R.F. RYAN'S BETWEEN GREED AND MANHOOD

In Between Manhood and Greed, R.F. Ryan introduces us to a unique hero. Finnegan Gilhooly was raised to be a Pinkerton man when discovered by the agency's founder as an orphan. More of an assassin than sleuth, he will have to learn to adapt, much like the changing country in the 1870s.

We first meet him in a shoot-out with Frank and Jesse James on thier escape from their violent fiasco in Northfield, Minnesota. Ryan gives us. a complete sense of who he is in action. Allen Pinkerton puts him on a special case for a special client, Colonel Enoch McLead, a board member of the Philadelphia Reading Railroad. His eldest niece, fell into vice and her murdered body was found in the coal fiends of Schuykill County, Pennsylvania. The colonel has dealings with the coal company. He wants Gilhooly to find the killer and exact justice.

The job proves a challenge in many ways. The Pinkertons have acted as strikebreakers and are considered enemies by much of the populace. One part of that labor movement are The Molly Maguires who employ who employ terrorist tactics. Pinkerton warns Gilhooly they have a man in deep cover with the Mollys and the Mines have their own police force that prove to be another gang. There is also the fact that he mainly operates as a killer, not a detective. With the help of a street kid and old drunk, chases after the killer in many unorthodox means.

Ryan has created a eccentric series hero in Gilhooly. he speaks in a florid style to cover his loser class, Irish immigrant background. He carries a philosophy of life and eath and intriguing view of violence. He knows he's an assassin and has developed an outlook to live with that and make sure it doesn't take over his personality and morality.

Ryan applies a world building skill to his 1877, showing America's first steps into the industrial age. Much of this is done through characterization, where everyone is corrupt, including our hero, in some form. Both labor and owners clash against each other in a dirty and dangerous world. At times you feel you're breathing coal dust and struggling to stay clean.

Between Greed and Manhood mixes the western and private eye genres with a historical brush and pulp flourish that becomes its own exotic animal. Told in a high adventure style, it gives a unique angle on post Civil War America. A new Gilhooly book will be coming out soon. I wait to see R.F. Ryan dive deeper intot he character and his time.