This is the 5th in the author’s Moe Prager series. I liked the series from the beginning. I liked the writing. Moe is tough, cynical, flawed and self-reflective. I am liking the series even more as I get further along, possibly because of the interesting characters from previous books that re-appear or the evolution (aging) of Moe. I am surprised the series is not more popular.

Moe (short for Moses) is an ex-cop, and as Empty Ever After opens now owns several wine stores with his brother. But he finds life as an entrepreneur unfulfilling and is a sometimes PI. Moe is now divorced from his wife Katy but is pulled back into her life when the grave of Katy’s brother, Patrick, is dug up and the body is gone. Katy begins seeing her brother on the street and gets a phone call from someone sounding like her brother. Moe’s past comes back to a haunt him as he tries to unravel the mystery. I found the ending completely unexpected and shocking. ( )

I dunno. I had reservations about starting a new series with the fifth in that series and I think I cheated myself out of more enjoyment. It was ok. ( )

"Mary White smelled of sweet perfume and mixed feelings when she greeted me at the door of her house," Moe Prager says upon meeting up with an old acquaintance. "Kites bathed in dying orange light flirted with the Verrazano Bridge and dreamed of untethered flight," he thinks as he drives along the Belt Parkway in Brooklyn as the sun is setting.

I'm making my way through the Moe Prager mysteries by Reed Farrel Coleman (I just finished Empty Ever After) because his latest one, Hurt Machine, just recently published, got great reviews. One more to go! Yes! And while I wouldn't say the series falls into the "Literary" genre, they are literary, as evidenced by the snippets above. Coleman, in the form of Moe Prager, is practical, philosophical, literary and literate.

Prager's also human. I have a lot of favorite mystery characters: Harry Bosch by Connelly, Kinsey Milhone by Grafton, Joe Gunther by Mayer, Jackson Brody by Atkinson, Mike Daley by Silverstein and, more recently, Claire DeWitt by Gran. (By the way, if you haven't read Claire DeWitt and the City of the Dead, you must. That's an order.) However, the only one I can visualize as a next door neighbor is Moe Prager.

There's a 15 year gap in Moe Prager's life between the previous installment and Empty Ever After. (In a recent interview Coleman said, unlike Sue Grafton's protagonist, he, Coleman, must age his characters in order to keep it interesting.) Empty Ever After incorporates the cases of the previous books, making it both a benefit and a hindrance. If you're familiar with the cases/books, you may or may not want to rehash parts of them again. On the other hand, it all fits together nicely. If you're not familiar with the previous books, you may get a tad lost, but Coleman does a good job of acquainting you with the salient points.

For purposes of this blog post, the plot is too involved to summarize without the backstory. Suffice it to say, Coleman makes it work. For a quick, enjoyable read, Moe Prager is a #1 recommendation.

Coleman also said that he plans two more Prager books, a prequel and another book. You know I'll be waiting impatiently for these to be written. ( )

(Moe Prager series #5) Disappointing. In this book Farrel has milked the collected Prager books too extensively in assembling yet another I think it's time for whatever characters remain to move on to something new. Instead of improving, Farrel has coasted. ( )