The Heartbreak Lounge

By Wallace Stroby

Book Overview

After a seven-year stretch inside a Florida penitentiary for attempted murder, Johnny Harrow knows exactly what he'll do when he gets out. He's going home to the shabby Jersey shore town where his girlfriend Nikki made the most selfless decision of her hard life: Giving up their newborn son for adoption. It's time for Johnny to claim what's his Nikki made one terrible mistake--she didn't tell Johnny her decision until the child was gone. She knows Johnny never forgets or forgives. She also knows what he's capable of. It's up to her to protect the child once again Desperate to save the child from the seething menace that is Johnny Harrow, Nikki turns to former New Jersey state trooper Harry Rane for help. Now, an investigator, Rane must crawl through the darkest corners of the New Jersey underworld to find Johnny and stop him. But Johnny Harrow isn't a man who's often caught unaware and so the game begins. "

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0312939124
• ISBN13: 9780312939120
• Release Date: March 2006
• Publisher: St. Martin's Press
• Length: 334 Pages
• Weight: 0.40 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 4.2" x 6.8"

Customer Reviews

Great new author

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and recommend to anyone. I'm not sure why he isn't more famous. He has a new book which I will be reading next. Reminds me of Elmore Leonard and James Patterson.

refreshing

Our hero bleeds. Needs help to get out of a tight spot. Loses a fight. And still is the hero. A nice change from the supermen we encounter too often in thrillers these days. A good series.

Highest possible recommendation for this breathtaking novel

There is a mystery novel titled THE LAST GOOD KISS by James Crumley. The work is revered by aficionados of the genre, many of whom establish their bona-fides with one another by demonstrating their ability to recite the opening paragraph of the book from memory. I shall now give these individuals cause to rend their garments at the blasphemy I'm about to commit, but commit it I must: the first six pages of THE HEARTBREAK LOUNGE by Wallace Stroby are just as good. Maybe even better. Pick up the book, test drive those pages, and see if you can stop reading, once you've brushed from your eyes the grit and gravel that you've accumulated as you stand with the newly released Johnny Harrow on the hot macadam of a Florida highway as he ostensibly attempts to hitchhike away from his past and into his future. I somehow missed THE BARBED-WIRE KISS, Stroby's first effort, which introduced ex-New Jersey State Trooper Harry Rane. If you've already read THE BARBED-WIRE KISS, you don't need me to tell you any more. But if you're not familiar with Stroby, and Rane, you might want to hang with me for just a minute here. You won't be sorry. Stroby's territory is the southern end of Central New Jersey, not the genteel Red Bank or even the deceptively laid back Monmouth, but Asbury Park and Neptune, municipalities that exude a quiet, dark uneasiness below the surface. It is to this area that Harrow is returning by way of Florida to settle old scores and to avenge what he considers, not without some merit, to be a number of wrongs wrought upon him. One of these involves a woman named Nikki Ellis, who gave birth to Harrow's son while Harrow was in prison and gave the baby up for adoption. Rane, for his part, is employed by a security agency run by one of his former state trooper colleagues. Ellis retains the agency for protection, an act that puts Rane and Harrow on a collision course. Rane's tragic flaw is that he is a man who attracts violence while being reluctant to respond in kind. Harrow, on the other hand, has the cunning of a reservoir dog and the disposition to match. His behavior is erratic and unpredictable, with the effect of his actions radiating violently outward from his locus. When these two men ultimately collide, it is with the effect of an irresistible force meeting an immovable object. With little fanfare Stroby is breaking new ground in the realm of noir literature. His descriptive abilities are breathtaking, and quite possibly without contemporary peer in the genre. THE HEARTBREAK LOUNGE demonstrates a talent that runs deep, dark and rich. Highest possible recommendation. --- Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub