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REDEMPTION STREET
by Reed Farrel Coleman
Viking, March 2004
244 pages
$22.95
ISBN: 0670032913


Buy in the UK | Buy in Canada

Even though he's only in his 30s, Moe Prager was forced to retire from his job as a New York City cop because of a bad knee. It's 1981, and he and his brother own a wine shop in Manhattan. Although the business is doing well, Moe is beginning to feel bored. That feeling dissipates quickly when Arthur Rosen comes in to the shop and begs Moe to solve the mystery of a fire which occurred in 1961 at a hotel in the Catskill Mountains, one which supposedly was started by someone smoking in bed.

Rosen's sister, Karen, who went to high school with Moe, was killed in that fire, along with 16 other young people who were working at the hotel, including a woman on whom Moe had a huge crush. Rosen doesn't believe the story about the origin of the fire, feeling that it was arson. At first, Moe isn't interested in pursuing the investigation; Arthur isn't exactly lucid and the story seems far-fetched. When Rosen commits suicide, Moe finds that he is haunted by the possibilities and dusts off his private investigator's badge.

Moe goes up to the Catskills and stays at one of the formerly grand hotels which were so popular in the 30s, 40s and 50s. At that time, the Catskills had flourished as a vacation spot for New York City's lower and middle-class citizens. The 'Borscht Belt' was a series of hotels that had sprung up in the Catskills over the years to service a vibrant Jewish clientele. The area was famous for the comedians who played the hotel ballrooms: Myron Cohen, Milton Berle, Jerry Lewis, Henny Youngman, Don Rickles, Stiller and Meara, Totie Fields, Joan Rivers, David Brenner.

In fact, the hotel where he is staying is run by a former vaudeville comedian who never quite made it, Sam Gutterman. However, there is nothing funny about what Moe experiences as he begins to investigate the fire. As he's nosing around, he is attacked for being a Jew. There are some pockets of anti-Semitism in the area, which is ironic since most of the growth in the area was due to its success within the Jewish community.

My main problem with the book was that the author never decided what he wanted it to be, which resulted in huge inconsistencies. It began as a wise-cracking private investigator book. Although funny, I found that Moe's dialog boiled down to a series of one-liners which started to lose their charm after a short time. It's probably just a prejudice of mine, but I find it very implausible for a person to be telling jokes when their life is being threatened.

When Moe went up to the Catskills, the book became a homage to the old-time Borscht Belt, complete with comedy routines between Moe and the owner of the hotel. Then the anti-Semitism thread became dominant, complete with five-page sermon on being a proud Jew. The tone of the book moved from light-hearted and humorous to heavy-handed and didactic.

In the latter part of the book, Moe exhibited a kind of meanness that wasn't there in the beginning, as did some of the other characters. This inconsistency was also demonstrated in his relationship with his wife, Katy, who he loved very much but with whom he wasn't open about an issue that was very important to her.

Coleman did a good job of developing the main thread and resolving it in a satisfactory way. I wish that there had been more cohesiveness to the book, as it felt fractured as the tone and direction of the narrative changed. Although there were some likable characters in the book, I found that I didn't enjoy it very much. REDEMPTION STREET is the second book in the series; I wonder if the earlier book, WALKING THE PERFECT SQUARE, had these same kinds of problems.

Reviewed by Maddy Van Hertbruggen, September 2004

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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)


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