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    Past Crimes: A Van Shaw Novel
    Past Crimes: A Van Shaw Novel
    Past Crimes: A Van Shaw Novel
    Audiobook10 hours

    Past Crimes: A Van Shaw Novel

    Written by Glen Erik Hamilton

    Narrated by Jeff Harding

    4/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    When his estranged grandfather is shot and left for dead, an Army Ranger plunges into the criminal underworld of his youth to find a murderer . . . and uncovers a shocking family secret

    From the time he was six years old, Van Shaw was raised by his Irish immigrant grandfather Donovan to be a thief—to boost cars, beat security alarms, crack safes, and burglarize businesses. But at eighteen, Dono's namesake and protégé suddenly broke all ties to that life and the people in it. Van escaped into the military, serving as an elite Army Ranger in Iraq and Afghanistan. Now, after ten years of silence, Dono has asked his grandson to come home to Seattle. "Tar abhaile, más féidir leat"—Come home, if you can.

    Taking some well-earned leave, Van heads to the Pacific Northwest, curious and a little unnerved by his grandfather's request. But when he arrives at Dono's house in the early hours of the morning, Van discovers the old thief bleeding out on the floor from a gunshot to the head. The last time the two men had seen each other Dono had also been lying on the floor—with Van pointing a gun at his heart. With a lifetime of tough history between him and the old man, the battle-tested Ranger knows the cops will link him to the crime.

    To clear his name and avenge his grandfather, Van must track down the shooter. Odds are strong that Dono knew the person. Was it a greedy accomplice? A disgruntled rival? Diving back into the illicit world he'd sworn to leave behind, Van reconnects with the ruthless felons who knew Dono best. Armed with his military and criminal skills, he follows a dangerous trail of clues that leads him deeper into Dono's life—and closer to uncovering what drove his grandfather to reach out after years of silence. As he plummets back into this violent, high-stakes world where right and wrong aren't defined by the law, Van finds that the past is all too present . . . and that the secrets held by those closest to him are the deadliest of all.

    Edgy and suspenseful, rich with emotional resonance, gritty action, and a deep-rooted sense of place, Past Crimes trumpets the arrival of a powerful new noir talent.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperAudio
    Release dateMar 3, 2015
    ISBN9780062414106
    Past Crimes: A Van Shaw Novel
    Author

    Glen Erik Hamilton

    A native of Seattle, GLEN ERIK HAMILTON was raised aboard a sailboat and grew up around the marinas and commercial docks and islands of the Pacific Northwest. His novels have won the Anthony, Macavity, and Strand Critics awards, and have been nominated for the Edgar, Barry, and Nero awards. After living for many years in Southern California, he and his family have recently returned to the Emerald City and its beautiful overcast skies.

