The Hollow Girl
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- $12.99
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
The final novel in one of the most critically acclaimed PI series in the annals of crime fiction!
"Few writers working in any genre offer tales with such moral complexity, dark humor, and, most of all, heart." --Megan Abbott, author of Dare Me
Drunk, alone, and racked with guilt over the tragic death of his girlfriend Pam, Moe Prager is destined for oblivion. But destiny takes a detour when a shadowy figure from Moe's past reappears to beg for Moe's help in locating her missing daughter. As a reluctant, distracted Moe delves into the case, he discovers that nothing is as it seems and no one involved is quite who or what they appear to be. This is especially true of the missing daughter, an early internet sensation known ironically as the Lost Girl or the Hollow Girl. The case itself is hollow, as Moe finds little proof that anyone is actually missing.
Things take a bizarre twist as Moe stumbles across a body in a trendy Manhattan apartment and the Hollow Girl suddenly re-emerges on video screens everywhere. It's a wild ride through the funhouse as Moe tries to piece together a case from the half-truths and lies told to him by a fool's parade of family members, washed-up showbiz types, uncaring cops, a doorman, and a lovesick PI. Even as the ticking clock gets louder, Moe is unsure if it's all a big hoax or if someone's life is really at stake. The question isn't whether or not Moe can find the Hollow Girl, but whether the Hollow Girl was ever there at all.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In Coleman's solid ninth Moe Prager novel (after 2013's Onion Street), the PI and wine merchant falls off the wagon, big-time, after the woman he just proposed to, Pam, is crushed beneath the wheels of a high-school grad's new Jeep Wrangler on a Brooklyn street. Prager feels guilty because he sent Pam to get the Sunday Times instead of going himself. A plea for help from an old friend rouses him from his stupor Nancy Lustig's grown daughter, Sloane, has disappeared. Sloane was an Internet sensation in 1999, when she posted a video ostensibly showing herself attempting suicide, leading to frantic searches from viewers who believed she was for real. Soon, a body turns up, and Prager finds himself again butting heads with the NYPD as he tries to locate Sloane. Despite the routine plot, this entry will resonate even with newcomers by dint of Prager's eloquently expressed bleak worldview.