[Note: I write short book reviews for Shelf Awareness, a great website and newsletter book review service. I’ll be posting the reviews that don’t run in their newsletter, with their permission. The reviews I write are for the “Readers” edition of the newsletter.]

East on Sunset by Ken Mercer (Minotaur, $25.99 Hardcover, 9780312558376, June 7, 2011)

In the sequel to 2010’s Slow Fire, author Ken Mercer returns to Los Angeles to tell the story of addict and ex-cop, Will MacGowen. Will gets a job with the LA Dodgers as a security guard, learns that his wife is pregnant (their son, Sean, died in the previous book), and is four years clean. Erik Crandall, released from a prison sentence he blames Will for, is out to get back what he feels is owed him by the dirty cop he believes Will is.

East On Sunset is a good crime novel, though hampered by cliché dialogue, some point of view issues, and a fairly quick resolution in the last few pages. All that aside, I was interested enough to see where the story led, finding several places in which the writing was transparent enough and the story unique enough that I kept the pages turning. There are a few interesting supporting characters to round out the opposed dyad of amoral ex-con Crandall and wounded hero-cop, MacGowan, most especially Will’s boss at Dodger Stadium and Will’s ex partner, Ray Miller. The character making the least impact is, unfortunately, Will’s wife, Laurie, who spends most of the book being used as a reaction foil, rather than having her own life and spark with which to engage. Added to these lackluster characters is the setting itself: Mercer spends a bit of time on describing the traffic, the bodegas and the mini malls, but there’s just not enough there to fully feel at peace with the novel’s title.

I’d recommend this book as a good travel read; it doesn’t demand too much of the reader, but offers just enough plot and character to keep their interest all the same.

—Rob LeFebvre, Freelance Writer & Editor

Discover: An interesting enough sophomore effort from Ken Mercer, following the trials of an ex-cop and an ex-con set in Los Angeles.