“Reed Farrel Coleman is a terrific writer. . . . a hard-boiled poet . . . If life were fair, Coleman would be as celebrated as [George] Pelecanos and [Michael] Connelly.”

—Maureen Corrigan, NPR’s
Fresh Air

“Reed Farrel Coleman is one of the more original voices to emerge from the crime fiction field in the last ten years. For the uninitiated,
Walking the Perfect Square
is the place to start.”

—George Pelecanos, best-selling author of
The Way Home

“Among the undying conventions of detective fiction is the one that requires every retired cop to have a case that still haunts him. Reed Farrel Coleman blows the dust off that cliché in
Walking the Perfect Square
. . . with a mystery that would get under anyone’s skin.”

—Marilyn Stasio,
The New York Times

“The author makes us care about his characters and what happens to them, conveying a real sense of human absurdity and tragedy . . . a first-rate mystery. Moe is a fine sleuth. Coleman is an excellent writer.”

—
Publishers Weekly

“Whenever our customers are looking for a new series to read, they often leave with a copy of
Walking the Perfect Square
. It has easily been our best-selling backlist title. Thank you, Busted Flush, for bringing this classic ‘Moe’ back into print!”

—Gary Shulze, Once Upon a Crime (Minneapolis, Minnesota)

“The biggest mysteries in our genre are why Reed Coleman isn’t already huge, and why Moe Prager isn’t already an icon. Both are to me. Read this book and you’ll find you agree.”

—Lee Child, best-selling author of
Worth Dying For

“Originally published in 2001 . . .
Walking the Perfect Square
has been reissued by Busted Flush Press, good news for mystery lovers, since Reed Farrel Coleman is quite a writer, and this is only the first of five books about Moe Prager. The story and the characters will hook you, and Coleman’s lightly warped take on the world will make you laugh, dark as the tale is. As soon as I finished
Walking the Perfect Square
, I started the next in the series,
Redemption Street
. The only problem with the following three (
The James Deans
,
Soul Patch
,
Empty Ever After
) will be to decide whether to read them immediately or savor them over a period of time.”

—Marilyn Dahl,
Shelf Awareness

“Moe’s back—if you haven’t already discovered Reed Farrel Coleman’s wonderful, award-winning ex-cop-turned-P.I., Moe Prager, here’s your chance. He’s for real, and so is Coleman’s handling of cases that stay with you long after the book’s end.
Walking the Perfect Square
,
Redemption Street
, and
The James Deans
belong in every mystery fan’s personal library, because the writing is fine, the realization is believable, and the character is true to himself. This is the man to measure the rest by, a writer with a passionate belief in giving his best, and an eye for what makes the PI novel work at a level few can match.”

—Charles Todd, best-selling author of
An Impartial Witness

“One of crime fiction’s finest voices, Edgar Award-finalist Reed Coleman combines the hard-fisted detective story with a modern novel’s pounding heart and produces pure gold. Moe Prager belongs with Travis McGee and Lew Archer in the private eye pantheon. Coleman’s series is a buried treasure—dig in and hit the jackpot!”

—Julia Spencer-Fleming, best-selling author of
Once Was a Soldier

“Moe Prager is the thinking person’s P.I. And what he thinks about—love, loyalty, faith, betrayal—are complex and vital issues, and beautifully handled.”

—S. J. Rozan, Edgar Award-winning author of
On the Line

“What a pleasure to have the first two Moe Prager novels back in print. In a field crowded with blowhards and phony tough guys, Reed Farrel Coleman’s hero stands out for his plainspoken honesty, his straight-no- chaser humor and his essential humanity. Without a doubt, he has a right to occupy the barstool Matt Scudder left behind years ago. In fact, in his quiet unassuming way, Moe is one of the most engaging private eyes around.”

—Peter Blauner, Edgar Award-winning author of
Casino Moon
and
Slow Motion Riot

“Reed Farrel Coleman makes claim to a unique corner of the private detective genre with
Redemption Street
. With great poignancy and passion he constructs a tale that fittingly underlines how we are all captives of the past.”

—Michael Connelly, best-selling author of
The Reversal

“Moe Prager is a family man who can find the humanity in almost everyone he meets; he is a far from perfect hero, but an utterly appealing one. Let’s hope that his soft heart and lively mind continue to lure him out of his wine shop for many, many more cases.”

—Laura Lippman, best-selling author of
Life Sentences

“Reed Farrel Coleman is a hell of a writer. Poetic, stark, moving. And one of the most daring writers around, never afraid to go that extra mile. He freely admits his love of poetry, and it resonates in his novels like the best song you’ll ever hear. Plus, he has a thread of compassion that breaks your heart . . . to smithereens.”

—Ken Bruen, two-time Edgar Award-nominated author of
London Boulevard

“Coleman is a born writer. His books are among the best the detective genre has to offer at the moment; no, wait. Now that I think about it they’re in the top rank of any kind of fiction currently published. Pick up this book, damn it.”

