The Orange Curtain: A Jack Liffey Mystery

by John Shannon

Book Overview

If you've not met Jack Liffey -- and every mystery lover should -- here's your chance. This taut new novel featuring author John Shannon's "brave and decent" hero also offers you the perfect... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 078670876X
• ISBN13: 9780786708765
• Release Date: April 2001
• Publisher: Carroll & Graf Publishers
• Length: 230 Pages
• Weight: 1.15 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 6.2" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

I've discovered Jack Liffey!

This is the first of John Shannon's Jack Liffey mysteries I've read, though I see it's the fourth book in the series. It gave me a fascinating glimpse into the Vietnamese community of Orange County, LA, as well as introducing me to a central character I immediately want to more about. Jack Liffey is no super-hero, but a decent sort of guy trying to do his best in a crazy world (and some aspects of Liffey's LA are definitely crazy!). John Shannon is a great writer who keeps the reader interested throughout, and I can't understand why he isn't much better known. 'The Orange Curtain' is highly recommended.

Wow!

The Orange Curtain was my introduction to John Shannon. I am now going to read the previous titles. Here is a writer with remarkable skills, both in narrative and in characterization. As well, his hero Jack Liffey is a man of such thoughtful intelligence that he stands well above the usual macho-jock types who play leading roles in so many series. The creation of Billy Gudger is something rare: a fully rounded view of loneliness personified and of how cruelty and isolation can shape a killer. Unlike the two-dimensional bad guys with incoherent rationales who kill people from some warped sense of personal satisfaction, Shannon has, in Gudger, drawn a portrait of a sad, even forgivable, young man with no social skills, and a deep and terrible thirst for knowledge and for friendship. It is to the author's credit that the exchanges between Liffey and Gudger are sadly revealing of the souls of both men; and the final section of the book is a fine example of how tension can be tightened, then tightened some more, then more, before something finally snaps.Here is an author to watch; he is an extraordinary writer, with insight, wisdom, and great feeling for his characters.

Excellent novel. Great characters

Jack Liffey finds missing children and, in THE ORANGE CURTAIN, he must look into the strange (to him at least) culture of Orange County (formerly a bedroom community to Los Angeles but now a major center in its own right). The Orange County culture he investigates includes the ultra-rich, Vietnamese merchants and gangs, and an insane young man who flirts with genius.It is the characters that make THE ORANGE CURTAIN stand out although certainly author John Shannon handles adventure well enough (with both physical and psychological challenges to Liffey). Both Liffey and insane Billy Gudger have their own challenges in dealing with others, rendering Liffey the one man who may be able to communicate effectively with Billy.Shannon's touch for characters also applies to minor characters. Liffey's daughter Maeve, for example, is a delightful 13 going on 30. THE ORANGE CURTAIN is less a mystery to be solved than it is a set of observations into human nature, the intermingled but distinct societies of Southern California, and the challenges a man must face to stand himself in the morning. Does that sound heavy? In this case, it isn't. The novel is a fast read with several great a-ha moments.Highly Recommended.

Waaaaay Better Than Your Average Mystery

I'm not normally much of a mystery reader. I guess I'm a bit of a prose snob. I confess. For my taste, mysteries tend to be a bit insipid. Characters are too often one-dimentional: overly described and under-developed. Plots may be clever but are so totally predictable. Atmosphere is too often written in little florid slashes, in a kind of straight-jacketed prose brought in specially just to set the scene.Not so with John Shannon's Jack Liffy series. Wow. These books rock. This man can write. His sentences are beautiful and thought-provoking, yet he can slash through a scene, leaving you breathless and needing more, as well as anyone I've read. And Shannon gives the reader real characters and a true sense of place, not just walking cartoons and specially engineered atmospherics.This new book, The Orange Curtain, may be the best yet in the Jack Liffy series, but all of Shannon's Jack Liffy mysteries have been well done. The first book, Concrete River really captured for me a section of the slimy underbelly of Los Angeles. No mystery writer since Chander has sliced LA open and spilled out its guts as compellingly as Shannon has. LA is a huge place. There are lots of corners to explore. This new book, The Orange Curtain, takes in, among other things, Orange County and its huge Vietnamese population. It's a great book, whether you want to disappear into it on the coast-to-coast airliner or want to take it in over several days and savor its wonderful prose and interesting characters. It's a great book, and this is a series that just keeps getting better.There is plenty of punch in this book for you mystery addicts, plenty of hard-boiled sentiment and riveting, page-turning action. But between the lines--in the lines--there is also some superb writing.I can't wait for the next one.

JUSTICE IS DONE

There was an enormous amount of anger among mystery writers when John Shannon's previous publisher dropped him from their list. We all knew that Shannon was as fine a writer as any of us, and we also knew that Shannon's strongest Jack Liffey novel was next in line for publication.With THE ORANGE CURTAIN, Mr. Shannon proves his previous publisher wrong and his current publisher the luckiest publishing house on the face of the earth. Shannon has switched publishers, shifted from paperback originals into hardcover, and delivered a masterpiece to the mystery reading community.Jack Liffey, former aerospace worker, continues his new career of hunting missing children. While his formerly comfortable life is gone, Liffey continues to hold onto his innate humanity. This humanity is one of the ingredients I enjoy most about this series.In THE ORANGE CURTAIN, Liffey's task is to locate Phuong Minh, a Vietnamese bookseller's daughter. During his search, Liffey finds himself tangling with gang violence, corrupt politics, and the ethnic tranformation of contemporary Southern California. Little Saigon exists in Orange County because of America's Southeast Asian adventure and echoes of that war from a third of a century ago reverberate throughout this novel. During the course of his story, Shannon delivers explosive action, social observations, and humor as he builds to a magnificent climax.As a mystery writer who deals with similar themes in similar Orange County settings, I can vouch for the fact that John Shannon has mastered his material. He has gotten it right. THE ORANGE CURTAIN will likely be his breakthrough book. Shannon deserves it. His readers deserve it. Justice is done.