Jack McMorrow, ex-journalist for the Times and retired Detective Butch Casey have been friends since childhood, although they haven't seen each other since the murder of Casey's wife ten years ago. When McMorrow is in New York on business with the Times, he accepts an invitation to meet with Casey for old times' sake.

Later that night, the popular mayor, Fiore, is found murdered in a hotel bathroom, stabbed to death. Casey's fingerprints are all over the weapon and he is arrested. McMorrow can hardly believe it, he knew that Casey was upset because the mayor had let his wife's killer go, Fiore had been the DA at the time, but McMorrow didn't think he was capable of murder.

Digging deeper into the crimes of ten years ago, McMorrow discovers that the mayor had more enemies than grains of sand on a beach and he wasn't as perfect as everyone was making him out to be. Determined to get to the bottom of things and clear his friend's name McMorrow is pursued by the press, by the police and by others who seem determined to kill him.

The plot is fast and pacy with lots of dialogue and interaction between characters and it was difficult to put the book down. New York under Mayor Fiore is painted as this wonderful Utopia, but McMorrow can see the worms underneath, things haven't so much changed as been brushed under the carpet and the holes start to show.

And who really did kill the mayor? Well, you'll just have to read and find out. You won't be disappointed.

Reviewed by Annette Gisby, author of Silent Screams and Shadows of the Rose.

I've been reading this series since the beginning and eagerly await each new addition. No disappointment this time. Now you will learn some more about Jack's background (why he left NY for Maine) and his life in NY. The story is excellent--kept me guessing til the end about who really did it, although I did have a hunch about who was involved. Boyle's writing style pulls you in bit by bit, never throws you a bunch of red herrings, and always faithfully wraps the story up in his most excellent fashion. I really can't say enough about how this series and the characters have progressed. If you like a good, unusual, interesting story with real characters, don't miss this or any of the other books.

I don't know why Gerry Boyle's mystery series isn't even better known than it is. Mysteries with reporters as sleuths have an honorable history in the genre, but, having been a reporter for 30+ years, I find most of them ring false, regardless of the merits of their mystery plots. Not so with Boyle. All of his books have been dead-on regarding his reporter-hero, and this latest one is particularly interesting in getting more into his protagonist's journalistic history as we move from rural New England to down-and-dirty NYC. I can't wait for his next.

Once again I was drawn into the world of Jack McMorrow, journalist-turned-detective. And once again, I was struck by how I could so much come to care about a character enmired in a plot for which I cared so little. In this latest whodunnit, McMorrow again has us trudging around Maine in search of justice in a sea of lowlifes at times so two-dimensional as to be almost laughable. One cannot help but like the McMorrow character, though, whose love for nature, plain truth, good beer, dependable friends, and the written word is exceeded only, perhaps, by his taste for confrontation. The plot, however, is like a joke with a long-winded set-up and a punchline that does not pay off. It was a page-turner and I was going nuts in my attempt to solve the mystery as I read. But all of the chapters that precede the last are but a distraction and in no way drive the story. It was like searching all over the house for your keys and then realizing you had them in your hand. It doesn't all come together the way, I think, mysteries of more calibur do. Our author sets us up in the beginning and releases us in the end but uses all the intervening pages to follow his stream of thought on the subject of birds, romantic relationships, and rednecks. Maybe he thinks we won't mind because he's thrown in a house-fire and a kidnapping here and there. And by the way, I'm pretty sure this is the 3rd time our hero is abducted in as many novels. It's enough already with the abductions. Plus, the end had me, at least, a little disappointed with McMorrow's zeal for the truth because he basically winds up perpetuating a lie at the expense of another man's freedom. And even though this was done with the intention to protect another, I found it morally questionable and disagree that it was necessary. Lastly, as our author ages, too, the McMorrow character seems increasingly conservative and dull. At the end of the first book we were left expecting an end to his relationship with the redoubtable Roxanne. I was hoping for a new woman per story a la Mike Hammer. Would I read another McMorrow mystery? Will my girlfriend once again mock me for my loyalty to the series that so often disappoints me? 'Maybe' to the former question and an undeniably 'yes' to the latter.

I think that this is a great book. I am from a big city and am used to sarcasm. McMorrow takes sarcasm to its limit. Sometimes I can't stop laughing at the things he says. The action in this books just does not stop, either. I couldn't put the book down. I had to know what was going t happen next.

