Straw Man: A Jack McMorrow Mystery: 11 - Hardcover

"Jack McMorrow gets into some vicious fights in Straw Man, Gerry Boyle s new mystery in his rugged series set in the wilds of Maine. Take the bone-crunching brawl that Jack and his military-trained friends, Clair and Louis, get into when they run across four big guys with chain saws poaching hardwood trees on an old woman s land. The repercussions of that little scuffle not only complicate the onetime newspaper reporter s freelance assignment on private gun sales in Maine, but also endanger his family. The most hurtful fights, though, are those clenched-teeth-exchanges with his wife, Roxanne, over an elementary-school project on pacifism that has her working closely with the soft-handed gentleman goat farmer who owns Heaven Sent Farm. ( Must be cashmere goats, Jack notes.) The difficulties facing peaceful people who must live in a violent world are revisited when Jack tries to write a story on a community of Old Order Mennonites. But, as Clair says when he hands Jack a Glock with an extra clip and two boxes of ammo: I m all for pacifism. . . . But I m not gonna die for it. "--The New York Times Book Review (05/16/2016)"

"Jack McMorrow gets into some vicious fights in Straw Man, Gerry Boyle s new mystery in his rugged series set in the wilds of Maine. Take the bone-crunching brawl that Jack and his military-trained friends, Clair and Louis, get into when they run across four big guys with chain saws poaching hardwood trees on an old woman s land. The repercussions of that little scuffle not only complicate the onetime newspaper reporter s freelance assignment on private gun sales in Maine, but also endanger his family. The most hurtful fights, though, are those clenched-teeth-exchanges with his wife, Roxanne, over an elementary-school project on pacifism that has her working closely with the soft-handed gentleman goat farmer who owns Heaven Sent Farm. ( Must be cashmere goats, Jack notes.) The difficulties facing peaceful people who must live in a violent world are revisited when Jack tries to write a story on a community of Old Order Mennonites. But, as Clair says when he hands Jack a Glock with an extra clip and two boxes of ammo: I m all for pacifism. . . . But I m not gonna die for it. "

--The New York Times Book Review (05/16/2016)"

In this, the eleventh installment of the bestselling Jack McMorrow Mystery Series, McMorrow’s nose for trouble sets him on the trail of an illegal gun sale pipeline linking private gun owners in Maine with a rash of homicides in Boston. Caught up in the action is a young Mennonite farm boy, who, while questioning his faith and his future, falls in with the wrong crowd. Add to this potent mix a run-in with a gang of local thugs, which leaves Roxanne the target of a violent sex offender intent on exacting his revenge. Never before has Jack faced so many threats on so many fronts, with the most destructive being his own tendency for violence and the havoc it wreaks on those he loves most. In this nonstop page turner, Boyle is at his best and most provocative. Straw Man asks the ultimate question: How far would you go to protect a way of life you love?