Review in Pax Centurion (Newspaper of the Boston Police Patrolmen's Association)
A Review by James F. Lydon, Jr.
Novels written in the first person are either very good, or they stink. The first person narrative is a very difficult medium to use because it limits a writer in certain ways. If the main character is speaking to the readers, then certain assumptions have to be made. One assumption is that the character is alive, or at least will be alive by the end of the book. That takes a little mystery out of the story. Novels written in the third person do not let the reader rest; any character is fair game and may meet their fate. Another assumption is that the character is as the character's words portray them. When the character is telling the readers that the character is a fine, upstanding, decent individual, that is usually who the character is. Any deviations from these assumptions could hurt the standing of the author with the reader. I have stopped reading authors altogether (Peter Straub, for example) because they betrayed me as a reader in the very last page of a novel written in the first person. Mysteries and hardboiled detective novels work very well in the first person, and autobiographies work as well, for obvious reasons. Horror novels written in the first person should be avoided, with certain exceptions for certain talented authors (H. P. Lovecraft, for example).
The Ranks Of Jody Brae is a hardboiled detective novel set in Boston in 1964. It follows Detective Joseph H. Brae, a Korean War veteran who is assigned to the Boston Police Department Internal Affairs Unit and is working a case that deals with an epidemic of suspicious fires in Roxbury. Jody speaks to us in the first person, which I was a little leery of, at first. When the late Robert B. Parker's legendary Boston private eye, Spencer, spoke to readers in the first person, it was comfortable. Spencer was an obviously stable character that quickly became established and perennial. What Spencer said, I took as truth. Seeing that Detective Jody Brae is a new character in a book that could stand alone, I was unsure of the character. Add the character's new-ness to his several obvious personal problems, including insomnia and alienation, and I became hesitant. Is he what he claims he is, or is author playing the readers in order to reveal a surprise at the end?
The author, a young Boston native named Jonathan Michael Cullen, could very well be playing his readers with Jody Brae. Cullen certainly has the skill to make that happen, and even to make it work. He uses words and incidents throughout the book in such a way as to lead the reader on so that they will keep turning pages. He never gives the reader everything right away, like when Jody Brae tells the reader of the nightmare that keeps him awake almost every night. Right away, that is all you get: a repeated nightmare. The lack of details made me immediately wonder just what kind of a nightmare it was, and I wanted to know more about it. I kept flipping pages and kept reading until Cullen released more information, little by little. Or when a note was passed between characters at one point in the story? The importance of the note was elevated but when the note was read, it was ambiguous. If you wanted to find out the exact meaning, you had to keep turning pages. Keep reading. Never once did I feel forced to keep reading, it was more like a "friendly" extortion: "If you ever wanna find out what's going on, then you better stick with it".
Cullen has done his research on Boston in the 1960s; at times, I felt as if I was there. There are some inconsistencies with his description of the department and the way business is conducted, but, after all, he is not a cop and he did do an excellent job of capturing the spirit of a major metropolitan police department in that turbulent and incendiary time in America. His characters are memorable and interesting, and they live and breathe and eat up 1964 Boston as if they truly existed. When Cullen described eating in a restaurant called Dragon Soup in Chinatown, I could almost taste the food there. When he talked about big old dinosaurs like Plymouth Valiants or Ford Fairlanes skidding in the slush and the snow, I almost felt myself pumping the imaginary brake. Was the novel perfect? No, but few are. My problems with The Ranks Of Jody Brae were far outweighed by all the good qualities.
One issue I had was that Jody Brae, was not my favorite character. Normally, the main character is my favorite, but this time, Jody was beat out by some others. He was the deepest and the most developed, just not my favorite. I liked two other detectives more; one named Harrigan and one named McQuillan, and I also liked a mysterious individual named Levinsky. Brae came in fourth, which isn't bad. He was just a little melodramatic for me, but still a well developed character. The only other issue I had with The Ranks Of Jody Brae was the sheer number of metaphors throughout. At one point, I felt that I was swimming through metaphors like a champion athlete cutting through the waters of the English Channel.
Would I read Jonathan Michael Cullen again? Absolutely. In fact, I look forward to his next offering. The Ranks Of Jody Brae is a very well-written crime novel with a heavy focus on Boston. It is written in the first person, but Cullen makes the narrative work with ease. If you do not like hardboiled detective novels, it might not be for you, but if you do, pick up The Ranks Of Jody Brae.