Robert K. Lewis

Untold Damage Mark Mallen is a man on his way back up. Once an undercover cop, his life hit a downward spiral after he became addicted to heroin. I appreciated how realistic Mallen's character was. There is a truth to the way that he functions as a recovering junkie. In fact, it is the struggle that he goes through, both mentally and physically, that makes him so easy to connect with. You don't have to have experience with withdrawals to know what Mark is going through. He shows you.
 
In the same respect, the underground world of drugs and violence isn't sugar coated. Living in the "Loin" is portrayed as a daily battle. Robert K. Lewis shows the reader how dark things can get in the parts of town other people avoid. However it isn't all darkness. For every person who holds him back, there is one who builds Mallen back up. I rather liked that he had a few guardian angels here and there.
 
My biggest issue with this read was really just that the majority of it is dialogue. As a less frequent reader of crime thrillers like this, I'm not sure if this is the norm. However I would have liked to see more action, more suspense, and maybe a little bit more of the dark world Mallen had fallen into. I feel like I would have been more immersed.
 
The ending did surprise me, and I'll admit that upon finishing I was rather intrigued at what is coming next. It seems this is being written as a series! If that's the case, I'd be willing to follow Robert K. Lewis further in. If you are a fan of books that mesh crime thrillers and mysteries, Untold Damage is definitely a book to check out.… (más)

Critical Damage by Robert K. Lewis is a highly recommended gritty crime novel that provides nonstop action and frantic pages turns. It is not for the faint of heart; there is plenty of violence. If you are looking for PI novel that features a flawed antihero who operates in the dark, seedy underside of San Fransisco, then the Mark Mallen series will be right up your alley. The series started with Untold Damage and continues with this second book, Critical Damage.
shetreadssoftly.blogspot.com/2013/04/untold-damage.html

Mark Mallen is a former cop and recovering drug addict. He and his friend Gato return in this second book. Two girls are missing and one of them is Gato's sister, Lupe. Lupe is a prostitute, so she may have fallen into trouble due to her own activities, but the other missing girl is the daughter of the mayor. What could these two girls possibly have in common? What Mark discovers is chilling and disgusting - and much bigger and more dangerous than anything Mark has ever tangled with before.

Lewis is a good writer who has the ability to deftly capture an action scene, as well as the dialogue, which makes Critical Damage a captivating novel to read. This is definitely not a cozy mystery, though; the subject matter gets down and dirty as the case progresses into the world of pimps, prostitutes and the criminal underworld.

It might help to read the first novel, Untold Damage, and then this second novel, Critical Damage. There is definitely a third Mark Mallen novel in the future.

My review copy was courtesy of Robert K. Lewis.

Excerpt
issuu.com/llewellyn/docs/9780738736235/9?e=1072528/7015820… (más)

When a friend asks you to help him out, most people will say yes without question. When your estranged spouse asks for help with a private matter, you will do whatever you can. But for ex-cop and ex-junkie Mark Mallen, that means searching for both his friend's call girl sister and the daughter of the mayor of San Francisco. The two requests seem unrelated until Mallen realizes that he's stumbled onto something big and ugly and extremely dangerous. No one is safe.

The tension is palpable and the story moves fast and furiously. Unhappily, it comes to a grinding halt at the very end and leaves a whole slew of questions unanswered. Since this title is the second in the Mark Mallen series, I can only hope that the answers to my questions and a most satisfying ending will occur in the next installment.

Is the third book ready yet?… (más)

Untold Damage is the debut novel of Robert K. Lewis and is the first in a planned series.

Lewis's protagonist is Mark Mallen - an ex undercover cop. His job was to infiltrate the drug trade in San Fran. Problem was, he was a little too good at blending in.....he was turfed from the force and has been living in a heroin haze for the last four years.

But, when his friend Eric Russ from his rookie days on the force is found dead with Mallen's name in his pocket, old instincts are reawakened. Determined to beat the needle and find out what happened to his friend, Mark starts investigating on his own.

Lewis is setting the scene for his series in Untold Damage. Much of the story focuses on Mallen's past, his path to his current station and his struggle to remain clean. Although, I do question the portrayal of an addict who thinks he can drink with no problems. Perhaps this will be fodder for future books.

Mark is a good lead character. I liked him and was rooting for him, both in his personal struggle and in his determined search for his friend's killer. I will be interested to see where Lewis takes him in the next book - Critical Damage, due out in April 2014.

Lewis has done a great job setting the scene in the underbelly of San Francisco with lots of dark, gritty descriptions. The Cornerstone Bar is particularly bleak.

Lewis is obviously a fan of crime fiction and he has incorporated all the right elements for a good mystery/detective tale. But some of them seemed formulaic and in need of some polishing.

For example - Mallen meets up with Gato while he's detoxing in jail. This chance meeting leads to a friendship where Gato is willing to 'take care' of things for Mark and supply him with guns. I just never bought this instantaneous friendship. At one point Mallen compares Gato and himself to Spenser and Hawk. (Robert Parker's iconic characters) "He told Gato where he was and Gato told him he was on his way. He sat there for a moment, feel a little like Spenser for Hire, and Gato was steadily turning into his Hawk." Gato seems to appear when a gun or a ride is needed and although his own family troubles are hinted at he never really achieves the depth needed to carry off the sidekick role. This relationship seems very convenient and one sided, but may change in the next book.

The character of cop Oberon Kane is better fleshed out - I think we'll see more of him in future books. The bartender at the Cornerstone has possibilities as well. Other references to Starsky and Hutch (1975), Serpico (1973) tend to date the author and may be missed by younger readers.

"Being undercover was everything he'd ever thought it would be: exciting, dangerous as f***, and way cool. It was like being Serpico, and he had to admit...he loved it."

I found some of the syntax, language and pacing used to be a bit awkward and stilted. I did read from an advance reader's copy, so some of this may have been corrected in the final cut.

Bottom line - Untold Damage was a solid debut and a good intro to a character I think has a future - as does Lewis.… (más)