David Loogan is a wanna-be hard-boiled detective drawn into a mystery. I found Very Bad Men to be a laborous read as it had many sub plot lines and was slow moving. Not typical for your thriller genre works of fiction but kept me interested. I admit I have not read the first book in this series, Bad Things Happen, and do not feel lacking for it. I was able to follow the characters and plot just fine without it, but will probably seek it out from the library as my interest is peaked. Although somewhat predictable of a story-line and somewhat unrealistic characters I still couldn't put the book down and had to read it to the end. I am giving it a 4 star rating because it is one of the better works of sleuthing fiction I have read in some time.

My rating system is as follows:

5 stars - Excellent, Worth Every Penny, Made It Into My Personal Library!
4 stars - Great book, but not a classic.
3 stars - Good overall, generally well written.
2 stars - Would not recommend based on personal criteria.
1 star - Difficult to read, hard to finish, or didn't finish. Wouldn't recommend purchasing or reading.

In accordance with the new FTC Guidelines for blogging and endorsements, you should assume that every book I review was provided to me by the publisher, media group or the author for free and no financial payments were received, unless specified otherwise.

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"We all want to be seen for who we really are..."

This is the second novel featuring David Loogan and his live-in partner Elizabeth Waishkey. David is the editor and publisher of mystery stories for a magazine called "Gray Streets". Elizabeth is a detective for the city of Ann Arbor, Michigan. In a very unlikely scenario, David becomes involved in a whodunit when he discovers an envelope propped against the door of his office. Inside that envelope is a message and a confession from someone who claims to have killed a recent murder victim. Who left this confession and why? This is the first of several apparent executions. The victims are all connected to a failed heist - the Great Lakes Bank Robbery, that occurred many years previously. In addition to David bumbling along in the investigation, there is also a young tabloid reporter named Lucy Navarro hot on the case. The chapters skip around and focus on different characters and move back and forth in time. This is a story that has a large cast of good guys and bad guys and a lot of background information is provided that moves the narrative forward.

I didn't find this novel to be particularly suspenseful or very thrilling. Also found it to be very slow moving with way too many completely unrealistic, and frankly sort of uninteresting, plot points. The story was very predictable with its characters all running around playing amateur sleuth a la Nancy Drew. It seemed as if the author was trying to imitate other writers with his dialog; the back cover compares his writing to Elmore Leonard. The way that David and Lacy insert themselves into the hunt for the killer and involve themselves in the case seemed completely unbelievable -- and what detective would allow her boyfriend and daughter to actually skulk around town carrying out this clandestine investigation? I had a hard time suspending disbelief. After all, these are supposed to be VERY BAD MEN.

The resolution was OK but quite drawn out. The real purpose of the tale was explained in the first chapter -- it's "about the motives people have for killing one another."

I did not read the first book in this series, Bad Things Happen, and it will be unlikely that I'd read the third. Despite raves ensuring that it will "keep your mind racing and your hand eagerly turning pages," I simply did not find this mystery very compelling or interesting.

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I read Harry Dolan's first Book Very Bad Men and loved it! And while this is a follow up to that, it really does stand on it's own. Very easy to read writing style and although some of the story lines were getting a little confusing towards the end (I kind of think that was the point, a lot of people involved in this mystery), the last 80 pages or so really summed everything up and I could not put the book down until I finished!

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