Walking the Perfect Square

A Moe Prager Mystery

By: Reed Farrel Coleman

Narrated by: Andy Caploe

Length: 8 hrs and 40 mins

Publisher's summary

Recently retired due to a freak accident, NYPD officer Moe Prager is lost. In pain and without the job he loves, Moe relunctantly settles on the notion of going into the wine business with his brother. But when Patrick Mahoney, a suburban college student, vanishes off the streets of Manhattan, Prager's universe is turned upside down and his life changed forever. Hired by the student's desperate family, Moe plunges deep into the world of New York's punk underground, sex clubs, and biker bars. Politicians, journalists, and crooked cops seem hell-bent on stopping him in his tracks.

Set on the gritty city streets of the late 1970s and the present day, Walking the Perfect Square is a unique mystery that delivers a compelling look at one person's efforts to find a man who was never really there and to protect his family from an unbearable truth.

Solve more cases with Moe Prager.

©2008 Reed Farrel Coleman (P)2010 Audible, Inc.

Critic reviews

“Among the undying conventions of detective fiction is the one that requires every retired cop to have a case that still haunts him. Reed Farrel Coleman blows the dust off that cliché in Walking the Perfect Square with a mystery that would get under anyone’s skin.” (Marilyn Stasio, The New York Times Book Review)

“The author makes us care about his characters and what happens to them, conveying a real sense of human absurdity and tragedy, of the price people will pay to get ahead or hide their true selves.” ( Publishers Weekly)

Excellent Lisen

From start to finish excellent listen. The reader really delivered. The only thing that was disjointed was he ending. Not blieveable. It would have been better if the discovery of boy had occurred sooner to us on the family dynamic and dysfunction early on. Even with that I am a Moe Prager fan

Where has Reed Coleman been hiding?

Why didn't I know about his mysteries? These are great! If you like your mystery with a bit of noir, you'll enjoy Moe Prager, a Jewish ex-cop with a bit of Brooklyn (ok, a lot of Brooklyn). He's a bit flawed, and he's tough but not too tough. There's a dark humor to his characters, and Moe sees the world around him with a sad clarity. The story itself is a twisty tale of police bureaucracy and family secrets. I enjoyed the book a lot and Andy Capole did a nice job with the narration. I plan to listen to the next two books in the series over the next couple of weeks...I'm hoping that they are as good as this one.

Clever, Interesting, Satisfying

Coleman's Moe Prager is just quirky enough to burrow into your memory. I liked The James Deans... so this purchase seemed natural. Hey... liked this one more. Andy Caploe brings Moe and his ensemble alive. This book's perfect for the gym, masks the pain like a double Irish single malt. Nice....

Dated story theme

I did not enjoy this story as much as some of the other reviewers. I thought the story was very dated and not particularly believable in places. Also, the book is just chock full of stereotypes and thus the characters aren't developed in interesting ways as much as they could be if they weren't mostly sterotypes, such as the "typical power-hungry Irish policeman stereotype", for instance.

On the plus side, the book moves along quickly, following an intricate plot. The narrator does a good job.

no loose ends...

If you could sum up Walking the Perfect Square in three words, what would they be?

interesting, engrossing, satisfying,

What did you like best about this story?

narration and storyline

Which scene was your favorite?

the flashbacks to the hospice

If you were to make a film of this book, what would be the tag line be?

A man finding his way and more....

Any additional comments?

It may have had a slow start but gathered momentum along the way for a very satisfying read (listen)

NOT just another mystery with an Ex-cop

There are many mysteries where the lead character is an Ex-cop. In this book, Moe Prager, is just that but his character is so well developed that you feel he could actually be a friend. He is hired to find a missing person. Nothing unusual about that. However, there's a lot more within the pages of “Walking the Perfect Square”: anti-Semitism, and other forms of prejudice, cruelty, the misuse of governmental power, psychology, love, family relationships, different types of families, and more. You won't forget these characters or this story when you close the book.

If I were to make any complains about this book, I would say it would be that the ending was too long. It raps up every character that was ever mentioned and most are not memorable and I had to say to myself, “who the heck was that?” That was my only detraction.

The book was an entertaining read, not great literature. I would recommend it.