Semiautomatic Robert Reuland 9781461198161 Books
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The follow-up to Reuland's critically acclaimed debut novel Hollowpoint. "Rob Reuland writes beautifully-about sadness and cities and injured dreams. First with Hollowpoint and now with Semiautomatic, he has renewed my faith in the health and future of the urban crime novel." -Dennis Lehane "Semiautomatic is notable not for violence but for subtle characterizations, moral ambiguities and exceptional writing. Reuland has been, like Gio, a prosecutor in Brooklyn. Many lawyers publish novels these days, and most express themselves with clarity. But not many lawyers (or non-lawyers, for that matter) produce fiction that is fresh, surprising and lyrical, as Reuland does. Some readers may find Semiautomatic too inward for their tastes, but in stylistic terms it's the best-written legal thriller I've ever read, hands down." -Washington Post Reuland's elegant, hard-edged, and oftentimes funny writing has inspired one critic to name him the "bastard child of Raymond Chandler and Ernest Hemingway." With Semiautomatic, Reuland delivers another fist-in-the-gut portrait of criminal justice inside the courtroom and on the darkened street corners of Brooklyn. But more than anything Reuland captures lives on the edge, men and women working and dying in a very real world that most of us never see, although it exists right under our noses. Reuland shows us that world in searing detail without flinching, although we may want to.
Semiautomatic Robert Reuland 9781461198161 Books
I liked Hollowpoint, but I really like the follow-on, Semiautomatic. If you read one, you must start with the debut novel, as there is a tremendous amount of back story that Reuland does not repeat in sufficient detail in this book.After Hollowpoint, we saw a down on his luck assistant DA do his best to insert the right outcome into a case he was handling for the prosecutor's office. The author's prior work as a DA there lent a lot of charm to the first book and all of that continues here. As with the first book, the protagonist is handled a 'simple' case that turns out to be anything but. He's pared with a partner who has no experience in prosecuting murder cases, and they develop a very tentative and complex relationship while they try to move forward with the case. As you might expect, there are bigger forces and a larger agenda here at work. Watching them figure this out and what they're prepared to do about it is a real treat.
I wrote in my review of Hollowpoint that the sense of place for Brooklyn was strong. It's even stronger here. You can practically smell the steam of the summer shower coming off of the still hot pavements.
Reuland is an author to keep an eye on. I for one will be following him.
Recommended highly.
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Tags : Semiautomatic [Robert Reuland] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. The follow-up to Reuland's critically acclaimed debut novel Hollowpoint. Rob Reuland writes beautifully-about sadness and cities and injured dreams. First with Hollowpoint and now with Semiautomatic,Robert Reuland,Semiautomatic,CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform,146119816X,FICTION Mystery & Detective General
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Semiautomatic Robert Reuland 9781461198161 Books Reviews
I picked up this short crime novel 'cause I was in a rush and it had a nice blurb on the cover from George Pelecanos (one of my favorite writers). Well, haste definitely made waste for me, and I'm sad to report that Pelecanos gave me a bum steer. This story about a murder trial in Brooklyn is an utterly tepid and uninteresting piece of work. Part of the problem is that a lot of the backstory to the protagonist Giobberti, a 40-year-old homicide prosecutor for the District Attorney's office, resides in Reuland's debut, Hollowpoint. Apparently in that book Giobberti screwed up so badly that he was exiled in disgrace to the backwater of the Appeals Bureau. He also either then or subsequently lost his daughter in a traffic accident and his wife walked out on him. Now, some 18 months later, he is unexpectedly told to take over a routine case involving a teenager who killed a bodega owner in a stickup.
Already on the case is inexperienced junior prosecutor Laurel Ashfield, who's never tried a homicide. Most of the book revolves around Giobberti and her getting a feel for each other and the case. Almost immediately, Giobberti (and the reader) realizes there's something not quite right about the case, and it takes an awfully long time for the specifics to be revealed. Once revealed, the specifics end up being woefully uninteresting, revolving around the completely unshocking reality of cops and DAs playing fast and loose with the truth in order to put away bad guys in order to score political points. The theme of corrupt a corrupt legal system and bent cops has been exhaustively explored in film and fiction for over a century, and Reuland brings nothing new to the table here.
