Cliff Walk

I can do sarcastic smart-ass all day long. In fact, I want to love it and squeeze it and then kiss it on the forehead. Liam Mulligan may have a tendency to marry the crazies, but he sure does know how to fire off the one-liners. And that worked for me. The man may not walk around with a loaded gun in his pants, but he has a loaded weapon between his lips, and he’s not afraid to use it. Yes, indeed, he shoveled more shit than a circus performer, and he put more than one smile on my face.<br /><br />CLIFF WALK started out dark, and then it got darker. And when that wasn’t enough, I went out searching for a nightlight and a Snuggie and a glass of warm milk. Speaking of which, Rhode Island is a great place to take the kids and nothing bad ever happens there at all. Except prostitution and newspapers that break faster than a pair of eggs and pornographic films and dead bodies and child pornography…and shit that’s the mailman at the door and he’s wielding a machine gun. <i>"Oh, my God, they found me, I don't know how, but they found me. Run for it Marty!"</i> Sorry, I had to get that out of my system. Just as I needed to do with this review.<br /><br />Sure, this book was great, but I think I’m going to need my Snuggie and glass of warm milk for a few more nights.<br /><br />I received this book for free at Bouchercon.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.robertdowns.net/blog/" rel="nofollow noopener">Cross-posted at Robert's Reads</a>

<b> A Gut Turning 4 Stars </b><br /><br />Unlike the previous novel in the series, Cliff Walk is much darker and grittier. In large part, this is because of the books plot which involves, in part, the child porn business and the murder of children. It is at times, a disturbing look into this despicable world. A few time could feel the characters anger as I imagined what I would do to someone who hurt my children like the villians in story. At no time is Bruce DeSilva insensitive to this serious and delicate topic.<br /><br />As in his debut novel, DeSilva shows how masterful he is in developing characters. The characters are as vibrant, dull or twisted as DeSilva wants them to be. DeSilva also excels and slowing unfolding his mystery until the end. In this book, I had figured out most of the mystery by the end but I didn't care. The characters were compelling enough to keep me interested.<br /><br />Another fine installment to the series.

Fair hard-boiled detective novel, where our protagonist Mulligan investigates the seedy underworld of adult film making, prostitution and child pornography.<br /><br />I like the way DeSilva pays frequent homage to the authors who paved the way, Dashiell Hammett, Robert B. Parker and others.<br /><br />I am inspired by Mulligan's clever individual ringtones, and will try to spice mine up a bit.<br /><br />And I like the angle of his being a journalist in a time when traditional journalism is dying, newspapers shutting down. Journalism was going to be my field of choice, until I took a programming class and got the bug (so to speak). While I think I would have enjoyed the job, I often wonder what it would be like to have done well in the field only to be pushed out by the internet and global communication. This novel offers a sad glimpse at the possibilities.

I've now read the first two books ROGUE ISLAND (2010) and CLIFF WALK (2012) about reporter Liam Mulligan. I really enjoy these crime fiction novels. There are at least four books so far in this engrossing series.

A much darker novel than "Rogue Island", the first book in this series. Any book dealing with child porn is unlikely to be a light read, and this one is disturbing. It's only one of several plots that wind their way through the book, though. One of the foremost is the slow death of the newspaper business. DeSilva, as a former reporter, does a great job of spelling out a lot of the backstory behind this historical event. <br />Things I would like (or not) to see in upcoming DeSilva novels:<br />1) the disappearance of his ex-wife. She was an annoyance by her second appearance.<br />2) More consistency in characters. With the exception of Mulligan, almost every interesting character in the first two novels has met an untimely end.<br />3) No more detailed playlist. You like blues. So do I. Enough already. The ringtones are clever---something I like to do with my own phone--but they should be cut by about 75%.<br />4) Better editing. Several identical phrases make several different appearances. It's noticeable.<br />All that said, bring on Book 3.

Typical PI book. I read it because I love the Cliffwalk in RI.

