What’s a Coogan? That’s the country named after a family patriarch who was one of the
area’s most famous pioneers. “He built
the bridge over the Missouri River, started the bank, gobbled up most of the
good land. He left his heirs more money than they could count and a reputation
for running roughshod over anybody who got in their way," said Kurt
McBride, a Chicago based District Attorney returning to his hometown to
finalize his deceased mother’s estate. Now there seemed to be a return of someone – or rather something -
believed to be finished back in the 1960’s – known to locals as The Coogan Curse.
When a couple was found mutilated on “Lover’s Lane” – with
their limbs brutally torn from their bodies, teeth marks, knife cuts and
dismemberment beyond merely a human assault, visiting Chicago Assistant
District Attorney Kurt McBride is thrown into the mystery as he involuntarily
begins to help the locals and police investigators solve the murder
mystery. Yet the murders continued. A farmer was found victimized in extraordinary
ways, again with savage brutality and a perplexing twist; his head being cut
with a knife and mounted on a post, something a beast such as a wolf or wild
animal wouldn’t do. A girl in her
twenties was found in the trunk of her car, mutilated. Then others found dead
with more nauseating remnants of violence; it became strikingly clear something
beyond ordinary was going on.
Author Larry Long did an excellent job creating character
development with his heavily laden use of dialogue, articulation of credible small
town attitudes and interlacing history amidst the current events. He took this “Andy of Mayberry” type of
situation and juxtaposed it against Rod Serling’s Twilight Zone mixed with some of Stephen King’s flair of a super-natural
killing mystery. Good writing, when done
well, looks easy; and this book read easily from the start, keeping one’s
interest while the plot unfolded at a never-boring pace. The
Coogan Curse is filled with a slew of characters of people from Kurt McBride’s
past. Cast with many of his past acquaintances,
family and friends of family, high-school kids now grown, as well as the
onslaught of the law enforcement officials taking the forensic evidence and
cultivating their case, The Coogan Curse
sets the reader on a twisting course with more loose ends pointing in more different
directions than pine needles on a pine tree. The usual suspects were suspected but each seemed to have proof they
didn’t do it – which was as important as clearing them from the suspect
list. Then came the bigotry of racial
profiling from hillbillies, Latinos, and “half-breed Indians” and even terrorists
were all quick to judge -- yet again it
became easily apparent they were not the killers. The mystery was believed to be “The Curse” as
it was called by the locals. But Kurt
McBride didn’t believe in curses.
This book is an absolute must for all mystery readers! If I were to give out stars, Larry Long would
surely get 5 out of 5 for his masterpiece creation. The
Coogan Curse is a perfect balance of action, dialogue, character
development and intelligent mystery writing blended into a modern-day thriller
that will keep the pages turning until you realize there are more pages in your
left hand than your right, and you’re still not sure where the ending will
bring you. It is well suited for
screenplay adaptation for a movie as well as a book series of the Kurt
McBride’s character. Larry Long has
created a book worthy to be your companion on a trip, a vacation, or just by a
chair at home. Well suited from young
adults to seasoned mystery and suspense readers, it has something for everyone
within the credible characters that are truly the fabric of our small town
communities, and how they come together to ward off evil.
