Coleman is a fantastic storyteller!!! Set in 1970’s NYC, this story is a character-driven deep dive into corruption, loyalty, and misplaced secrecy. Fans of George Pelecanos would likely enjoy this debut in the Moe Prager series. Highly recommended!!

In the Afterwards of my edition (Busted Flush Press, 2008) the author states that while he had the basic story of Walking the Perfect Square for some time, he lacked the necessary skill to execute it until somewhere around 2001. The reader can be forgiven if his mind automatically goes to the time shifts that the novel employs. It's a part of it, certainly, but far from the whole of it. The portion of the story that takes place in 1998, in this case “the present,” is essentially a framing sequen...

Walking the Perfect Square - ExColeman, Reed Farrel - 1st in seriesBrooklyn PI Moe Praeger is an ex-cop forced to retire because of a knee injury is to find the son of another cop, a young man who left a party one night and hasn't been seen since. So many people have been searching for Patrick Mahoney in the 20 years since his disappearance that Moe doesn't expect to be successful. As his investigation proceeds, he finds himself looking for two Patricks: one a choir boy lookalike and the other d...

I read Gun Church a week ago and had to go out and pick up the first book in the Moe Prager series. I loved GC and I wasn't disappointed with WtPS.Definitely not your typical PI book, I mean, he's not even a PI. Prager is an ex-cop now retired because of a knee injury. Prager gets a call from a hospice nurse saying that a patient wants to see him and only him even though Prager doesn't know the patient. The story then jumps back and forth in time to a period right after his injury when he became...

I have only recently discovered Reed Farrel Coleman and this is only the second of his novels that I have read but I am well and truly hooked.This is the first in the Moe Prager series. In the novel we are introduced to Moe who is an ex-cop who has had to leave the force because of a knee injury. He is planning opening a wine business with his brother but in the meantime he is asked by his former Police partner Rico to look into a missing persons case as a favour to a friend of Rico's wife. I wi...

In 1977, a college student disappeared. In 1998, PI Moe Prager, having trouble with his forced retirement and self doubt is persuaded to look for him. He finds the usual action lies behind the scenes.Not bad, but not something I'd read again.

PROTAGONIST: Moe Praeger, PISETTING: Brooklyn, New York - 1978 and 1998SERIES: #1 of 4RATING: 4.0At one time, Moe Prager was an officer with the NYPD, admittedly, not a very good one, although he did love the job. He's been forced to retire due to an injury. Contrary to expectations, he wasn't injured while taking down a big time criminal; rather, he hurt his knee when he slipped on a piece of paper in the squad room. He's had a few operations, but his mobility has been affected and he needs to

The best description I can come up with for this book is that at the end, I wanted to wash my mind out with soap. I am not squeamish, but this book was too much for me. It was like a layer of grit covered everything in the book, with nothing totally clean present. Part of what I found so disturbing was that many of the upsetting scenes were presented so matter-of-factly. It somehow made it worse that the characters didn't find their behavior appalling.I was also not a big fan of Coleman's writin...

I was torn between three and four stars for this one, but the book REALLY held my interest, so I went with the higher rating. I finished it in 24 hours! Outstanding choice for those times when you want something fairly easy to read that sucks you in right away and keeps you reading. Beach, airplane ride, bad day at work, hangover, vacation, or all of the above.I liked this enough that I went right out and got the next one in the series, so that's a good sign.

As an avid book reader who appreciates a good series to dive into, it’s fun when you discover a writer whose voice you really enjoy. Though there are many issues with Walking the Perfect Square, I liked this one a lot.Reed Farrel Coleman has a great sense of time. His version of 70s New York City feels real and lived in. His main character, Moe Prager, is an interesting one. An Jewish ex-cop moonlighting here as a private eye for a high profile mystery case, Prager makes for a fun tour guide thr...

I ran across Coleman when I read his continuation of Robert B. Parker’s Jesse Stone series. I liked that a lot so I thought I would take a look at Coleman’s Moe Prager series.Moe Prager has been invalided out of the NYPD after having knee surgery. How it happened depended on how drunk he was during the retelling. The truth was he slipped on a piece of carbon paper in the squad room. Having fortuitously found a missing girl while on the beat, he is approached by Francis Maloney, a haughty anti-se...

If you're looking for blood and guts this isn't for you. Moe Prager is a noir kind of detective, and he's presented as human. He's a good guy, smart, honest, and wants to do the right thing - all of which serve to get him into trouble at times. As for the plot, it's interesting and makes you want to know what happens, but not because it's one of those, "I cannot BELIEVE that just happened" kind of books. Because Moe's a good guy you get to see the dysfunction of his family and how he tries to na...

I'm late to the party, but happy to have made the acquaintance of Moe Prager. This book has all the ingredients for an excellent mystery series. Sign me up!

Surprisingly good! A little rough in spots and Coleman is a bit too fond of commas but overall a great start. I'll be reading more of this series.

WALKING THE PERFECT SQUARE introduces Moe Prager, a New York City police officer who was forced into early retirement by a bizarre, rather embarrassing accident. The book begins in the present - well, 1998 - when Moe is summoned by a dying man who claims to have knowledge of a case Moe worked right after his forced retirement, a case that still haunts Moe to this day. Then Moe flashes back to the late 70s. As he recovers from his career-ending accident physically, he also needs to figure out how...

This originally appeared at The Irresponsible Reader.---Moe Prager is waiting to call his daughter on her birthday, but before he can do that he answers a phone call that may lead him to solving an old missing persons case. It's a case that he investigated twenty years previously, shortly after an injury forced his retirement from the NYPD. We spend most of the novel in the 70's, with brief looks at Prager's present, tracing his work on the case.As a mystery novel, it's okay. Nothing special, bu...

I had been aware of Reed Farrel Coleman's Moe Prager series for quite some time but had never gotten around to reading any of the Shamus and Anthony Award winners. I had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Coleman at Book Expo and picking up a copy of the 3rd in the series, The James Deans. After about 20 pages, I knew that I wanted to start the series at the beginning with Walking the Perfect Square.Moe Prager is a Jewish New York cop on early retirement because of an injury. He is pretty bored with re...

Last year a friend and I went on a tour of Minneapolis's genre bookstores and asked for a book recommendation at each stop. As a librarian who definitely has *opinions* on how such a conversation should go, the clear winner on the reader's advisory front was Once Upon a Crime - the mystery bookstore. They asked lots of good questions, clearly knew the genre, and were very excited to talk to us about books.I asked for a mystery that would appeal to non-mystery readers, with great writing and comp...

Superior writing, interesting characters, and an intriguing story. College student, Patrick Maloney, disappears. His father, a man with some clout in 1978 NYC on the surface seems to be doing everything possible to find him. Enter Moe Prager, retired/injured on the job street cop, who had the dumb luck to find a missing child once before. Prager immediately senses that not all is on the level with the father and despite having never made detective does his best to look into the case. He finds hi...

This is a great mystery story! The first Moe Prager book I read was The James Deans (book #3), then Redemption Street (book #2). I don't know why I read them out of order, as I don't usually do that. But reading this book (book #1) was interesting because I got the entire back-story about Moe's wife's family and what happened at the beginning of their relationship. But I also was given a glimpse of the future. It was kind of eerie. I love the story and I love the dialogue. The characters are rea...