Last Jew Standing

by Michael Simon Narrated by Tom Stechschulte

Overview

Michael Simon's crafty Austin, Texas, thrillers like Little Faith have earned him strong comparisons to crime novelists James Ellroy and Dennis Lehane. Detective Dan Reles is settling into his new life with a wife, a son, and a career in Austin's homicide division. Then his deadbeat, ex-mafia enforcer father rolls into town. It seems that Ben Reles has had a run-in with Sam Zelig, a powerful mob godfather who will do anything to get what he wants out of Ben.

Editorial Reviews

Kirkus Reviews

Austin's Detective Dan Reles faces father-son issues. Reles's father wasn't much of a dad. A broken-down boxer, he ended up an errand boy for the Elmira, N.Y., mob, at least before he had to wake his son and flee in the middle of a long-ago night. As this fourth in Simon's series (Little Faith, 2006, etc.) opens, Reles is dealing with his own family issues-the troubled hero has now moved in with on-again, off-again girlfriend Rachel. But her raging alcoholism has traumatized their son, Josh, and Reles is barely holding them all together. Add in that he's still a Yankee Jew in a Texas police department, and it's clear that things won't become any easier when his shady dad shows up with a Russian prostitute in a car that they may or may not have stolen after murdering its owner. As Reles considers what to do with his father-and breaks both laws and police-department code simply by taking the time to think-the situation escalates. A powerful monster of a mobster, Sam Zelig, shows up, determined to take the Russian back for his own sadistic pleasure, threatening all the Reles family members who stand in his way. In his trademark neat, almost noir prose, Simon perfectly conveys the dilemmas facing a perpetual outsider determined to do the right thing. His hero is subtly drawn, his problems plausible and his colleagues (including the equally tormented, but not overdramatic Internal Affairs cop Torbett) are smart renderings of believable types. In fact, the charismatic Zelig is the only character in this book who goes over the top. But he is such a powerful monster that this sin is forgivable. In fact, only his rather anticlimactic death, off scene in a hospital, disappoints. A gracefulthriller. Agent: Nat Sobel/Sobel Weber Associates

Product Details

BN ID:	2940169504705
Publisher:	Recorded Books, LLC
Publication date:	11/07/2008
Edition description:	Unabridged

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