Rough Justice

John Wells #4

by Andrew Klavan

A tip from a dying cop puts a reporter on a long-closed murder caseEasy E.J. McMahon rests six feet underneath the playground at an elementary school in Little Italy. A one-time steakhouse owner with a gambling problem, his troubles started when a struggle broke out for control of a mob family, and E.J. backed the wrong man. E.J. fled to the airport, planning to hop a plane to Wyoming, but was met at the gate by two heavies with badges. As they dragged him out of the airport, he wailed that the men were not real cops. They put him under the cement while he was still breathing. Fifteen years later, newspaperman John Wells gets a call from a dying cop who wants to make a confession. Easy E.J. was They were cops, working on the mob payroll. Wells goes after the dead cop’s partner, chasing a story so good that it might be worth getting buried alive.

Genres: Mystery

239 pages, Kindle Edition

First published October 1, 1989

About the author

Reference for now:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_K...

Reviews

[Henry · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent conclusion to Klavan's John Wells series. I am going to miss these characters

[Alethea Hartwell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wells! The baddest good guy ever

John Wells is a horrible person. But you just gotta love him. Klavan writes real people and some pretty darn good fiction!

[Paul Allard · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bog-standard detective story - US pulp fiction. OK but nothing special.

This is reminiscent of the pulp novels of the 40s (Hammett, Chandler etc..) The hard-boiled, smoking, drinking investigator (in this case, a journalist), the beautiful women, the corrupt police force. The case involves a couple of murders and is reasonably interesting but not totally original. There are interesting characters and it's quite short so the plot moves along quite quickly. It's OK but nothing particularly special.

[Scott Marks · Rating 1 out of 5]

Terrible writing, clunky and childish. Plus the writer is a misogynist, anti-feminist and it comes across quite strongly in how he writes about women.
Red flags guys, avoid this novelists books.

[J. Douglas Knauer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Can't go wrong with Andrew Klavan.

[Geoffrey Greeley · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoy Klavan's plots and story lines, but I find that I don't like the main character, John Wells - what a jerk. Even so, I was rooting for him to come out well in the end.

[LaShana · Rating 2 out of 5]

I skimmed more than I read. Lots of rambling

[Gail · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another gritty story of the hard drinking/smoking newspaperman. This time, he is charged with murder and must solve the mystery to show his innocence

[Joe Nicholl · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rough Justice (1989) by Keith Peterson (aka Andrew Klavan). Rough Justice is the fourth and final book of the John Wells mystery novels. Character John Wells is a middle-aged reporter of the Star paper in NYC. Wells smokes & drinks too much, but, he knows how to get to the bottom of a story, write it up...and...the dude knows how to fight! The first Wells book The Trapdoor is excellent, very, very well written, and won an Edgar award. The next two books are OK, as is the fourth. But, Rough Justice does have a great plot line....What if you knew a cop had murdered someone, and, that same cop set you up in another murder, and, he is the one investigating the case (make sense). The problem is the writing here is a little lame...it's almost like author Peterson (Klavan) wanted to hurry up and finish off the series and move on to bigger fish (which he does). Having said that the book has all it's i's dotted & t's crossed. By the end all is tied up neatly with the book and the series....just could have been written better like the first book, The Trapdoor. Lot's of action in the John Wells series with very likeable characters including an assortment of hot ladies thoughout...I recommend reading the whole four book series. I rate Rough Justice a strong three stars outta five! -By the way, author Andrew Klavan has written many other good books, AND, has a very successful podcast where he talks about current events...he's close to a 1,000 episodes....check him out.