By now I’m sure you know that I like Reed Farrel Coleman as a mystery writer. His standalones as well as his series, 
Dylan Klein and Moe Prager are well written, action packed and fun reading. So, it is with both joy and sadness that I read Hollow Girl, Coleman’s latest. It is a great read, but also the last in the Prager series.
Moe’s fiancee, Pam, was killed in a freak auto accident a month earlier and Moe has been drunk ever since. He’s awakened one morning by his brother, Aaron. Nancy Lustig, a women Moe met on a case 35 years earlier wants to meet. Moe reluctantly agrees. It seems Nancy’s daughter, Sloane (aka Siobhan) has been missing. While she’s been out of touch for several weeks at a time previously, this is the longest period of silence. The mother and daughter seem to have a love-hate relationship and Sloane seems to live to torture her mother.
Sloane had passing notoriety a decade earlier as the Hollow Girl, an internet sensation performing ‘real life’ performance art, which included an fictional suicide. As Moe pursues the case, he uncovers Sloane’s sordid life. He also begins a relationship with Nancy that, kept silent all these decades, was simmering in both of them.
I really enjoyed Hollow Girl. And why not!!! He mentions two of my favorite things: Katz’ Deli in lower Manhattan and the Allman Brothers. Moe Prager is the guy next door. He suffers the same things we all do: loss of friends, cancer, failed relationships. And he waxes philosophical about all of these things. He has hunches that sometimes work out and sometimes don’t. The Prager books have a lot of action, countered by Moe’s reminiscing. They explore how people feel. They are well written, as well.
Reed Farrel Coleman packs a lot into his books about life and love. It’s not just the mystery that captures you, it’s the people. I will admit that there was one of his books I didn’t like at all…Gun Church. I couldn’t even finish it, so I’d suggest you skip it. But, other than that, I’d read all of his other books.
I’m sure there’s something new on the Coleman horizon that will thrill fans. I can’t wait to find out what it is. In the meantime, enjoy Hollow Girl.
[…] Hollow Girl by Reed Farrel Coleman – In this ninth and final Moe Prager outing, Prager is still grieving the death of his fiancée, who was killed in a car accident for which he feels responsible. He’s awakened by his brother from a drunken sleep; Nancy Lustig, a woman he met 35 years earlier, wants to hire Moe to find her missing 30-year-old daughter, Sloane, who enjoyed brief notoriety a decade earlier as Internet sensation “Hollow Girl,” airing “real life performance art.” Although their relationship has always been tortured, mother and daughter spoke biweekly. Sloane has not called in a month, and when new, more graphically sadistic videos starring a seemingly comatose Sloane start appearing online, Moe gets that uneasy feeling in his “kishka” that something is amiss. […]