HOME BODY
By Gerry Boyle
Berkley Publishing Group, 375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014
$23.95, hardcover, 325 pages; ISBN 0-425-19611-9 (2004)
For those who remain unfamiliar with this author or his previous books, Boyle's hero, Jack McMorrow, is a stringer for the New York Times and the Boston Globe. He lives in the fictional town of Prosperity, Maine with his pregnant girlfriend, Roxanne Masterson, a Department of Human Services child protective worker.
This case starts in familiar territory – the hallway of the District Court in Portland. Jack is waiting for Roxanne to finish a hearing about a girl being molested by her uncle. When it's done, they walk to the Victory Deli for lunch. While waiting to be served, they hear a fight outside. They rush outside just in time to save a young teenager from a brutal beating. Roxanne recognizes him – a homeless boy named Rocky – but when Jack suggests that he get medical treatment, Rocky bolts.
He then shows up at Jack's home looking for refuge. No sooner do Rocky's mother and abusive stepfather come to get him than he takes off again. When a police officer named Divan comes to investigate, Jack gets a feel of what it's like to be on the receiving end of police questions about having a stray boy at his house.
"So you invited the kid to come and stay with you?"
"No," I said. "I didn't invite him anywhere. Like I said, I just tried to get him to go to a hospital to get checked out."
"But he got all the way up here somehow. And he looked like he could run pretty good. He couldn't be hurt too bad."
I shrugged. "I saw him taking a pretty good beating."
Divan scribbled on her pad. The puddle at her boots was widening.
"Why would he think he could stay here?"
"I don't know."
"You didn't tell him he could stay here?"
"Hell, no."
"But you didn't kick him out?"
"In the snow? A kid? Would you?"
"The why'd he run?"
"I don't know," I said.
"What happened to your mouth?"
"A kid kicked me in Portland. Another kid. One of the ones who was beating on Rocky."
Her eyes swept the room, stopping at the table. The sandwiches. The ale.
"You give him alcohol?"
"No," I said. "Pepsi."
"That's not Pepsi in that glass."
"That's for me, not him."
"So you were gonna have a few beers and then both of you were going to go to bed?"
Jack convinces the police that he was just trying to help out the boy, but they remain suspicious. Rocky leaves Jack a puzzling note that reads: Kitty Kitty Kitty. Well, he wouldn't be much of an investigative reporter without following up on this baffling clue, so Jack goes looking for Rocky to solve the mystery. Things soon turn sinister when Rocky's mother turns up dead and his stepfather is the prime suspect. Jack searches for Rocky in the neglected haunts of Portland and Bangor where teenagers living on the street find a way to survive.
But as Jack searches for Rocky, someone else is looking for Jack. And if he can't find Jack, he knows how to find Roxanne. Soon, Jack is caught up in a whirlwind chase to find Rocky and try to save Roxanne – all at the same time.
This novel grabs you by the gut and doesn't let go until the very end. Boyle's writing is compact, his dialog authentic, and his pacing flawless. This is his finest novel to date.
Boston has widely-read Robert Parker and his private investigator, Spencer – Maine has Gerry Boyle and his finely crafted investigative reporter, Jack McMorrow. Both authors write in the first person and infuse their lead characters with just the right touch of self-assurance and insight. In Home Body, Boyle excels at turning up the tension as the story progresses and propelling the reader to keep turning the pages.
Click on the link and buy this book through Amazon or run to your local bookstore for this novel today. Boyle is at the top of his game.
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