With this, Kent Harrington's fourth (and best) novel to date, we get a big shot in the arm to chase away all the boredom and repetition that we, as readers, are so often subjected to. The Tattooed Muse is an homage to the Master of Suspense, Alfred Hitchcock. Now, over the years, many book and films have been called 'Hitchcockian' but this novel is the first to actually earn and deserve that praise.
The power of the writing here is that not only does Harrington weave a tight, multi-layered, and complex plot, but he also entertains in spades, and, as if all that were not enough to earn this novel a strong review, he also shows us the darkness, obsession, and by-god power at work in people's minds, souls, and hearts.
There are enough twists and turns here to satisfy any and every fan of suspense. Martin Anderson and Paul Kline in particular come to vibrant life as characters. Harrington is able to explore and show us terrible truths without ever falling into long-winded passages that bog down the plot and make the eyes grow heavy.
I have never enjoyed reading books where the main characters are writers, I fiond it to be overbearing, and there have been few exceptions to this rule. Harrington not only uses characters who are writers to tell his story, but he speaks of writing, and the myriad form and foibles of fiction, with intelligence. I will go ahead and say it: Not only is this one of the best new books I've read in quite some time, it is also the best I have ever read to feature characters who also happen to be writers. Cheers to you, Mr. Harrington.
The Tattooed Muse: Call it suspense. Call it mystery. Call it whatever you want, but, in the end, this is quite simply a fine American novel written by one of the best American novelists at work today.
Kent Harrington's work deserves to be widely read, and you owe it to yourself to sink your hooks into The Tattooed Muse.

Dia De Los Muertos has all the ingredients for a truly excellent noir thriller--a seedy locale, amoral characters, femmes fatales, suspenseful plot turns--but unfortunately Harrington isn't quite writer enough to put it all together with the necessary skill and effectiveness. While Harrington does score points for creating a sordid, menacing atmosphere for his story, the writing is never better than serviceable; at times it is bad, and at times it is straight-up awful. The dialogue amounts to little more than cheap film-noir cliches and offers almost no insight into the characters. I didn't make it through the entire book--near the end I came to a ludicrous sequence involving two women and their, um, plaything that made me fling the book across the room in contempt--but for as far as I'd made it I was still left with no sense of who the people were who populated this story. It's a shame that all of these great story elements couldn't have been picked up by more capable hands.

this is easily the best novel I've read in awhile, and quite possibly one of the best noir novels of all time. No dark city scapes here though. We're talking TJ in all its decadence. Calhoun is a genuine monster, a bad man in a bad situation. The main point of this book: There will be no redemption, my friend.

Oh, soon to be a benecio Del Torro flick. Then all you slow folks can pick up the sure to be released mass market movie tie in version.

This is the best noir novel I have ever read, bar none, and that includes Cain and Goodis. It has been said that noir is "people you don't like doing things you don't care about," but not this one. You come to care intensely about Calhoun and his doomed one-day run against Bordertown Fate. But mainly, you find yourself very quickly in the hands of someone who can write, and nothing else really matters in the end. Cheers to Kent for writing it and Dennis McMillan for publishing it and shame on St. Martins for giving it a pass.

There is little need to read this if you are up on your James M. Cain or Jim Thompson. The only difference is Harrington offers up lots of sex and some violence to update the genre AND he does an admirable job of preventing the familiar from getting overly trite. I will say that this is an impressive debut work. I hope Harrington finds his own plots and his own voice.

Really potent and troubling, hard-hitting noir. Easily one of the best things I've enccountered in a genre that's prone to cliche. I recall reading that Harrington took a cue from Madame Bovary too, and it sounds right.

Highly Recommended - - Born with athletic abilities, intelligence, wealth, and handsome good looks, Jimmy Roger has it all. He takes his attributes for granted, thinking the good times will never end, but the success-wave rolls on, leaving him high and dry on the shore of life. When the job offers stop coming the Golden Boy of Clarksville, California drifts into the position of a semi-successful insurance agent. Angry at the turn of events, Jimmy feels he deserves more. His own father, the ruthless old town mayor, cuts him from the will, leaving all his wealth to his business partner, Phil Stack. The only thing Jimmy gets is Phil's wife, Eve. Obsessed with their wild sex, the days of endless drugs, and the pain-pleasure induced nights spend in her secret basement bedroom, Jimmy plots to retake what he knows rightfully belongs to him, but caught in a web of his own making Jimmy quickly becomes a pawn in a deadly game of murder, politics, sex, and intrigue. Kent Harrington, a first-time novelist, unfolds a tale of psychological obsession. Character studies of intensity and depth reveal the neurosis of failure and the repercussions of narcissism and youthful bravado. Mr. Harrington draws the reader in an atmosphere of murder and mayhem, leaving us breathless with anticipation as we turn the pages ever faster. His writing skills are exceptional, as is his research. I look forward to reading his next novel. Kathee S. Car

There are moments of noir brilliance (ouch) in this political thriller, but these moments are counterbalanced by a plot which leaves the reader slightly incredulous. (An assassination attempt on the President of the United States by the CIA? I guess if anything is possible, then this is.)

Harrington is great at depicting strong and ruthless characters who have been broken by time and liquor and bad women (try his really great Dark Ride) but the plot in the American Boys is stretched to the limit. It works, but just barely.

that would be missing the point.
On the surface this is the story of a washed up CIA operative and an attempt at a coup by high ranking CIA officers. And that alone is entertaining enough for three stars.
But then there's the real story: An examination of a man's willing self-destruction and the way he terrorizes and places in harm's way the people he supposedly loves.
Harrington's best was his previous novel, Dia De Los Muertos, but this comes in at a tie for second with his first novel, the equally good Dark Ride. Got all 3. Harrington doesn't disappoint.

P.S.Does anyone out there know if this is the same Kent Harrington who wrote some miserable fantasy novels? I'd be surprised that such a stunning writer would have wasted his talent on such vapid nonsense.