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Title: The Devils of Bakersfield

Subtitle: A Jack Liffey Mystery

Author: John Shannon

Narrator: Kyle Munley

Format: Unabridged

Length: 9 hrs and 27 mins

Language: English

Release date: 09-27-13

Publisher: Audible Studios

Ratings: 5 of 5 out of 1 votes

Genres: Fiction, Contemporary

Publisher's Summary:

The seemingly sleepy oil town of Bakersfield has a long and grim history of hostility towards outsiders, be it the "Okies" during the Depression, African-Americans, or labor organizes. When Jack Liffey and his daughter Maeve end up in Bakersfield as a respite from their life in Los Angeles, they find that the town has cast its paranoid fears on a group of rebellious teenaged girls alleged to be Satanists. As hysteria mounts, there is a mammoth book burning and a police raid on all people they deem unsympathetic to their evangelical cause. In the chaos, Maeve disappears and Jack is racing against the clock to find her and save the girls from the town's "exorcism."

Editorial Reviews:

The 10th installment in John Shannons Jack Liffey series finds its protagonist, the bold private investigator who specializes in finding lost children, forced to fight for the well-being of his own daughter, who is kidnapped by religious zealots in Bakersfield, CA. The town is highly fictionalized and turned into a hotbed of intolerant fanatics who make scapegoats out of troubled teenagers, but Shannon does draw upon real-life stories of the area's intolerance and details its actual vivid geography. Kyle Murphy grittly performs Liffeys tough morality and tenderly portrays his fatherly fears in this audiobook that will keep you on edge till the very end.

Members Reviews:

I just do not understand the bad reviews. For me

I just do not understand the bad reviews. For me, this was a real literary achievement and a damn good read. Perhaps the reviewers didn't enjoy the fundamentalist characters and plot. Folks, that's the way it is in Bakersfield. The historical fragments, signs from past eras, and newspaper clippings make clear the plot of the novel is only waiting to happen again. Colorful supporting characters and the subplot of Jack's daughter making up her mind about an unwanted pregnancy added poignant layers to the story.

Read this one for yourself. Don't be influenced by a few bad reviews. John Shannon is a superb writer and social commentator.

bad

After the first three books I read by John Shannon (long after publication) in anticipation I bought the rest of his novels and each has gotten progressively worse. I couldn't even finish this one.

Fun read!

First off, this is my first Jack Liffey mystery and one of only a handful of books that I have read of its genre. I picked up the book because I saw that it was set in Bakersfield, the city where I grew up, and because the author was going to be speaking at a bookstore near where I live now.

The book is a quick, fun read. While it has some slow parts, it is generally fast-moving and entertaining, never tedious. The author throws in some literary references here and there which are fun to spot and think about, but in general the book reads more like genre fiction. Sometimes the author delves into deeper issues and hits the reader over the head with them. He and, by extension, his protagonist Liffey, could be a bit more subtle. In a few places Liffey seems to make statements that are somewhat obvious--restating what has already happened. This doesn't further the story and sometimes makes it seem as if Shannon is using Liffey to lecture the reader.

Shannon's treatment of Bakersfield is a bit rough-handed, though in many ways its not that far off the mark.