—Scott Phillips, award-winning author of
The Ice Harvest
and
Cottonwood

“Reed Farrel Coleman goes right to the darkest corners of the human heart—to the obsessions, the tragedies, the buried secrets from the past. Through it all he maintains such a pure humanity in Moe Prager—the character is as alive to me as an old friend. I flat out loved the first Prager book, but somehow he’s made this one even better.”

—Steve Hamilton, Edgar Award-winning author of
The Lock Artist

“Coleman may be one of the mystery genre’s best-kept secrets.”

—
Sun-Sentinel

“Moe is a character to savor. And Coleman? He’s an author to watch. Make that watch and read. For this is only the beginning, folks, and I’m hitching my wagon to this ride.”

—Ruth Jordan,
Crimespree Magazine

by Reed Farrel Coleman

Moe Prager novels
Walking the Perfect Square
(2001)
Redemption Street
(2004)
The James Deans
(2005)
Winner of the Anthony, Barry, and Shamus Awards
Nominated for the Edgar, Gumshoe, and Macavity Awards
Soul Patch
(2007)
Winner of the Shamus Award
Nominated for the Edgar, Barry, and Macavity Awards
Empty Ever After
(2008)
Winner of the Shamus Award
Innocent Monster
(2010)

Writing with Ken Bruen
Tower
(2009)
Nominated for the Anthony, Macavity, and Spinetingler Awards

Writing as Tony Spinosa
Hose Monkey
(2006)
The Fourth Victim
(2008)

Dylan Klein novels
Life Goes Sleeping
(1991)
Little Easter
(1993)
They Don’t Play Stickball in Milwaukee
(1997)

Edited by Reed Farrel Coleman
Hardboiled Brooklyn
(2006)

FOREWORD

by Craig Johnson

UNLIKE MOST WRITERS, Reed Farrel Coleman isn’t looking for compliments, and what he has in common with the really good writers is a search for the truth. Truth means a lot to Coleman, like a compass that points to an unerring north. Like some Brooklyn street poet, he weaves honesty in and out of a story like a golden thread—a tarnished golden thread that’s seen better days, but is still gold.

I heard about Reed from Scott Montgomery, an individual with impeccable taste in the genre. He said I had to read Reed Farrel Coleman. Generally, I don’t trust people with three names, but I’d met Reed and his wife at the Edgar Awards in New York where I complimented his wife on her dress. Coleman said he picked it out. I complimented him on his taste. He said the dress hadn’t looked as good on him. I agreed.

When I think of Moe Prager, the protagonist of Coleman’s series, I think of Bogart’s line in
Casablanca
, “He’s just like any other man, only more so.” No hero here, just a guy who does a job, only more so—a guy who knows strong D with good footwork on the b-ball courts and who quotes Blaise Pascal in an unobtrusive way. If I’m going to be stuck in a guy’s first-person head for three hundred pages, he’d better be interesting and he’d better be funny.

I’ve spent an awful lot of my life in locker rooms, squad rooms, and hunting camps, where a certain type of humor pervades, a dark humor that undercuts the hardness of the life. Reed’s got it down cold, and his pitch-perfect delivery is like the relish on a Coney Island hot dog.

But I’d read him even if there wasn’t a humorous word in his books—I’d read him because there’s an energy to his characters that’s contagious, a grinding hurt for the individuals that’s honest to humanity. And, like my old buddy Tony Hillerman used to say, he tells a good story.

Any one of Reed’s novels could’ve been pulled from the pages of the
Daily News
. But for me,
Soul Patch
is Reed Farrel Coleman at the top of his game: the political gambits of unbridled ambition, the personal angst of loss for things that might have been—or worse, never
were. Moses Prager gets under your skin in
Soul Patch
, and I mean that in a good way—or maybe we are the ones who get under Moe’s skin, allowing us to see the world through his eyes, and, more importantly, through the pain of his wrecked knee. Prager is a fallen knight who reached for the brass ring in the form of a gold detective’s shield and came down to earth, hard. I carried a gun, lived in Harlem for a few years, and had the City of New York reconstruct my own left knee, and can vouch for the gritty realism of the world Reed Farrel Coleman shows us.

That’s the thing about Reed’s writing—the human element that complicates everything. He pursues and defines the universal human condition. While displaying myriad characters and their motivations, he finds a way to pull us all together and show us where we’re alike, and sometimes that’s a scary place to be.

He’s the guy who starts getting distracted when you flatter him. You might notice his fingers paradiddling a complex pattern on the surface of the bar as he looks out the windows at the street. It’s not that he’s ignoring you; it’s just that he’s hearing the music, picking up the rhythms—looking for the truth.

Reed Farrel Coleman won’t like this intro because it’s too complimentary.

Tough.

Craig Allen Johnson
Ucross, Wyoming
January 2010

Craig Johnson is the best-selling author of six Walt Longmire crime novels, including
The Dark Horse
and
Junkyard Dogs
.

This book is dedicated to the Brooklyn that was and never was.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS