WALKING THE PERFECT SQUARE Recently retired due to a freak accident, NYPD officer Moe Prager is lost. In pain and without the job he loves, Moe relunctantly settles on the notion of going into the wine business with his brother. When a suburban college student vanishes off the streets of Manhattan, Prager's universe is turned upside down and his life changed forever. Hired by the student's desperate family, Moe plunges deep into the world of New York s punk underground, sex clubs, and biker bars. Politicians, journalists, and crooked cops seem hell-bent on stopping him in his tracks. Set on the gritty city streets of the late seventies and the present day, Walking the Perfect Square is a unique mystery that delivers a compelling look at one person's efforts to find a man who was never really there and to protect his family from an unbearable truth. * A June bestseller for the Independent Mystery Booksellers Association * (Book 1 in the Moe Prager series) Rights Information Publisher: Permanent Press, Hardcover (February 1, 2002) Plume, Paperback (January 28, 2003) Busted Flush Press, Paperback reprint (April 7, 2008) Territory: World Rights Available: Film/TV Reviews: "I haven't been able to stop thinking about [Reed] Coleman's Moe Prager mystery series ever since one of God's own divine messengers —that is, an independent bookseller— recommended it to me last year. If life were fair, Coleman would be as celebrated as Pelecanos and Connelly." - Maureen Corrigan, National Public Radio "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 cliche in Walking the Perfect Square with a mystery that would get under anyone's skin." - Marilyn Stasio, The New York Times Book Review "The author makes us care about his characters and what happens to them, conveying a real sense of human absurdity and tragedy, of the price people will pay to get ahead or hide their true selves...a first-rate mystery. Moe is a fine sleuth. Coleman is an excellent writer." - Publishers Weekly (starred review) "Moe Prager is one of the most likable ex-cops to come along in quite awhile." - NewMysteryReader.com "Walking the Perfect Square has perfect pitch in the key of NYC." - Rocky Mountain News "Coleman writes in a way that seems absolutely right. Interesting, honest and worth reading." - The Mystery Review "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 [5 stars, Book of the Month] "multi-textured, with excellent characterisation, sparkling dialogue, and a philosophical undertow that pervades the text without explicitly dominating it. In Prager, Coleman has created a character with rare emotional depth; someone whose life seems worth exploring further. Some books are all surface, telling an entertaining story but little more, others demand you reflect on the moral complexities of life. The first kind fizzle for a moment, the second hangs round to haunt you. Walking the Perfect Square is the second kind." - Rob Kitchin "Originally published in 2001 by Permanent Press, Walking the Perfect Square has been reissued by Busted Flush Press, good news for mystery lovers, since Reed Farrel Coleman is quite a writer...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, ShelfAwareness Blurbs: Purchase at Amazon.com

WALKING THE PERFECT SQUARE

Recently retired due to a freak accident, NYPD officer Moe Prager is lost. In pain and without the job he loves, Moe relunctantly settles on the notion of going into the wine business with his brother. When a suburban college student vanishes off the streets of Manhattan, Prager's universe is turned upside down and his life changed forever. Hired by the student's desperate family, Moe plunges deep into the world of New York s punk underground, sex clubs, and biker bars. Politicians, journalists, and crooked cops seem hell-bent on stopping him in his tracks. Set on the gritty city streets of the late seventies and the present day, Walking the Perfect Square is a unique mystery that delivers a compelling look at one person's efforts to find a man who was never really there and to protect his family from an unbearable truth.

* A June bestseller for the Independent Mystery Booksellers Association *

(Book 1 in the Moe Prager series)

Rights Information

Publisher:
Permanent Press, Hardcover (February 1, 2002)
Plume, Paperback (January 28, 2003)
Busted Flush Press, Paperback reprint (April 7, 2008)

Territory: World

Rights Available: Film/TV

Reviews:
"I haven't been able to stop thinking about [Reed] Coleman's Moe Prager mystery series ever since one of God's own divine messengers —that is, an independent bookseller— recommended it to me last year. If life were fair, Coleman would be as celebrated as Pelecanos and Connelly." - Maureen Corrigan, National Public Radio

"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 cliche in Walking the Perfect Square with a mystery that would get under anyone's skin." - Marilyn Stasio, The New York Times Book Review

"The author makes us care about his characters and what happens to them, conveying a real sense of human absurdity and tragedy, of the price people will pay to get ahead or hide their true selves...a first-rate mystery. Moe is a fine sleuth. Coleman is an excellent writer." - Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"Moe Prager is one of the most likable ex-cops to come along in quite awhile." - NewMysteryReader.com

"Walking the Perfect Square has perfect pitch in the key of NYC." - Rocky Mountain News

"Coleman writes in a way that seems absolutely right. Interesting, honest and worth reading." - The Mystery Review

"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

[5 stars, Book of the Month] "multi-textured, with excellent characterisation, sparkling dialogue, and a philosophical undertow that pervades the text without explicitly dominating it. In Prager, Coleman has created a character with rare emotional depth; someone whose life seems worth exploring further. Some books are all surface, telling an entertaining story but little more, others demand you reflect on the moral complexities of life. The first kind fizzle for a moment, the second hangs round to haunt you. Walking the Perfect Square is the second kind." - Rob Kitchin

"Originally published in 2001 by Permanent Press, Walking the Perfect Square has been reissued by Busted Flush Press, good news for mystery lovers, since Reed Farrel Coleman is quite a writer...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, ShelfAwareness

Blurbs:

Purchase at Amazon.com