Just a reminder, Reed is on tour RIGHT NOW The-Hollow-Girl-for-Reed
 
THE HOLLOW GIRL
Reed Farrel Coleman
May 2014
Tyrus Books
A survivor of cancer, but not a survivor of grief, Moe Prager is busy drinking himself into oblivion after his girlfriend Pam dies in a car accident. A message from an old love interest, Nancy Lustig, finally dries Prager out enough to try his hand at a little PI work again. Nancy’s daughter was an internet sensation once upon a time, calling herself “The Hollow Girl,” and performing online for an audience of thousands. That is, until her on-camera suicide over an ex-lover, all of which turned out to be a hoax. Since then the Hollow Girl has not been able to land the acting gigs she thinks she’s entitled to. Nancy hasn’t heard from her in a few weeks—they don’t have the best of relationships, but even for them the radio silence has gone on too long. Prager reluctantly agrees to look into it—and the first thing he does is discover a body in Nancy’s apartment—but not the girl they are looking for. When the Hollow Girl reappears on the Internet—new and more vicious than ever before—Prager thinks he’s off the case. Until it seems that the Hollow Girl isn’t really acting, and is actually in grave danger.
One of the many things I love about Moe Prager is that he operates on persistence, luck and a lot of intuition, which makes him seem incredibly real. He doesn’t pretend to be smarter than the rest of us—though he may well be. And in the HOLLOW GIRL, we find post-cancer Prager to be thoughtful and deliberate, more in control of himself and better at making choices, but still following his gut—a place some of us would like to see ourselves evolving to. Prager’s self-flagellation and self-exploration are neatly balanced in this novel against an intriguing plot; one that leaves both Prager and the reader not entirely sure of what is truly happening, but invested in learning the truth.
In Coleman’s loving care, the Moe Prager series has become a hallmark of PI fiction, and it is more than a little sad to see it come to an end. This book is at once beautiful, full of wisdom, yet bittersweet. Loose ends are wrapped up, and Prager finds himself in a good place after years of feeling somewhat adrift. And though it is sad to bid our friend Prager farewell, we can look forward to whatever sure-to-be-fabulous project Coleman turns to next.
Erica Ruth Neubauer
Crimespree56