When we meet Gus Murphy, he's a broken man living & working at a third rate hotel. He used to be a happily married cop, content with his lot in life but that was before. Before his son died, before the divorce & before he left the job. Two years on, he's still smothered by the overwhelming loss of everything that mattered & each day is a struggle to just breathe.Tommy Delcamino is a reformed criminal familiar with the pain of losing a child. Four months ago, his son TJ was beaten & left like tr

Gus Murphy is living a run down hotel and driving the courtesy van for it's guest when he is asked by an ex-con to help find out what happened to his son. Gus tells him he should really ask the police for help but Tommy Delcamino said he has already asked them and brought them plenty of leads but no wants to see justice done for his son. Gus reluctantly agrees and takes what Tommy has the detectives involved in the case but they shine him on. Now Tommy is dead and Gus has been shot at. As more a...

Dark, gritty and well written. I loved everything about this book and hope to read more about Gus Murphy in the future, a series I will definitely follow.

Above average debut for Gus Murphy as a retired cop from Suffolk County NY duty. And it does superlative cover for the Long Island locale. It's different and yet grabs the size, the tone, the connections, the variances of that place setting.It only lost a bit for me in the foul language of cop and perp talk and within the seemingly and nearly constant action levels. Gus survives at least 7 or 8 different death dealing exchanges here. I believe he may have even passed by a Reacher level of encoun...

WHERE IT HURTS(Gus Murphy: #1)Written by Reed Farrel Coleman2016; G.P. Putnam’s (484 Pages)Genre: series, fiction, mystery, suspense, thrillerRATING: 4.5 STARSAfter the death of his son, Gus Murphy retires from the police force and is divorced from his wife. He works as a courtesy van driver for a run-down hotel and now resides there, while his wife and daughter live with his wife’s family. Gus is breathing but he is not really living. Then one day a former ex-con, Tommy Delcamino shows up at hi...

Crime fiction is not a genre I usually read, but Where It Hurts was well written with characters who were well developed and compelling. Gus Murphy, the ex-cop who is recovering from a personal tragedy, gets pulled into a murder investigation that spurs him to examine not only the details of the case but the state of his life.

John Augustus Murphy is a sad, cynical, and empty man. His life has been riddled by loss. He has lost his faith in God and his trust in people. He has also lost his career as a cop with the Suffolk County Police, his marriage, his house, but most of all, where it hurts, the sudden and senseless death of his beloved twenty-year-old son.“I lost my faith a long time before losing my son, and his death proved me right.”He lives his life on automatic pilot, existing rather than living – and grieving....

I can't believe this author has written 20+ books, and I have never heard of much less read any of them. That is about to change.Where It Hurts is an Excellent start to a new book series.Gus Murphy hasn't been a cop since is son died 2 years ago, but he was a cop, a solid good cop, for 20 years. No he is a hollow shell of a man, when a lowlife from his past (Tommy D) reaches out to Gus, to ask for help, regarding the murder of his own son. Gus is soon buried in crosses and double crosses, doesn'...

After decades of reading mysteries and thrillers, I still frequently encounter authors whose names are new to me—but are described as “bestselling” and sometimes have dozens of novels to their credit. Reed Farrel Coleman is the latest example. Author of at least 23 books divided among six series of crime novels, Coleman is the recipient of half a dozen literary awards. His latest series features John Augustus “Gus” Murphy, a retired cop in suburban Suffolk County on Long Island. Where It Hurts i...

Ex-cop Gus Murphy is hurting. His son's sudden death has thrown him into a deep hole of grief leading to the end of his marriage, problems with his daughter and a menial job as a hotel van driver living on-site and isolated. Then he is contacted by a man he regularly used to arrest and asked to look into the barbaric death of the man's son. Initially reluctant to do so, Gus slowly uncovers more and more details about those involved and as he does so, he also learns to deal with his personal grie...

Outsiders don’t get Long Island; most New Yorkers don’t understand it. They can’t get past the beaches and the sound, the Hamptons and the Gold Coast, the country clubs and marinas ... What off-islanders see is the 24-carat gilding the edges where the money flows, not the fool’s gold in the middle where the rats race as hard as in the city and where stray dogs lie in wait.Retired Suffolk County cop, Gus Murphy works the night shift at a low-key hotel on Long Island as courtesy vehicle driver and...

I read this book because it was nominated for an Edgar Award this year, and now I'm scratching my head trying to figure out how it could have possibly made it to the list. Maybe it was because this book was up for an award that I felt so incredibly disappointed in it. I went into the reading experience expecting something great. Instead what I got was a very mediocre crime story, wholly unoriginal plot line, characters whom I've read about a dozen times before, and the dialogue was not great and...

A mystery with a main character who actually evolves!

Gus Murphy, once a Suffolk County Police Officer, is now driving a shuttle van for a run-down MacArthur Airport hotel. Two years ago, his son John died from a genetic anomaly of the heart, keeling over during a basketball game. Since John's death, Gus has been wallowing in grief, his marriage has imploded and his daughter has turned to alcohol and drugs in order to deal with her feelings. One day, out of the blue, a small-time crook by the name of Tommy Delcalmino approaches Gus and asks his hel...

The character names alone set the gritty landscape—Gus Murphy (our hero), Tommy Delcamino, Kareem Shivers and Frankie Tacos. Those are character names worthy of Chandler or Leonard or Block.We’re on Long Island, the overlooked sections with dive bars like Harrigan’s. “It was a classic loser’s bar. The kind of place where even the young men were old. Where the Daily Racing Form passed for the news of the world and where the light of day was the common enemy.” The entire novel unfolds against a gr...

This is the first novel in a projected new series by the very gifted writer, Reed Farrel Coleman. The protagonist is Gus Murphy, a former cop in Suffolk County on Long Island. Murphy had a great life and was perfectly content until, out of the blue, a tragedy destroyed him and blew his family apart. Now Murphy is trudging through life, caring about virtually nothing and no one. He works two crappy jobs, one as a courtesy van driver for a third-rate hotel and the other as a bouncer in the hotel's...

3 stars.This is my first novel by this author, Reed Farrel Coleman. It is also the first book of a series. This was perfectly enjoyable for my day. Overall, I liked this. I listened to the audio and the narrator did a great job. I liked the different voices for the characters. The writing was certainly creative.The MC was kind of fun. In some ways, there was nothing that made him different from other MCs in this genre, (attractive, broken marriage, a rebel spirit, other women falling all over hi...

I really enjoyed Coleman’s nine books featuring ex-cop Moe Prager. In fact, I’d go as far as to say it’s been one of my favourite crime fiction series. Prager was a haunted soul whose career as a cop was ended by a freak accident when slipped on an errant piece of carbon paper. Thereafter, as he worked as a PI and sometimes as a wine seller, he sought but never really seemed to find true happiness. But the search was a good one and he had some brilliant adventures and met some memorable characte...

This hardcover is signed by author Reed Farrel Coleman.

Reed Farrel Coleman is an extremely talented writer. He excels at character development and setting a scene. This is the first in a new series for Coleman featuring former Suffolk County police officer Gus Murphy whose life is in a shambles following the unexpected death of his son 2 years ago. A person Gus knew quite well having arrested him a number of times while on the job seeks Gus out asking him to investigate the brutal murder of his son. When this man later turns up dead, Gus makes it hi...