I am about to give a bad review of The Man Who Never Returned. In order to be perfectly honest, I am going to admit that the book I reviewed was an uncorrected proof, therefore the one widely released may be oodles better than the version I read. But I doubt it.
That said, reading The Man Who Never Returned was like reading an episode of Dragnet, only much less exciting.
The novel follows retired (but still attractive and very sexually active?) detective Fintan Dunne as he is hired to solve a 25-year-old unsolved case. The case of Judge Joe Crater’s disappearance in 1930. One minute he is getting into a cab, the next he is gone forever. Why does anyone care about a 25-year-old unsolved case? Well you finally find out at about page 285/324.
The end of the book is pretty interesting and exciting. The rest of the book is just Dunne talking to old people about what they remember about the case. This leaves the story falling flat- I, as a reader, couldn’t get into the search for the truth considering the majority of the major players in the case are already dead, incapacitated, or just not active anymore. Also, there is no real current story keeping any excitement going. Dunne finds out a hit was ordered on him, and then cancelled. But he is told this by a friend, much after the fact, with no adventure or intrigue. The whole book feels that way. Talking about exciting things, but nothing exciting ever really happens.
Quinn also weaves a lot of little history nuggets throughout the novel, as it takes place in the 1950’s and is frequently remembering the 1920’s, historical facts are necessary for scene setting. I found them interesting, but I also found them to be poorly developed (why is he mentioning the Lindbergh baby? No reason other than to set the stage) and it made me want to go on Wikipedia to learn more about the historical facts rather than continue reading the novel.
What should have taken me one week to read (at most) turned into two mainly due to the fact that I had to force myself to finish the book. The characters were flat, underdeveloped, and often fell into clichés. All of the cops had the same voice and personality (aside from Crow, who annoyingly quoted Dante throughout the novel, for no discernible reason).
The book is also filled with metaphors and similes that don’t quite work. For example:
She dropped her cigarette on the black-and-white tiled floor, covered it with the toe of her shoe and pirouetted. “Who gives a fuck about Joe Crater anymore?”
“Pirouetted” is not the right word. Here we have a tough female character refusing to give information to Dunne, but she’s pirouetting on cigarettes? This gave me the image of a ballerina. Not the right image Quinn should have been going for. I know what image he was going for, but this line didn’t evoke it. The novel is full of little things like that.
I am a big fan of historical fiction, but this novel just didn’t do it right. It may have worked better if it took place when the Judge first disappeared, not 25 years later. Coming at the topic from such a distance was a mistake, it just didn’t hold any excitement or intrigue.
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