The Coogan Course: A Kurt McBride Mystery, By: Larry Long – Book Review
What is a Cogan? That’s the country named after a family patriarch who was one of the area’s most famous pioneers. “He built the bridge over the Missouri River, started the bank, swallowed up most of the good land. He left his heirs more money than they could count and a reputation for stomping on anyone who got in his way,” Kurt said. McBride. , a Chicago-based district attorney who returns to his hometown to finalize the estate of his deceased mother. Now there seemed to be a return of someone, or rather something, believed to have been finished in the 1960s, known to locals as Cogan’s Curse.
When a mutilated couple was found on “Lover’s Lane,” with limbs brutally torn from their bodies, teeth marks, knife cuts, and dismemberment beyond a simple human attack, Chicago Assistant District Attorney Kurt McBride , he is drawn into the mystery when he unintentionally starts. to help locals and police investigators solve the murder mystery. However, the killings continued. A farmer was found victimized in extraordinary ways, again with savage brutality and a bewildering twist; his head severed with a knife and mounted on a post, something a beast like a wolf or wild animal would not do. A girl in her twenties was found in the trunk of her car, mutilated. Then others found dead with more nauseating traces of violence; it became startlingly clear that something beyond the ordinary was going on.
Author Larry Long did an excellent job creating character development with his heavily charged use of dialogue, articulation of believable small-town attitudes, and weaving of story amid current events. He took this kind of “Andy from Mayberry” situation and juxtaposed it against the Rod Serling one. Twilight Zone mixed with some of the Stephen King style of a supernatural murder mystery. Good writing, when done right, looks easy; and this book is an easy read from the start, holding your interest as the plot unfolds at a never-dull pace. Cogan’s Curse it’s filled with a host of characters from Kurt McBride’s past. Cast with many of his former acquaintances, family members and friends, now-adult high school kids, as well as the onslaught of law enforcement officers taking forensic evidence and building his case, Cogan’s Curse it sets the reader on a twisted course with more loose ends pointing in more different directions than pine needles on a pine tree. The usual suspects were suspected, but they all seemed to have proof that they hadn’t, which was just as important as taking them off the list of suspects. Then came the bigotry of racial profiling by rednecks, Latinos, and “Mixed Indians” and even terrorists were quick to judge; once again, it became clear that they were not the killers. The mystery was believed to be “The Curse” as the locals called it. But Kurt McBride didn’t believe in curses.
This book is an absolute must for all mystery readers! If I had to give stars, Larry Long would surely get 5 out of 5 for his masterpiece. Cogan’s Curse is a perfect balance of action, dialogue, character development, and clever mystery writing combined into a modern thriller that will keep the pages turning until you realize you have more pages in your left hand than your right hand, and you still haven’t. you are sure where the end will take you. It is very suitable for the adaptation of a film script, as well as a series of books of the character of Kurt McBride. Larry Long has created a book worthy of being his traveling companion, on vacation, or just sitting next to a chair at home. Ideal for young adults and seasoned mystery-thriller readers, it has something for everyone within the believable characters who truly are the fabric of our small-town communities, and how they come together to ward off evil.