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Summary
Summary
They were the Sheridan men, ruled by passion, betrayed by love, heirs to a legacy of violence and forbidden desire. Gus, Boston's top homicide cop: he knew equally well the backroom politics of City Hall and the private passions of the very rich, a man haunted by the wanton courage and perilous obsessions he inherited from his father... Conn, the patriarch, a lawless cop who spawned a circle of vengeance and betrayal that would span half a century... and Chris, Gus's beloved son, a Harvard lawyer and criminologist, fated to risk everything to break the chain of obsession and rage... Three generations linked by crime and punishment--cops and heroes, fathers, sons, and lovers united at last by revelations that could bring a family to its knees... From the Paperback edition.
Reviews (4)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Spenser doesn't appear in this overwrought, Boston-set saga of three generations of Irish-American cops, but the spirit of Parker's popular PI dominates these pages nonetheless, with each cop in turn obsessed with courage, codes of behavior and, especially, A Woman. These are the themes of Parker's other non-Spenser novels as well, particularly Love and Glory, but here they're explored in a tale whose scaffolding of parallels and coincidences suspends disbelief as poorly as do the characters' operatic passions. The Sheridan patriarch, Conn, for example, having been betrayed in Ireland during ``the troubles'' by the love of his life, one Hadley Winslow, moves to the U.S. with a heart of stone: ``It was so hard to stop caring about her,'' he tells a fellow cop, ``that I had to stop caring about everything.'' That is, until Conn catches the case of a young girl found slain and molested, discovers that Hadley's son is the culprit and uses that information to blackmail Hadley into a longterm sexual liaison in exchange for burying the proof against her son. If ever a set of characters needed Prozac it's these Sheridans, whose sullen, brutal, unlikely dance with the Winslow women continues until the third-generation Sheridan, with help from his father, breaks the spell after a paroxysm of violence. All this pained macho posturing is shaped by Parker's usual elegant and precise prose, perhaps the cleanest in crimedom; but, finally no turn of phrase is quick enough to keep his somber tale from sinking into fatal self-importance. BOMC and QPB selections; major ad/promo. (Nov.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Kirkus Review
Three generations' worth of love and obsession are the foundation of this tightly worked novel by the author of the popular Spenser series. Parker (Walking Shadow, p. 427, etc.) tells the century-long story of two families: the Irish Catholic, working-class Sheridans and the wealthy and privileged Boston WASP Winslows. They first meet in a hospital in Dublin in 1920, where Captain Conn Sheridan (of the IRA) is recovering from wounds received in the line of duty and Hadley Winslow, whose older banker husband, Thomas, is in Dublin on business, volunteers. They have an affair and Conn becomes obsessively attached to Hadley. She won't leave Thomas, Conn won't leave her, and, frightened at his persistence, Hadley betrays Conn to the British. Conn escapes from Kilmainham Jail and makes his way to Boston, where he marries, has a child, Gus, and becomes a successful police detective. He never recovers from Hadley's deceit, however, and when her beloved son, Tommy, rapes and murders a 12-year-old girl, Conn makes a deal with her: He will bury the case if she agrees to become his lover. He also blackmails her for money. When Conn dies, he leaves the facts of the case as a legacy to Gus, who continues to blackmail the Winslows. Gus also becomes a cop and has a loveless marriage, like his father's, but he adores his son, Chris, and does everything he can to ensure Chris's future success. Chris seems to be fulfilling his father's dreams-- he becomes a lawyer, and then a professor of criminology at Harvard, and in 1993 is made special prosecutor to investigate a raging Irish gang war. But Chris doesn't realize that what he uncovers during his inquiry may destroy not only the gangs, but Chris's own family, and the family of the only woman he has ever loved--Grace Winslow. A thrilling game of cops-and-Brahmins. Parker is in fine form. (Book-of-the-Month Club/Quality Paperback Book Club selections)
Booklist Review
Can Parker write mainstream fiction as well as he writes the extraordinarily popular Spenser mysteries? Well, not quite. His first non-Spenser attempt in years is a multigenerational saga that spans 1920s Ireland to 1990s Boston. It's the tale of three men, Conn, Gus, and Chris Sheridan, whose lives are shadowed by IRA captain Conn's love-affair-gone-wrong with American Hadley Winslow during the Irish "troubles" of the 1920s. A terrible legacy of revenge, blackmail, deceit, and anger is passed on to Conn's son, Gus, a Boston cop, and to Gus' son, Chris, a Harvard criminology professor. Unfortunately, Parker's gift for spare, witty repartee, which works so well in the Spenser series, mostly falls flat here, and the observations about life, love, and the ways of the world that sound so genuine coming from Spenser seem oddly out of context when uttered by Conn, Gus, and Chris. Parker also seems uncomfortable with the "historical" early chapters, which are marred by uneven pacing. But despite the book's flaws, the surprise-a-minute plot is Parker at his best, and readers will find themselves quite taken with the three main characters: charismatic, tragically flawed Conn; sad, strong, victim-of-life Gus; and energetic, break-out-of-the-mold Chris. Whether critics and reviewers love this book or hate it, it will be in high demand the minute it's published. (Reviewed September 1, 1994)0385304374Emily Melton
Library Journal Review
With the spare, conversational style characteristic of his popular Spenser mysteries, Parker portrays the intertwined lives of two Boston families, the Sheridans and Winslows, who love and destroy each other through three generations. Conn Sheridan, betrayed by his lover in Dublin during the "troubles," comes to America and joins the Boston police force. Graft, protection, and other cover-ups are accepted as natural, and Conn has a dangerous affair with Hadley Winslow, a Boston tycoon's wife. Chris Sheridan, the grandson to Conn and now a special prosecutor, attempts to unravel the web of deceit begun by his grandfather decades before. In this rough world, the women are either promiscuous or incapable of love-making, except for Grace, whom young Chris hopes to marry. Like Spencer's Susan, Grace has wit and a charming reserve. Spenser fans as well as newcomers will enjoy Parker's brick-by-brick famil-iarity with Boston. For most popular collections. [Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 7/94.]-Elsa Pendleton, Boeing Computer Support Svcs., Ridgecrest, Cal. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.