Borderline: A Jack McMorrow Mystery (A Jack McMorrow Mystery, 5) - Softcover

Boyle, Gerry

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1939017793 ISBN 13: 9781939017796

Publisher: Islandport Press, 2016

Synopsis

On a travel story about Benedict Arnold, freelance reporter Jack McMorrow traces the route of the infamous historical figure up the Kennebec River into Quebec, Canada. When a man fails to rejoin his bus tour in the Northern Maine town of Scanesett, Jack makes a pit stop there to help authorities find him and soon finds himself entangled with a bunch of lethal small-town hoods who make bad sport of the weak and defenseless. Threatened, beaten up, and forced into a terrifying game of redneck hide-and-seek, McMorrow faces his most ruthless criminals yet. This, the fifth installment of Islandport’s updated and revised paperback and e-book editions of the internationally best-selling Jack McMorrow series, takes its readers across state lines into the tangled world of mistaken identities, traitorous dealings, and a dangerous hunt for a man no one seems to know much about. Originally published in 1998, Islandport edition includes new introduction by author.

About this title

About the Author:

Like many crime novelists, Boyle began his writing career in newspapers―the best training ground ever. After Colby College, he knocked around, including stints as a roofer, a postman, and a manuscript reader at a big New York publisher. His first reporting job was with a weekly in the paper mill town of Rumford, Maine. After a few months it was on to the (Waterville, Maine) Morning Sentinel, where editors learned early on that he worked best when left to his own devices. He wrote about tuff he saw in police stations, courtrooms, in the towns and cities of Maine. Deadline came out in 1993. With an assist from Robert B. Parker, he landed a top-flight literary agent and the books came steadily after that. McMorrow and Boyle grew up together, though at different rates.

From Kirkus Reviews:

Freelance journalist Jack McMorrow thinks he's come to little Scanesett, Maine, to research Benedict Arnold's 1775 trek to attack the fortifications of Qubec. But when he picks up the scent of a mystery man--one ``P. Ray Mantis''--who got off the tour bus from Boston for lunch in Scanesett and never got back on, he's off and running in a new direction, even though his editor's increasing anxiety about the Arnold article guarantees that Jack will be running in two directions at once. Despite the protests of a Chamber of Commerce rep, there's nothing to see or do in Scanesett, and our journalist runs afoul of the local police chief early on--plus which the only people who seem to have seen the elusive Mr. Mantis, Robie Roberts and his sister Rob-ann, are as inarticulate as they are reclusive, so naturally Jack is convinced there's a big story here. Next thing you know, he's delving into the missing man's alleged CIA past, shuttling back and forth across the US-Canada border as often as the smuggler Canadian authorities seem convinced he is, alternately chasing and getting chased by Robie's family relations (who are almost as slow as Robie, and a lot more mean)--and punctuating all this dim intrigue with an endless series of sensitive phone calls to his convalescent friend Clair Varney in Virginia and his belle Roxanne Masterson in Florida. Jack's fourth (Potshot, 1997, etc.) features as much sound and fury as a summer movie blockbuster, though it's just as likely to leave you scratching your head at the fadeout. -- Copyright ©1998, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

About this edition

• Publisher: Islandport Press
• Publication date: 2016
• ISBN 10: 1939017793
• ISBN 13: 9781939017796
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 315