Boyle's evocative writing style draws the reader into the desperate lives of the denizens of small town Maine. In this, his third Jack McMorrow mystery, the dispirited former NY Times reporter, becomes intrigued by a domestic abuse victim after she shocks the district court by baring her scars before the judge. McMorrow's search for the woman behind the news story brings him in conflict with a powerful and manipulative district attorney. The intriguing young victim is found dead and McMorrow is tormented by the fear that his attention led to her death. As in his earlier novels, Jack McMorrow tangles with local thugs, who torch his house and beat him mercilessly. His faithful girlfriend, Roxanne, returns but is shaken by McMorrow's apparent attraction to the hapless people of the Maine the tourists never see. Gerry Boyle's masterful prose and insightful depiction of his characters make this Jack McMorrow series a must read for mystery fans

Slow moving mystery set in the mountain town of Androscoggin, Maine. The photographer for the weekly newspaper is found dead in a remote area of town and nobody seems to think it is suspicious, except the local editor, Jack McMurrow. The story moves very slowly and only picks up speed as it approaches the conclusion, and the conclusion leaves many honest questions about the plausibility of how the mystery is finally solved. Gerry Boyle started his career as a police beat reporter, and it shows. His writing style is that of a reporter and not a novelist. His novel is filled with 'filler' that fails to contribute to the story line and only succeeds in adding to the page count of the novel. If you pass on this novel you won't miss anything.

Boyle's Deadline is fast-moving and descriptive. He lets the novel build to a point of suspense, almost unbearably, before coming to a conclusion that is both intriguing and thought-provoking.

Good characterizations, particularly the average hardworking (and not so hardworking) citizens. Jack McMurrow just can't leave things be. Waiting for book #6. I'm a little prejudiced because I'm the author's brother. :)

At first the wisecracking is cute and often funny but somewhere in the middle of the book it starts to become annoying. The murder plot is not well thought out and kinda spills out towards the end because it has to go somewhere. Lacking.

Mr. Boyle is a talented writer with a flair for detail. And in Jack McMorrow, he has created a character I care about and relate to. I appreciate the way the tension builds on a slow upward grade to a clash at the end in both this novel and in his first McMorrow effort, 'Deadline.' All the while, Boyle paints a vivid picture of New England that makes me long to live there. Having concocted such a likable protagonist as McMorrow, however, Boyle tends to let him sit in rather the same fashion the owner of an expensive car keeps it off the road for fear of damaging it. Tightening up his plots and giving his characters a little more to do, would to my mind, make Mr. Boyle's fiction worthy of more 5 star, instead of 4 star reviews.

A great book and a great guy. Our Home town hero

Admittedly the only other book I've read in the McMorrow series was Borderline, and that was good enough to get me to try "Potshot". The basic premise at the beginning, Jack is hired to write an article reagarding the legalization of pot, is interesting enough to keep you reading and it just builds from there. The introduction of the hard to figure characters Bobby and Coyote, and the very surprising characters of Melanie and Steven helped make this a real page turner. I thought the story was fun to read and when it came down to the last 75 pages or so, I couldn't put it down. So much for the "noble" (depending on your viewpoint), idea of legalizing pot. A real surprise ending!

I originally started reading Gerry Boyle during an all too long lull between Robert B. Parker Spenser books (and during Parker's "slump" of Double Deuce, Playmates, etc.). Expecting to find a major rip-off of Parker, I was very pleasantly surprised to find tightly written, well-plotted stories with plenty of dry humor. I found Potshot to be one of the best of the series.

Boyle has a wonderful sense of style, particularly with characters that could easily veer off into stereotypes or just plain silliness. The legalized pot movement is just so ripe for satire, but even through the haze, each character is used to further the plot rather than just comic relief.

Bottom line: read this book, and his others. You don't need to be a huge Parker fan to appreciate this book.

This is a good book, although it is not as good as the rest of the books in the series. The characters are interesting and the descriptions of Maine are great (I live an hour or so from Mr. Boyle), and Jack is a fine character, but the pace is a bit slow this time. Also, Jack's wry humor isn't as much in evidence, and I think Roxanne is a lot more trouble than she's worth--dump her, Jack. I'm looking forward to COVER STORY in January.

Gerry Boyle certainly knows the people of small town Maine. His descriptions take us into the heart of many a small Maine town. His characters are my relatives and their neighbors in central Maine ... his towns are the towns I knew as a boy. It's real!

Former New York Times and current free lance Maine reporter, Jack McMorrow is researching a piece on the Benedict Arnold Revolutionary War trail which stretches from New England to Quebec. When he reaches Scanesett, Maine, Jack learns that someone named P. Ray Mantis mysteriously disappeared from a tour bus that stopped in town.

Police chief Dale Nevins writes the missing person off as going away with a barfly. Jack's instincts tells him there is more to the story. As he investigates the Arnold story, Jack also makes inquiries about Mantis, who has ties with local folks. Jack wonders if foul play has occurred or is the police right that the man went off with a lady of the night. If his hunch is correct, Jack knows that to continue his investigation could be very dangerous.

The Jack McMorrow mysteries are some of the best regional sleuth tales on the market today. However, the fifth book, BORDERLINE, though quite interesting, is not quite up to the level of the preceding novels. There are very many good words to say about this including: the insights into what makes Jack tick,the Maine natives and scenery, and the Arnold segments (which will also probably turn off some non-historian buffs because there are many non-mystery pages dedicated to this). In spite of all this the Mantis mystery never quite hooks the reader. Fans of the series and American History will thoroughly enjoy the story. For everyone else it is a doubtful but BORDERLINE call at best whether the who-done-it will be enough to satisfy them.

Harriet Klausner