The Prisoner

Description of The Prisoner

After an inner city family is shot and killed by a young boy, the police commence a search for the person who supplied the gun to the boy. Milo Krantz is one of the first to be arrested. As a rent collector for a notorious slumlord, he is one of the most despised people in the neighborhood.

Milo is no stranger to police stations and actually seems happy when he is arrested, knowing that his boss always gives him a raise whenever he gets harassed by the police. But later, when appearing in front of the judge, Milo does an abrupt about-face: he not only confesses to the crime, he refuses to say anything in his own defense.

This sudden change in attitude baffles Gunther Mulvaney, the detective who arrested Milo. Suspicious that Milo is taking the fall for someone else, a stubborn Gunther continues his investigation. He begins digging into Milo’s life and discovers a man quite different from the hated rent collector who is now the frequent subject of radio talk-shows. This investigation eventually intersects with one being conducted by a private investigator secretly hired to explore the mysterious circumstances surrounding the hospitalization five years earlier of the judge in Milo’s case. But not until Gunther uncovers Milo’s past connection with the judge does he begin to learn the real story behind Milo’s confession.

Reviews of The Prisoner

The novel The Prisoner by Patrick M. Garry once again shows this author’s uncanny ability to take a simple story and turn it into a powerful and moving experience for the reader. In this book, the main characters eventually are faced with a decision that will change each of their lives forever. The choice is between what is morally and ethically right or the expedient alternative. The twists come like body blows as each one decides, and the novel’s conclusion will leave the reader feeling as though they have been struck by a sledge hammer to the chest. The Prisoner only reinforces my feeling that Patrick Garry is one of our best American writers, and his work deserves a far bigger audience. If you haven’t read one of his books, I would recommend that you start now.
-John Austin,The Book Club, WTAN, Tampa, Florida

The Prisoner clearly shows us that being sentenced to jail is not the only way in which one can be held captive. Detective Gunther Mulvaney, Judge Donna Davis, and Milo Krantz’s lives become inextricably cast together after the death of an inner city family. Mulvaney, who arrested Krantz, prides himself on having never sent an innocent man to jail. Davis, the presiding judge, struggles with her marriage to a power-hungry politician and her having once felt a true love that was lost. Krantz is a rent collector, a hated thug in the community who would rather go to prison than divulge his well kept, heart breaking tale. Secrets are slowly unraveled resulting in a story of misguided and misunderstood love, betrayal, and ultimately silence.

Here’s a case where good things come in small packages. At 191 pages, The Prisoner is short on size but it carries a big wallop. Garry is well versed in the political and judicial systems and it shows. He uses his knowledge and strong writing to expertly weave together an unlikely cast of three characters: a judge, a detective, and a criminal, all of whom have more in common than they could possibly know. The story is crisp, has witty believable dialog and moves at a fast clip. Always keeping the plot goal in mind, Garry does not divert our attention with extraneous detail but instead sets up the scenes, gets to the point, and delivers the punches.

The Prisoner is a well-written, well-crafted story. The dialog is snappy and the characters entirely credible. The plot action moves at a rapid pace never letting up until the unsettling ending. Amazing at how much the characters are developed in such a compact story, this book rates very high in both writing skill and the art of suspenseful and introspective story telling. The Prisoner is an enjoyable, intelligent read and I give it a Highly Recommended rating.
-Wendy Thomas, Allbooks Reviews

“This book is a prime example of the old adage “don’t judge a book by its cover.” At first look, the cover features what seems to be a tourist shot of a courtroom. It is blurry, unexciting and does nothing to make the reader want to pick the book up. However, if you can move past the poor cover design and open the book you will not be disappointed.

On the surface, The Prisoner is the story of Milo Krantz, a rent collector for a slumlord who stands accused of providing the gun used to slaughter a mother and her children. He is a career criminal who, though now working legitimately, has failed to redeem himself since his job is threatening people into paying their rent. Under the surface, however, is a man who feeds the very children whose parents can’t pay rent. Milo at one point aspired to make more of himself and is ashamed of what he does, but hides it all under a façade of bravado and pride. This façade starts to break once he faces the judge who presides over his case.

Judge Donna Davis is a woman with a past she is trying to hide. Trapped in a marriage where both parties use each other to get ahead, she lives with the memories of the one man who stood by her when she was left blind and hospitalized after an accident. Those memories start to blend with reality once she is faced with Milo Krantz in her courtroom. Detective Gunther Mulvaney is the person who arrested Milo and who starts to put the pieces of the puzzle together.

Under the surface story of The Prisoner you will find a deeper story of true love, lost love and the effects it has on our lives. The most interesting thing about the way this love story was written is the way the author intertwined both Donna and Milo’s memories of their story. Rather than see it from only one perspective, the reader is able to see it from both sides which helps make it more real. As much as these two people may have been mismatched and from different worlds, they truly loved each other and it was impossible not to want them to end up together. The ending of the book was heartbreaking, but real. The author did not cop out and give the reader a happy, tidy ending. Mr. Garry gave the reader a realistic ending to a story that was tragic from the beginning. I look forward to more work from this talented author.”
-Danielle Feliciano, book reviewer for Reader Views

“Patrick Garry crafts a courtroom setting to stage the psychological drama that makes this book a page turner. On the surface, the courtroom drama propels the reader through the pages. But on a more profound level, the novel explores the ways in which ambition and fear can cloud one’s perception of truth. His use of alternating viewpoints is a skillful device for not only revealing each character’s thoughts and inclinations, but also for revealing how each character misinterprets events and sometimes deliberately deceives themselves. His story leaves the reader thinking about it for days afterward and anticipating the next novel from this new writer.”
-Midwest Book Review

- Selected to be profiled on “Book Notes,” a literary review program in Tampa, Florida.