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Robert Campbell
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The Junkyard Dog (Jimmy Flannery Mysteries Book 1) Kindle Edition

by Robert Campbell (Author) Format: Kindle Edition
3.8 3.8 out of 5 stars 609 ratings
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★ Edgar Award Winner ★


Chicago is Jimmy Flannery's kind of town. A tough Irishman with street smarts, he is part of a political machine that runs on favors and friendships.


Flannery's particular piece of the patronage is the 27th Ward. Anything that happens there is his business.


Even murder!


When an antiabortion demonstration ends with a bomb blast that kills a pretty young girl and an old woman, Flannery takes it personally.


Someone is stonewalling the investigation.


Flannery's starting to wonder if the bombing was a political cover-up for murder.


When the killer targets Flannery's lady love, Jimmy gets mean.


He pursues the scent of the dirty politics with passion and revenge. . .a very deadly combination.


Praise for Robert Campbell

"Campbell writes with wit and vigor. The comparison not unflattering is to Elmore Leonard." --- Los Angeles Times

"Robert Campbell has his own sound. He is an awfully good writer" --- Elmore Leonard

" Robert Campbell is one of the most stylish crime writers in the business." --- New York Times

Previous page
  1. Book 1 of 11
    Jimmy Flannery Mysteries
  2. Print length
    185 pages
  3. Language
    English
  4. Sticky notes
    On Kindle Scribe
  5. Publication date
    September 7, 2015
  6. File size
    1162 KB
  7. Page Flip
    Enabled
  8. Word Wise
    Enabled
  9. Enhanced typesetting
    Enabled
  10. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

Review

"Dialogue so breezy it stings your eyeballs, spirited characterizations of Jimmy's proud ethnic neighbors, and the ward healer's cocky defense of the old ways, the old politics . . . You can't help liking Jimmy Flannery."
---- New York Times Book Review

"This truly innovative private-eye character moves credibly through a brawling, tough-guy atmosphere in a plot that's both twisty and witty."
---- ALA Booklist

"Written in an appealing argot, this mystery has full characters, a satisfying ending and a nice balance of hardboiled action and romantic tenderness."
---- Publishers Weekly

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B0153KUVUK
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Ayeshire Publishing (September 7, 2015)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ September 7, 2015
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 1162 KB
  • Simultaneous device usage ‏ : ‎ Unlimited
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 185 pages
  • Customer Reviews:
    3.8 3.8 out of 5 stars 609 ratings

About the author

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Robert Campbell

Robert Campbell

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Robert Campbell enjoyed a long career as a writer of novels, screenplays, and television plays. His screenplay for The Man of a Thousand Faces was nominated for an Academy Award. In 1986 his In La-La Land We Trust was chosen by the Washington Post as the best crime novel of the year. His novel The Junkyard Dog, Jimmy Flannery's debut, won an Edgar Allan Poe Award and an Anthony Award.

Customer reviews

3.8 out of 5 stars
3.8 out of 5
609 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Tony Parsons
5.0 out of 5 stars & Mary Ellen Dunne (Nurse) did the best they could but Rose (Hebrew Orthodox) did not survive
Reviewed in the United States on October 4, 2017
Verified Purchase
The Junkyard Dog (Chicago, IL.) Jimmy Flannery (narrator, Irish Catholic, Jim, James, Jimbo, 27th. Ward) is really upset with Joe Asbach (Right-to-Lifers protest leaader).
Mrs. Rose Sonia Klutzman (employee) is in the Passavant hospital because Joe detonated a bomb at the Free Abortion Clinic Sperry Ave.
Helen Caplet (prostitute, PG, nee Brickhouse) had been killed instantly.
Francis O'Shea, Murray Rourke (partner) & Spidone (bomb squad) were at the crime scene.

Dr. Chapman, & Mary Ellen Dunne (Nurse) did the best they could but Rose (Hebrew Orthodox) did not survive.
Jimmy & Mary Ellen were getting quite fond of each other.
Joe was released & the murder(s) were still at large.
Helen Bernadette Catherine Brickhouse’s body lay in McCardle's Funeral Home.
Will the murders or deaths be solved & someone brought to justice?

I did not receive any type of compensation for reading & reviewing this book. While I receive free books from publishers & authors, I am under no obligation to write a positive review. Only an honest one.

A very awesome book cover, great font & writing style. A very well written murder mystery book. It was very easy for me to read/follow from start/finish & never a dull moment. There were no grammar/typo errors, nor any repetitive or out of line sequence sentences. Lots of exciting scenarios, with several twists/turns & a huge set of unique characters to keep track of. This could also make another great murder mystery movie, or better yet a mini TV series. A very easy rating of 5 stars.

