Onion Street (Moe Prager Mystery)
*Starred Review* Coleman’s latest—a prequel to the award-winning Moe Prager series—is a slam-dunk recommendation for readers drawn to smart, gritty crime fiction with label-defying characters. Onion Street chronicles Moe’s introduction to crime solving, showing him emerging from aimlessness and barreling toward purpose as his intuition for connecting crime dots is awakened. A Brooklyn College student in tumultuous 1967, Moe hasn’t become entangled in the radical movements sweeping campuses (mostly because he’s apathetic), but there’s no exemption from danger when chants give way to violence. After Moe’s activist girlfriend, Mindy, is found severely beaten, he has reason to doubt that the attack is a simple mugging. The night before, Moe ignored Mindy’s warning that he should avoid his best friend, Bobby, and they narrowly missed being hit by a rampaging Cadillac. Bobby’s been secretive lately, especially since his own girlfriend’s suspicious death, but when Bobby denies the events are connected, Moe knows he’s lying. Too curious to resist investigating, Moe is soon poking ata beehive of radical politics, drugs, thugs, cops, and Mob heavies. Exposing a well-loved character’s backstory can be risky, but Coleman manages the trick just fine, with setting and character nicely balancing plot and action. --Christine Tran