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Manhattan newcomer Nathan Melton is looking for a place to connect. Lucky for him, Jimmies is just around the corner--Jimmie Collins is a man with connections! From beat cops to Mafioso, career women to former linebackers, Jimmies patrons take care of each other and their neighborhood barkeep. A beloved priest needs some thugs taught a lesson? No problem! Trouble with your love life? Let Jimmie apply his matchmaking skills. Need a place to sell some merchandise that might have fallen off a truck? No questions asked. Nathan has found his home away from home. Jimmie has an ailing wife and disabled daughter nestled in Florida, and his bar family is all he s got. They understand about the childrens charity balancing out the part time smuggling job, that offshore accounts are necessary when medical bills arent covered by health insurance. When Jimmie reveals his own terminal diagnosis, his friends vow to help him recover the millions he has in foreign bank accounts. Somewhere between that promise and Jimmies death, things go terribly wrong. The money is gone, their friend is dead, and it s up to this close-knit cadre to track the cash.

User Reviews about Last Call

Well, neither in praise nor in blame could anyone call the characters in this book multi-dimensional. They conform strictly to a certain popular idea of New Yorkers, partly stereotyped and partly a caricature. Most of the book consists of their dialogue and backchat, clipped in idiom and cynical in tone. There are no great one-liners in the manner of Chandler, and it mainly takes place in a New York bar where the group that forms itself round the new arrival from out of town quickly develops a strong sense of camaraderie. This depiction of a group of friends communicating New-York-style is in my own opinion what the book is mostly about, and on the objective criterion of page-count it is what most of the book consists of. How authentic the style of the communication really is I would not like to say, but it is how many of us imagine it, and it is at least kept consistent.

The talk is mostly about acquiring mates, and some of the actual mating is described, fortunately not in relentless detail. Never does the conversation touch on any 'deep' issues, and indeed Nathan's admission that he is well versed in English detective stories is the solitary indication from start to finish that any of them have ever read anything. I must admit that I like this way of doing things. It may be a bit of a puppet-show rather than a representation of real human beings 'in the round', but that is far from being something that just anyone could bring off with consistency and integrity, and J D Seamus achieves both very well indeed. He knows what he is trying to do and he stays in control of the way he does it.

Naturally there has to be a bit of action by way of a change from the chatter in the bar. The action is violent in the extreme, and in keeping with the tone of the whole story it never leads to any second thoughts or introspection on the part of anyone. Indeed, it does not even lead to any consequences from the law, the mobs or anyone else. Senior levels of the law and of the mobs make an appearance together at Jimmie's wake near the end, and I was tickled by their interaction and the tactful manner in which they recognise the limits of what each party can say appropriately in the presence of the other. Kojak, where are you now?

The feelings expressed at Jimmie's death are actually described rather beautifully and touchingly, and I could have given this book 4 stars as a very enjoyable read if it had not been for the ending. A book should conclude, but this one just stops. Nevertheless in my time 3 stars out of a possible 5 used to be 60% which was considered rather a good mark, and I mean my 3 stars here to indicate that I thought this was rather a good book in many ways. -- NEW YORK NEW YORK

This is a mainstream novel that becomes a mystery approximately 2/3 of the way through. Jimmy Collins operates a bar in NYC. It is somewhat like Cheers in that everybody knows your name, it is the source of friendships (including romantic ones) and its cast of characters is interesting, engaging and amusing. It differs from Cheers in that it includes some guys from the NYPD who coexist with some guys from the Mafia. Oh yes, and Jimmy is a receiver of stolen goods, though this does not compromise his essential integrity.

When Jimmy dies and his wealth (some of it offshore) is ripped off by his crooked attorney, the denizens of his bar set off to right the wrong. Which they do. Violently (but humorously). Their interactions with Jimmy (alive and dead) are at the center of the novel. They are likable, sometimes laugh-out-loud funny and essentially comic, i.e., this is a novel closer to the spirit of Damon Runyon or a modulated Carl Hiaasen. There is crime and sex and violence, but they are relatively muted and the overall ethos is one of good fellowship.

The ending is a tad odd and the time frame of the novel (just prior to 9/11) is somewhat curious. Page by page: 5 stars. Overall concept/structure: 4 stars.

I would happily read another novel by jd Seamus. -- And Now for Something Completely Different

A group of friends work together to retrieve millions of dollars belonging to a owner of a bar with Mafia ties in the novel Last Call. This is an entertaining book, but it is not a perfect one. JD Seamus does a good job establishing how a bar in New York can be a place where different people from all walks of life forge strong relationships. The characters in the novel really bond as a family. I like how the characters work as a team to get the job done.

I had fun visualizing what each character would look like. His description of the two main female characters is very good. Gail and Terri are interesting fully developed characters I love the friendship between the two main male characters Jimmy and Nathan too. One complaint I have is that Seamus does not develop all the characters in the book. There are several characters he introduces briefly in the novel. I wish Seamus took the time to develop the minor characters more. Last Call is set in New York. Seamus also takes the reader to the white beaches of Cozumel in Mexico and the rough streets and bars of Costa Rica. I love his description of these exotic locales. I would give this book five stars if the minor characters were developed more. -- Last Call is not a perfect novel, but it is entertaining.