Thank you for the free author; Ayeshire Publishing; EBookDaily; Amazon Digital Services LLC.; book
Tony Parsons MSW (Washburn)
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claudia
4.0 out of 5 stars A real treat.
Reviewed in the United States on December 2, 2016
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Excellent story with an authentic cast of characters from 1970s and '80s Chicago. Jimmy Flannery may be Irish, but he knows how things work with the old Italians. He's a good guy on a mission and I applaud him. The book needs some editing for punctuation and a little bit of spelling, but I loved the vernacular.
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Kindle Customer
3.0 out of 5 stars Disliked the dialogue
Reviewed in the United States on August 10, 2020
Verified Purchase
The story line was OK, but, I disliked the author's attempt to write the accent of native Chicagoans in his dialogue. It annoyed me all through the book. I am the sort of person who can not leave a book once I begin reading it so I suffered through until the end. I would definitely not choose to read another book in this series. Other readers may not feel the same so I guess I would tell others to read an excerpt before buying to test it.
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Dave Wilde
5.0 out of 5 stars Corruption, Murder, and Chicago Politics
Reviewed in the United States on October 4, 2015
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This is an absolutely terrific book that should have wide appeal to many mystery readers. Campbell has taken many classic Hardboiled detective themes and managed to wrap them in an entirely new package and, in doing so, he has created a detective novel entirely unlike anything else out there. Here he has the dogged investigator working on his own with all of the bureaucrats and the mobsters warning him off. He has a story about corruption and girls who come to the big city expecting to make a new life only to end up in the morgue because that ended up being the most convenient way to shut them up. This essence of this tale can be found in dozens of fifties paperbacks.

What makes the Jimmy Flannery stories unique are that Flannery is narrated in perfect cadence capturing his Irish Chicagoan persona. Flannery is a precinct captain in the old patronage system of Chicago where votes were bought by doing favors like greasing the wheels so a fireman who drove his car into the lake after having a few too many thirty days short of earning a full pension at thirty years can rest in peace knowing his widow is taken care of. Favor for favor, markers being offered, this is Flannery's world, a world starting to change with the old neighborhoods changing.

But what happens when a bomb goes off at a clinic and a young girl and an old woman dies in his precinct and everywhere Flannery turns someone is trying to squealch the investigation and Flannery may be like a junkyard dog once he gets his teeth into something, but at a certain point can he fight the entire power structure of Chicago.

But it's not just the Davey and Goliath one man against corruption and evil story that makes this book. It's all the neighborhoods and the bars and the hangouts and all the people in this neighborhoods from all these different backgrounds that Campbell brings to life.

Campbell took a large risk having part of the plot revolve around the bombing of an abortion clinic, but he managed to humanize people involved on all sides of the issue.

At bottom, this book is simply a top notch mystery and stands with the best of them for its well crafted plot and for a writing style that just pulls you right in.
17 people found this helpful
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Patric
4.0 out of 5 stars A Político do-Gooder helps his Chicago Precinct residents.
Reviewed in the United States on June 29, 2020
Verified Purchase
A well written novel in which Jimmy Flannery, a Democratic Precinct Chairman in. Rough Chicago neighborhood helps his neighbors. Sometimes he dances along the edges of the law in doing his bit for the community. It is an amusing tale of big city politics and murder investigation.
One person found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

Caro
3.0 out of 5 stars Three Stars
Reviewed in Canada on August 2, 2017
Verified Purchase
Grammar made it less enjoyable.
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Evelyn S
5.0 out of 5 stars I loved this story
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 29, 2015
Verified Purchase
I loved this story,and even though I am English, the spiel did NOT put me off one bit. In fact, it enhanced the story for me, reminded me if all the old B & W films of gangsters and the undetbelly of the city. Which may not have been true life BUT.....I enjoyed the story. So thank you ir a free copy, really enjoyed it.
Evelyn S
One person found this helpful
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Pensioner Power.
4.0 out of 5 stars First Class Read.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 19, 2017
Verified Purchase
I first read this over 20 years ago and had forgotten how good it was. Jimmy Flannery takes you on a journey through the underside of Chicago politics, a world of corruption and favour.
At heart it's almost like Don Quixote tilting at windmills, as like the Man from La Mancha, Flannery tries to seek justice and right the wrongs of the powerful
Written in the Chicago vernacular, the writing can at times appear odd but after awhile it just flows along.
Thoroughly enjoyable tale that has stood the test of time.
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potamus29
3.0 out of 5 stars Almost
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 28, 2020
Verified Purchase
Was this proof read before it was published? About a quarter of the way through and there are so many typos I'm not sure I'll finish it. Really irritating in what seems a reasonable novel.
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Linda H
5.0 out of 5 stars Very enjoyable book, possibly habit forming.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 12, 2017
Verified Purchase
Initially, I wasn't at all sure I'd like this book but I ended up loving it. Jimmy Flannery is a wonderful character with a unique, endearing voice and his exploits buying votes for favours whilst investigating a murder in post Capone Chicago feel totally authentic. I am already collecting the other Jimmy Flannery books!
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