Joe Serpe & Bob Healy

Created by Tony Spinosa
Pseudonym of Reed Farrel Coleman
(1956–)

“At his best, Rusty Monaco was a miserable, self-absorbed prick, and tonight he was paying even less attention than usual to the world outside his head”
— the first lines of The Fourth Victim

The oilmen cometh…

Ex-NYPD detective JOE SERPE is circling the drain, living in a dumpy Long Island apartment with only his cat Mulligan for company, divorced, and in mourning for his reputation as a police officer (charges of corruption), his partner (suicide) and his fireman brother(9/11). No wonder he’s drowning himself in vodka. But then he teams up with his retired internal affairs nemesis, BOB HEALY, and they go into business together.

Or more precisely, a variety of businesses: an aptly named bar (The Odd Couple), a small but potentially lucrative Long Island heating oil delivery company (hence the title of the first book in the series: Hose Monkey), and a private detective agency. Naturally, it’s the P.I. firm that’s struggling.

Serpe and Healy’s creator is actually Reed Farrel Coleman, best known as the Shamus-winning creator of P.I. Moe Prager (who likewise moonlights). He’s also the author of three novels featuring unorthodox investigator (and wannabe writer) Dylan Klein, a newer series featuring Long Island eye Gus Murphy, several books about Gulliver Dowd, and most recently has taken over the writing of Robert B. Parker’s Jesse Stone series.

UNDER OATH

• “…an entertaining tour of Long Island’s dark side.”
  — Mystery Scene Magazine on Hose Monkey
• “… one of the two best first lines this reviewer has come across in 25 years of hard-boiled reading (the opening to James Crumley’s The Last Good Kiss is still the best)
  –Thomas Gaughan in Booklist

NOVELS

• Hose Monkey (2006) | Buy this book | Kindle it!
• Gun Bunnies (2007) | Buy this book
• The Fourth Victim (2008) | Buy this book | Kindle it!

RELATED LINKS

• Hard-Boiled Poet: The Reed Farrel Coleman Interview
  Jack Bludis grills Coleman on behalf of The Thrilling Detective Web Site.

Report respectfully submitted by Kevin Burton Smith.