Gingerbread Man

By Michael Shane

At a place where variety came to mingle, On the eve of a not-unlike-tonight kind of night, I met him. Met him by a rock overlooking a bay. A cool, calypso voice and graying temples . Gingerbread Man is a story told by a man who has walked through a life incident, and seen his share of violence. Thomas has life life filled with coffee and cigarettes .. not quite a policeman, a not-quite-private detective .. a freelance investigator. Working for police force on problem crimes, a troubleshooter, perhaps? A Criminalist. There have been killings through the South. Killings bizarre in nature, some violent, some quietly horrific. The thread which ties them all together is a letter, left at the scene of each crime, signed "GBM" and numbered The police forces affected set up a joint operations center in Atlanta. To avoid Federal interference in "their" case, they hire Thomas as investigative coordinator. Thomas realizes that he has a take on the murders, an idea of an inking . but he wants another voice in his head. So he packs up his bag of files, and takes the crimes on the road to Charleston, where he has a friend called Claire: I needed to go fish for answers where I knew I would find them. Clair would know . Clair long-boned and beautiful .. Clair, like Thomas, is ex-FBI, and she is the very best mind that Thomas can fathom. Through Clair's readings of the crime files, we re-visit the crimes along with Thomas. And along the way, we meet people of add interest: Clair, Michael, Bugsy, Dixie, Frenchy and we meet some bald people too. There is blood flowing through the veins of the people you read: you can taste the flavor of Clair's lips imagine the texture of Thomas voice . there is a smell to Bugsy that is all her own. Frenchy: a short, fat Oriental with a Southern twang and a preference for snuff. From crime number four, tension escalates, as Thomas begins to realize what he is really up against, and drives toward confrontation. And then we circle back to crime number 11 and Clair and Thomas realize what they've got by the tail: there is no serial killer .

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 9766102031
• ISBN13: 9789766102036
• Release Date: February 2000
• Publisher: LMH Publishers
• Length: 288 Pages
• Weight: 0.83 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.5" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

A new Ludlum?

What a great new author! Not your typical, predictable storyline.I was browsing through another book with the same name, coincidentally for both the title and the author (last name)and kept thinking "ho-hum". I then started flipping through Michael Shane's "The Gingerbread Man" and ended up having to buy it, as I couldn't put it down.A very good "read" that moves rapidly through more twists and turns than a roller coaster, with a good serving of all you could want. An interesting protagonist, some intriguing women and even more intriguing relationships and lots of good detective work, all leading up to great ending.I was surprised to learn that this was Mr. Shane's first novel but I will certainly be on the look-out for more.

Talented Writer -- Suspenseful Thriller

Extremely well researched and realistically technical, yet also, a very sexually explicit love story revolving around a man and several women. A combination of a suspense/thriller and love story, vividly and richly written. Shane has accurately captured the true rivalry between different police agencies involved in complicated multi-jurisdictional criminal investigations. The author has also depicted the rivalry experienced by investigators when other agencies want to know all information they possess in an investigation but are, of course, unwilling to share their own information. Each agency wants to be the lead agency for high-profile or politically sensitive investigations, to enhance the public's perception of their competency. However, in multi-jurisdictional investigations, one agency ends up getting most of the credit over all the other agencies. Shane has also captured the true feelings of males in regards to sex, which few authors/publishers are willing to honestly express. Shane has been able to express the male thinking in sexual encounters and actions. The author vividly illustrates, through Thomas, the protagonist, how men really feel and express themselves (or wish they could) in true love. Through sharing this character's experience and thoughts, men will see a part of themselves, and smile; women will enjoy the sensuality and emotion, and learn a part of the complex reality of being male.

A mature John Grisham

I read this book while on vacation where I had the opportunity to read it virtually without interruption which is the way a book should be read.This book is a who done it whith a clever plot, and superb character and scene development written in an intricate story telling style. It is definately not bed time reading for the kids. It contains graphic murder scene descriptions and the dialogue is written the way people speak; sometimes in slang often with profanity and with an underlying often surfacing sexual theme.It is as I suggest in the title a "mature" John Grisham and I highly recommend it if you are looking for a refreshing take on an often monotonous genre of novel.