The author was himself a lawyer for the Brooklyn DA's Homicide Bureau, so the book does benefit from a certain authenticity of detail. Reuland is particularly strong in describing places and creating vivid mental images of the courtroom, apartments, bathrooms, offices, and so on. Unfortunately, the people moving through these spaces don't talk or think the way real people do. The dialogue tends to be so clipped and elliptical that one wonders if the author is trying to parody of pulp films. At one point Giobberti actually addresses Ashfield as "sister" and another character laughably tells Giobberti to "take your meathooks off me!" Worst of all, there's no suspense and no dramatic tension to be found anywhere in this entirely skippable book.
I agree both with the people who liked this novel and with those who didn't. The level of writing is well above average, as is knowledge of the subject. Both are so welcome after a J. D. Robb "In Death" novel which is utterly mediocre in comparison.
Except... Mr. Reuland absolutely refuses to use a contraction (e.g. "won't" or "can't") so ALL the dialog (uneducated criminals included) is unbearably stilted. "She will not tell me, and I cannot insist, because we had not...". Nobody talks or thinks like this. How an otherwise perceptive writer could be so obtuse or so self-indulgent - and his editor permit it - is beyond me. It's like avoiding every word with the letter 'e'. Even in the excellent reading by Jason Collins this soon becomes excruciating. I soon began listening as much for an exception to this as to the relatively modest plot. Result one contraction noted in the entire book.
Also, as mentioned by another reviewer, conversations between the principals are often unrealistically fragmented. People are constantly breaking off just when they're about to explain something important. This authorial trick creates many misunderstandings to advance the plot, but after a few of these the reader is thinking "just spit it out, for heavens sake!".
Mr. Reuland is a talented author and could easily do without the idiosyncrasies I'm criticising. I hope he'll iron these out of his future books. But, what author ever pays attention to the lay reader's opinion?
I have loved all of Robert Reuland's novels that I have read in this series. I only hope he writes more!!!!!!!
My son wanted this book for Christmas, so I looked it up, ordered it, and received it very quickly. Thanks!
Brilliant, insightful page-turner on what it is like to prosecute murders in an overworked big-city homicide unit. Reuland is a superb writer and must be one heck of a good lawyer. Unlike many (but not all) lawyer-writers, he gets it right. Too bad this and Hollowpoint are his only two published books.
It would be a mistake to call this a legal thriller, just as it would be a mistake to believe that what happens in most American courtrooms is legally thrilling. This is taut, believable urban crime drama from someone batting .1000 right out of the box on his first two novels. It's not plot-crazed Grisham. It's a story and characters to think about and a protagonist you can actually buy. I loved it, just as I loved Hollowpoint, his first. The second is more enjoyable if you read HP and got the setup but Semiautomatic also stands on its own as a first-rate urban crime novel. Very good stuff.Can't waint for the next one.
I liked Hollowpoint, but I really like the follow-on, Semiautomatic. If you read one, you must start with the debut novel, as there is a tremendous amount of back story that Reuland does not repeat in sufficient detail in this book.
After Hollowpoint, we saw a down on his luck assistant DA do his best to insert the right outcome into a case he was handling for the prosecutor's office. The author's prior work as a DA there lent a lot of charm to the first book and all of that continues here. As with the first book, the protagonist is handled a 'simple' case that turns out to be anything but. He's pared with a partner who has no experience in prosecuting murder cases, and they develop a very tentative and complex relationship while they try to move forward with the case. As you might expect, there are bigger forces and a larger agenda here at work. Watching them figure this out and what they're prepared to do about it is a real treat.
I wrote in my review of Hollowpoint that the sense of place for Brooklyn was strong. It's even stronger here. You can practically smell the steam of the summer shower coming off of the still hot pavements.
Reuland is an author to keep an eye on. I for one will be following him.
Recommended highly.
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