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    Reviews for Past Crimes

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    • 5/5
      Army Ranger Van (Donovan) Shaw -- prompted by a note from his grandfather to "Come home, if you can." -- takes a ten-day leave only to find the old man near death lying on the living room floor. The grandfather, Dono (also short for Donovan and Van's namesake) has an oozing gunshot wound behind the ear. Immediately afterwards, Van hears the house's back door slamming shut, and then receding footsteps. It sets Van on a mission to discover who'd tried to kill Dono, and why. Van's grandfather, a meticulous burglar with a life of crime in his past, is who'd tutored Van (as an adolescent) on the intricacies of breaking and entering, plus how to evade the law. Van knows Dono pretty well because, after being orphaned at six, Van had lived with his grandfather until reaching age eighteen. That's when the pair had a violent quarrel, and so no longer able to be Dono's partner in crime, Van ran off to join the army. Now, ten years later, Van begins to piece together a list of possible suspects who'd want to kill his grandfather. Was it a new associate of Dono's, or one from the past? The storyline unwinds with intermittent flashback episodes of Van's life at different ages. One relates to Van being in foster care as Dono serves a single short sentence behind bars, while other sequences show the master thief, Dono, giving his passed-on knowledge to grandson Van. Readers will easily get why Van continues to hear his grandfather's guiding words in his ear, even as Dono remains comatose and at death's door in the hospital. This is a tale that can appeal to readers of many genres. It's a grand whodunit, and there's a bit for caper lovers in it, with other parts for those who like treasure-hunt reads too. Those features will keep its reader hooked: but for me, what made this book such and undeniable gem stems from the palpable bond between its two protagonists. Yes, in my opinion, two -- Dono, the grandfather, and Van, the grandson, -- dual parts that make the Donovan whole. The complexity of their partnership, the working details of their burglary jobs shared, all the ins and outs of their PAST CRIMES, make this a totally absorbing read. At the finish, I at once knew there'd be parts I'd be reading over again.
    • 5/5
      Past Crimes (2015) (Van Shaw #1) by Glen Erik Hamilton. Van Shaw, Army Ranger, gets 10 days leave to go home to Seattle. During his time in the military Van and his only relative, his grandfather Dono, have not communicated. But a one line message from Dono asking Van to come home sets the Ranger quickly on his way.But not fast enough. Van gets back to the house he lived in with his grandfather for the better part of eight years only to find the old man shot and barely hanging on. The cops are very interested in Dono, and the reasons for Van return home. Dono had a past, mostly unprosecuted but bright on the police radar.Van sets off to track the shooter, his every move followed closely by the police. Van knows all about his grandfather’s past, even learning the tradecraft involved. It is one of the things that takes him a good Ranger and is a set of skills he employs frequently in the hunt. Dono’s friends are there to help Van, but he mostly has to go solo.As this is the first in a proposed series, there are a lot of characters to be introduced and plenty of backstory to go through. The latter is handled cleverly by inserting episodes of on-the-job teaching moments during the years the pair were together.We don’t get a lot of the physical action side of the Ranger, but we see the deployment of his smarts, both military and criminal (as if there were a great difference) that makes great soldiers out of good ones.The pacing revs up throughout the book, several bodies and killings occur, the reasons behind everything slowly come to light, and a new heroic character comes into being. He isn’t a “white hat” good guy, he knows his way around the shadier streets of Seattle, but he takes an assault on family and friends very personally. This was a very good read indeed.
    • 5/5
      I am always delighted when I find a new to me author. Especially one with a series and most especially one with a series that already has Book 2 published!! And I love the character - all the characters and it takes place in my own Seattle. Perfection all around. I have already bought book 2 in the series and have high hopes.
    • 5/5
      Fast-paced and twisting, this is one of those mystery/suspense novels that's hard to put down. The characters at the center of the book--and especially the main character, Van Shaw--are believable and engaging, and Hamilton's use of atmosphere is masterful. The more I read of this work, the more I didn't want it to stop.All told, I'll keep reading the Van Shaw series and any other works to come from Glen Erik Hamilton; the depth and believability of character here were incredibly refreshing for a work like this, and I'd recommend it in a moment.
    • 5/5
      For ten years Van Shaw's grandfather had not attempted to contact him, but now the message in Gaelic is not just a request, almost a command, and Van knows that his grandfather would not be asking if he didn't need him urgently.He arrives at his grandfather's house to find Dono on the floor bleeding from a gunshot to the head. Some one flees the house just as he comes in. He has ten days leave from the army, just ten days to find out who shot Dono and why Dono had asked him to come home. A lot happens in the next ten days and all the action adds a sense of urgency to the novel, as his grandfather lingers in a coma in hospital.Van finds that he still has some of the skills that his grandfather had taught him in his teens and the army has given him strength and resilience.A good read that moves at a breathtaking pace. Apparently the first of a series featuring Van Shaw.
    • 5/5
      A military man (Van) has a leave to go home to see his elderly grandfather who has been shot and is near death. His grandfather (Dono) has a long criminal past and we find that Van has done some unsavory things in his youth. Over time we find that Dono is involved in a plot to steal millions of dollars of diamonds. Others die and eventually so does his granddad. So the mystery is where are the diamonds and who shot his granddad? A really great book worthy of all the acclaim it has received.
    • 5/5
      I've reads many First in a New Series books. Sometimes they continue and sometimes I never hear of the series or the author again. It doesn't seem to matter if I liked the series. So I go into a new debut projected series carefully. I liked this book. There was a very nice mix of current crime and past backstory. I can see it going forward as our hero tries to find where he fits in the civilian world and how he can manage the fallout of his grandfather's life of crime. I do hope this series continues.
    • 5/5
      Army Ranger Van Shaw has returned to Seattle at the request of his long-estranged grandfather. But there will be no answers regarding the cryptic note he received from the man who’d taken him in after his mother’s death: he arrives at his grandfather’s home to find him lying in a pool of blood, shot in the head. And their abstruse history, he realizes, will make him a prime suspect in this shooting. Resolute, Van sets out to solve the mystery surrounding his grandfather’s shooting, only to discover that the past is not at all what he has always believed it to be.A tense, pulse-pounding page-turner, “Past Crimes” will keep readers on the edge of their seats from the very first page. Highly recommended.
    • 5/5
      Past Crimes (A Van Shaw Novel)By: Glen Erik HamiltonHarper Collins March 2015 Pages. 336Copy Courtesy of The Reading RoomReviewed By: tkVan Shaw is contacted by his grandfather with a note saying he needs him to come home. Unfortunely that is all it said. Van has to take leave to from the Army to go back to his home town. His grandfather hasn’t spoken to him in years, why now? With his own reservations, Van answers his grandfathers summons only to find him in terrible straits. Unable to communicate, Van must try to figure out what is happening before its to late.Van is a bold, strong, risk taker. Someone I would love to be around. He seems to energize the people who encounter him. He has a small group of supporting friends of his own , and his grandfathers, and will help him discover the truth. This thriller will take you breath away in anticipation of coming events throughout this fantastic story of family, rivals, jealousy, and murder.An must have addition. 5/5
    • 3/5
      I like the Van Shaw character, who reminds me of Jack Reacher in some ways. But I found it frustrating that a guy who is so street smart caused problems for himself and found himself in dangerous situations which he should have anticipated and avoided. Good character development and smooth transitions between past and present in the story.