"Viviamo nello splendido mondo creato da Dio, ma c’è del male in circolazione. Dei mostri che danno la caccia ai nostri figli. A quanto pare, io non sono molto brava a catturarli, e neppure la polizia di Stato. Forse è una buona cosa che ci siano altri che possono fermare questi predatori"<br />.<br />Ci sono volte in cui appena inizi un libro vorresti chiuderlo, ma non perché non ti piace il tipo di scrittura o l’autore, ma per i forti temi trattati. Questo è quello che mi è successo con questo romanzo.<br /><br />Pornografia, pedopornografia e violenze su minori la fanno da padrone. Fortunatamente l’autore ha fatto una scelta oculata: non entrare troppo nei dettagli macabri ma rendere l’idea di ciò di cui si parla.<br /><br />Leggendolo la mia considerazione, avendo una bambina piccola, è stata che purtroppo questi fatti avvengono tutti i giorni, e chi li vive credo passi il peggior incubo della propria vita. Non è sicuramente un libro facile da leggere.<br /><br />Inizialmente non capivo dove volesse condurre la storia, la prima metà del libro è stato un susseguirsi di avvenimenti poco chiari e a volte contorti, ma dalla seconda metà in poi ci si rende conto di quanto schifo possa fare, a volte, l’essere umano.<br /><br />Ci troviamo di fronte ad un giornalista con gli attributi, che non ha nessuna paura di scavare a fondo, e a due morti inquietanti e apparentemente accidentali: la prima è di una bambina trovata mutilata all’interno di una porcilaia e la seconda di Salvatore Maniella, famoso pornografo per il mondo degli adulti. Al suo fianco troviamo un giovane apprendista raccomandato, che lavora con lui al giornale, l’avvocatessa della famiglia Maniella, con la quale vorrebbe avere una storia ma che non ha seguito, e Violet, una suora con dei modi non proprio ortodossi.<br /><br />Mulligan si troverà quindi a dover scavare nel passato non proprio limpido della cittadina di Providence, dove anche chi sembra senza colpa, può essere l’indiziato principale.<br /><br />Durante la lettura si incontrano sicuramente scene forti, ma il sapiente modo descrittivo dell’autore, i personaggi perfettamente descritti e con caratteri ben definiti, ne fanno un thriller d’effetto che, a parer mio, si fa leggere d’un fiato e dà la possibilità al lettore di credere che ci possa essere un seguito a questo primo capitolo.<br />.<br />Maljka - per RFS

Not as complex as its successor, and lacking the same kind of charm from its predecessor, Cliff Walk does suffer slightly from a sophomore slump, but only a little. This book was still a page turner, with each new break in the case feeling worthy of celebration. The subject matter is definitely dark, but it was exciting to see him get closer and closer to solving the case.<br /><br />Edit: I wrote the above review mere seconds before passing out. Anyway - I really enjoy reading Mulligan novels and this helped fill in the missing pieces for the third book, which I have already read.

I was charmed by Rogue Island, DaSilva's debut novel. I liked Mulligan as a character (I read an interview with DaSilva in which he said he visualized Mulligan as looking like Dennis Leary, which, um, yes, that works). And as a Rhode Islander who still misses her home state, I loved the portrayal of my corrupt, scruffy ancestral homeland. Plus as a bitter writer (for magazines mostly, newspapers occasionally -- but my dad had a column in the Providence Journal for a while, and he worked with a lot of the law enforcement, social services and newspaper folks during his day job running a community mental health center), I loved all the newsroom drama, the elegy for the dying business of publishing, the dumbing down of journalism. All super-smart and absorbing. I was less enamored of Rogue Island's plot -- the whodunit was a big duh -- and had some issues with sexism. (Hey, DaSilva admires Spillane, which means objectification of the lady bods, some iffy stereotypes of Asians, and a sexual assault written in a way that's a bit unnervingly titillating as well as gross.) In Cliff Walk, the plot is way better -- and yay, we get to mock Newport society types as well as corrupt Providence politicos! and we meet Attila the Nun, obviously based on the kickass Sister Arlene Violet!-- but the flaws in characterization are worse. I hate when white writers make street characters "talk black," especially when they use dated slang, fo shizzle. And again, I had a tough time with the portrayal of non-white women. I realize DaSilva is married to a woman of color -- his shout-outs to her within the narratives of both his books (as in, "Hey, hot black woman character I am crushing on, let us go on a date to see the excellent black poet Patricia Smith!") are sweet but awkward and fourth-wall-crushing -- but to me his love for his wife doesn't excuse his depictions of poor, cartoonishly accented non-white strippers and a love interest whose defining quality is her blackness, in a fetishistic -- to me -- way.) I also had a hard time reading for escapism a book that explicitly depicts child porn -- I was so upset and freaked and squicked, it ripped me right out of the book and made the banter-y stuff (which there's admittedly less of than in Rogue's Island) feel yucky. But your tolerance may be higher than mine. And again, I did think the plot was stronger, and I really like the development of Thanks-Dad, the publisher's privileged son who is actually NOT a dickwad. Look, I already know I'm in for the next installment.

The second book from Bruce DeSilva and I have enjoyed both of them. The main character is an investigative reporter, Liam Mulligan (just Mulligan) for a slowly dying newspaper in Rhode Island.<br /><br />DeSilva, himself once a newspaper reporter, spins a good yarn. He also gives some great insight into the reason newspapers are in the financial trouble they are in---they ignored the internet in the early days. <br /><br />DeSilva’s writing is in a style I have come to appreciate with the growing popularity of eBook authors. Newspaper journalists are by nature clear and concise in their writing. Obviously they have a limited amount of space with which to work. That habit carries over to their novels. Some of my favorite authors are ex newspaper journalists, Sandford, Crais, and Connelly to name a few. A lot of the eBook authors I have read have yet to acquire that skill.<br /><br />While the subject matter of this book is very dark, child exploitation and child porn, there are some very light and humorous moments. Mulligan’s phone conversations with his soon to be ex wife among them. And, Mulligan’s take on how to write an obituary is pretty funny, too.<br /><br />All in all, I recommend this to people who enjoy tightly written, sometimes serious and sometimes funny, novels. I don’t think you will be disappointed.<br />