpoint, it was average.

Rating:
Summary: Great style, so-so story...
Review: I recently decided to read a paperback I've had kicking around for awhile... Red Rain by Michael Crow. This is a crime thriller with a very gritty edge to it. Good in some ways, not so hot in others...

The basic plot is this... Luther Ewing, a cop, ends up running across a Russian mobster who he apparently fought next to in some war action. The Russian is pushing drugs into his area, and Ewing decides to run undercover to get close to him and shut down the ring. The problem is that he has to do this outside the bounds of normal law enforcement to protect a number of cops from getting killed by the ex-Spetnaz employed by the Russian. Plenty of people in the drug world and law enforcement circles start getting assasinated, and Ewing has to kill or be killed. There are a few side stories too, but I'll leave it at that.

Now, the book is written in a first person style. The main character is half-Vietnamese, half-black, and takes medication to control brain damage from a bullet wound he suffered. He's a trained killer, so his emotional side is less than touchy-feely. There's a darkness and edge to the writing that matches the character and makes it a compelling read. What I don't like is that much of the background of the different characters is only alluded to during the story. If this were a second or third novel with the main character, I could understand it. But this is the first one, and I would have expected a bit more character development along the way. I wasn't always sure where the story was going or why certain things were happening.

So... Stylistically, it's an interesting read. From just a pure story viewpoint, it was average.

Rating:
Summary: not in Connelly's league
Review: one gets the sense that the author analysed a bunch of best selling mysteries, and then dashed off one of his own. which he could have pulled off fine if he came across as someone who had actual experience, first hand or close to it, with the material. instead it feels like like he went straight from a university writing program to writing about lives he never came closer to than reading other novelists describe.

his details about guns are play army gear geek detail, not something most ex military special ops types would obsess about.

lastly, he's always using BRAND NAMES, often multiple times on one page. i assume he's doing it for artistic effect of some kind, not for payola, but if i wanted to get bombarded w brand names i'd watch tv.

Rating:
Summary: Red Rain
Review: See storyline above.

Michael Crow, a pseudonym of an apparently popular author, has a writing style that draws you in to the story and makes you part of it. This is the story of Luther Ewing. Luther is presently a detective for the Baltimore County Police Department. His past is a mystery to most of his friends and involves the Gulf war and his experiences with the special forces. When out of his past comes a certain old Russian mercenary named Vassily. Vassily seems to be taking over the drug trade in Luther's district and in his path he leaves death and destruction. Luther soon realizes that the only way to defeat Vassily is to veer a little outside the law.

Though just an average thriller, the writing style and knowledge of weaponry give it an edge that's worth reading. I was bothered by the fact that Vassily didn't have a clue that Luther was a detective.

Recommended.

Rating:
Summary: NOT DIBDIN, BUT NOT BAD
Review: The author (Vollman??) knows his guns, the technical side is accurate. Lots of bodies, as well as loose ends. Lots of shooting, perhaps a bit much lingering over Luther's mental state and "anomie". Not as well written as Lee Child's Reacher series, which has pretty much pooped out. Even M. Dibdin seems to be going thru the motions with the resurrected Aurelio Zen.
So----it was a fast read, and enough sex and family weirdness
to hold one's attention. But there's an awful lot of very cliche black/white stuff, the dialog between "DOG" and Luther is particularly lame, and the cop-buddy stuff is also tired. And poppa "Gunny" is a joke. You just KNOW the sidekick is going to...well, I won't give it away. Worth reading though. A solid "B-". Just don't expect too much logic and a tight plot. Above average thriller. As for hubris---too much "MAMMY" from the opera singer....

Rating:
Summary: He ain't Joe Pike
Review: The hero seems to be a [copy] of Joe Pike. Not a bad choice,
really. In my opinion, it's going to take Publishing Muscle
to turn this into a successful series. None of the characters
are fully developed and the story suffers for it. It could
have been a 4 star novel but the author probably feels that
'crime fiction' is beneath him. Well, if the author is who
that Baltimore web site said he is--then crime fiction is
actually a step up, IMO. Just google Michael Crow+pseudonym
and click on the Baltimore 'city paper' and see who this author
may be. May be, as it's only a guess.
I read the entire book so it offers some of what I need from
a crime novel. If publishers would just spend some dough on
good editors they could get the money back many fold, IMO...

Rating:
Summary: Grape juice is not bad champagne
Review: There are fewer more tiresome kinds of hubris than the "trained professional" who decides to show us Philistines how it should be done. The opera star who pumps her lung capacity into "really singing" folk songs and Beatles' tunes, for example, or the Shakespearean actor who recites nursery rhymes as if they were soliloquies. Having "a prizewinning, critically acclaimed literary novelist" write an action-packed thriller is the same sort of embarrassing schtick.

With the exception of mouth-breathing adolescents like James Ellroy, most writers of mystery fiction know that their work must have a moral foundation of some sort. Even someone as noir as Andrew Vachss operates in a moral world, and James Lee Burke's Dave Robicheaux is just as damaged as Luther Ewing but a lot more interesting. Ewing is no better than his adversaries, and he doesn't mind.

This novel is contemptuous of its audience. That attitude may work in the alleys on 42nd Street, but I suspect most of the book's potential readers will spot it and walk away, wary of Murphy lit. Even children can usually tell when they are being patronized, and many readers of genre lit, surprising though this may be to "literary novelists," are not children.

The novel is full of bonehead problems. We are supposed to believe that Luther managed to hide a big and important chunk of his career from his employers at Baltimore PD. Ok. That he could connect up with an old friend who's now a drug runner, and the guy would never "notice" that he was a cop. Sure. That all women under 25--at least all the goodlooking ones--can't keep their hands off his aging bod. Well, of course.

There are good writers of mystery fiction out there who could teach "Michael Crow" that good grape juice is better than bad champagne. Whoever he is, he needs to throw away his Shooter's Bible and study some real writers.

Rating:
Summary: Pushing The Limits of Crime
Review: With his novel Red Rain, author Michael Crow has created a nifty, gritty little thriller that pushes the boundaries of crime to its bleakest state. Although there is a lot of dark humour to be found in his novel, the storyline is so dark and the characters so conflicted that the read itself ends up being very, very dark. Not since Michael Connelly has an author tackled the grittiest side of today's world in such a realistic and affecting way.

The novel gives us Luther Ewing, a half-vietnamese, half-black Baltimore detective who also used to be in the army. His nickname? Shooter, a name Luther does live up to; his army training has left him so indifferent to death and violence that he has no problem pulling the trigger whenever he feels the need.

This time, Ewing is faced with a drug cartel that is slowly gaining ground in Baltimore. And the cartel's leader just happens to be a Russian man by the name of Vassily, with whom Ewing spent some time during the war. He now has to go undercover and head-to-head against a man that he once considered to be a friend.

Filled with colorful but realistic characters, and a very truthful storyline, Red Rain is the kind of novel that makes no apologies for its violence of subject matter. As a matter of fact, the book's title might not be apporpriate enough; it is not a rain a blood that keeps falling through these pages, but a real downpoor. As the body counts keeps getting higher and higher, Luther finds himself sinking deeper and deeper into a remorseless, dark world.

Michael Crow is the pen name for an award-winning novelist. I would love to know who that is, because Red Rain is one of the best crime novel to have been published in quite some time. You will admire Ewing, a character you will both love and hate (never try to understand his actions, he's impossible to figure out!), and you will admire the extremely witty dialogue and sharp, quick writing style.

There isn't much to hate in this brilliant little novel. I can't wait to see what Crow will bring us next!