The author Harry Dolan returns with his second crime fiction novel featuring David Loogan, the editor of a noirish mystery magazine called "Gray Streets." Dolan currently resides in Ann Arbor and he has set this series in that rather unusual locale. As he notes in this interview, Ann Arbor's murder rate is nearly non-existent.
The previous novel in this series, "Bad Things Happen," was clearly intended as an homage of sorts to the legendary mystery writer Raymond Chandler. As Dolan explains in this conversation, even David Loogan's name, "Loogan," originated as a term Chandler once used in one of his books.
In "Very Bad Men" a killer named Anthony Lark is murdering the men who once robbed a bank in northern Michigan many years before. Lark's crimes are being investigated by Loogan's lover, Detective Elizabeth Waishkey. Meanwhile Loogan is conducting his own unofficial parallel investigation. In "Very Bad Men" Dolan has written a stylish thriller where things are never quite what they might appear to be.
