WALKING THE PERFECT SQUARE by Reed Farrel Coleman

Finished Sa 2/2/13
My post to Good Reads-

This is my first 'Moe Prager' novel, and I was only familiar with Coleman's stand-alone novel, GUN CHURCH. The two novels are as different as can be, but both are well worth a look. WALKING THE PERFECT SQUARE is a rather complicated story with dozens of characters that keeps you on the edge of your seat up until the final page. A young man disappears, and disabled cop, Moe Prager, is approached by the family to locate the boy, but is he being played for a patsy?  Lots of great locations in NYC and Brooklyn.

I can't wait to get another Moe Prager mystery.

August 6th, 1998- The present in the story, and also the 18th birthday of Prager's daugher, Sarah.

Patrick M. Maloney- The young man who disappears. He left his family because he was living in the shadow of his dead, sainted brother, Francis Maloney Jr. who was shot-down and killed over Vietnam.

Francis Maloney- He is the racist, hard-headed, and unlikable head of the family. He's an ex-cop, but makes his power as a fund raiser for the party. He was kicked off the force for beating up and sodomizing a transvestite.

Katy Maloney- Daughter of Francis, brother of Patrick. She falls in love with Moe. They marry, but this isn't really covered.

THE REVEAL-
Moe realizes that the bartender at Pooty's, Jack, must be Patrick's boyfriend. He confronts Jack, and they agree that Patrick will resurface in a few days, but that never happens. And, for twenty years neither Jack or Moe can be sure if he ran away or something happened to Patrick.
In the final pages of the novel it is revealed that a group of low-level dope dealers from Brooklyn were in lower Manhattan, and one of these kids told his boss that he was fondled by a gay guy. They went to NYC to find him, and they arbitrarily find Patrick and kill him and bury him in the same cemetery that holds Harry Houdini. One of the boys that was part of the kill team tells Moe as the man is on his death bed in a Catholic hospice dying of cancer. Francis Maloney dies, and had kept the parka that Moe was given back in 1978 to prove that Patrick was still alive. He hated Moe so much, that he left this coat to tell the rest of the family that Moe had not done his job, and might have had something to do with the disappearance. Katy and Moe separate because she can't accept the fact that Moe didn't tell her everything regardless of the unpleasant nature of the true facts.