Plugged: A Novel

By Eoin Colfer

In the tradition of Elmore Leonard and Carl Hiaasen, Plugged tells the story of Daniel McEvoy, an Irish bouncer at a seedy New Jersey club. Daniel has a problem. Well, he has several, but the worst is that the girl he loves was just murdered. Then more people around him start dying--and not of natural causes. Suddenly Daniel's got the mob, cops, and an unstable lovesick neighbor after him, and the only clue points towards the crooked doctor who gave him hair implants before vanishing into thin air. Luckily--or perhaps unluckily--he has the help of a volatile detective, a permanently hungover army psychologist, and a mischievous ghost.

In Plugged, Colfer, beloved by millions for his Artemis Fowl series, has written a hilarious tour de force thriller of head-spinning plot twists, compulsive in the tradition of Carl Hiaasen's best work--a "pitch-perfect comic noir" (Publishers Weekly, starred review). Complete with the best banter this side of Elmore Leonard's Detroit, Plugged will leave you shocked, awed, and wanting more.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Penguin Group
• Release date: Sep 1, 2011
• ISBN: 9781590207857

Eoin Colfer

Eoin Colfer is the New York Times bestselling author of the Artemis Fowl series as well as two adult crime novels, Plugged, which was short-listed for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, and Screwed. He lives in Ireland with his wife and two children.

Reviews for Plugged

[hopeevey · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is a remarkably believable, engaging madcap adventure of a story. I feel like I know each and every one of the characters. It's pure genius that made this ridiculous story come together into a cohesive, touching whole.

[sean191 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Not much for crime/detective type novels, I still found myself enjoying this book quite a bit. I read it over an extended time - I kept it in the car and read whenever my wife had to run into a store for something. Even so, it was easy to pick up where I left off. The characters all were painted vividly, making them easy to remember and the protagonist was great. Seems like it's ready-made to be a Jason Statham movie.

[melmore_10 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Charming genre-bender for grownups from the author of the Artemis Fowl books. I can't help imagining the reluctantly introspective protagonist, Irish ex-soldier and bouncer Daniel McEvoy, as a slightly-more-fleshed-out version of Butler, Artemis' bodyguard, sidekick, and conscience.

[raizel_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Fast-paced, lots of violence, clever dialogue. The main character seems to hear the voice of his friend, who may be dead; their conversations eliminate the need for a sidekick.

[devilish2 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

It made me laugh. Out loud. More than once. That has to be a good thing.Very Pulp Fiction. It doesn't take itself seriously. It plays with all the gangster, low-life stereotypes and has fun doing it. Still has enough depth, plot and characters to make it a good read. Part of the fun is the references to popular culture, particularly music, of the eighties. The internal monologue and sly asides of the main Irish character are great too.I swallowed it in a day, easy. Definitely not suitable for kids.If you've got kids, read them The Legend of Spud Murphy.

[horomnizon · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I quite liked the Artemis Fowl series and was excited to see that Colfer had started a series for adults. The violence and language in this book certainly is not for kids. The mystery is more of a stringer than an "I have to figure this out" kind of story. It strings you along for the ride and is fun to watch unfold, but isn't a really suspenseful kind of whodunit. It felt like we get just enough of Daniel McEvoy's backstory to this point with the plotline that's going on in this first book of the series. The characters struck me as an interesting assortment that would probably make for a decent action/comedy movie if cast properly. Overall, I found it to be a lot of fun to read, with an interesting story, fun characters, and intelligent humor. If you don't mind foul language and violence (which is mostly against 'bad guys') I recommend this as a quick paced fun read.

[tanya8dogearedcopy · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Daniel McEvoy is an Irishman working as a bouncer at a sleazy NJ casino, when his love interest is found murdered in the parking lot. The novel features a level of quirkiness and humor that keeps the plot moving. If not credible, at least it's highly entertaining!

[maheswaranm-1 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Picked this up because of the Artemis Fowl series which I had liked.
Like I marked - it was okay.

Beginning was very slow and dragging. Picked up speed and kept things interesting towards the end.

[johnbsheridan · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Best known for his Artemis Fowl series which I've never read so this is my introduction to Eoin Colfer in what amounts to being essentially his debut novel for the non-YA market. All-in-all it is an entertaining read following the exploits of Daniel McEvoy as he intersects with "murder, corruption and hair loss in New Jersey". The hair loss element in the tagline indicates that this definitely is not going to reside in the noir category and humour permeates the book particularly in the asides "suffered" by McEvoy from his good friend Zebulon Kronski who he first encountered during his period serving in the Irish army as a United Nations peacekeeper in the Lebanon when Zeb was an Israeli army doctor performing back street cosmetic enhancement surgery for the Palestinian militias. Moving forward a few years they hook up again in NJ but Zeb disappears from his clinic at the same time as Daniel is caught up in a murder enquiry following the killing of a friend outside the club where he now works as a doorman. Can he piece it all together and find Zeb (whether dead or alive) before the cops and the local crime boss of the Hollywood Oirish variety catch up with him?

[austcrimefiction · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Not having read any of Eoin Colfer's Artemis Fowl books, I'm guessing from the author's own description of that series as "Die Hard with fairies", that PLUGGED has a hefty dose of the same sort of humour but this time for adults.Certainly part of one blurb I read "the crime caper so outlandish, so maniacal, so wickedly funny, it could only come from the mind that brought you Artemis Fowl" set expectations pretty firmly. There's definitely something deliciously perverse about the scenario of this book - an Irish, ex-pat bouncer whose girlfriend is murdered in the car park of the seedy casino that he's just won in a game of Poker. Not that I'd agree with the use of "girlfriend" - that seems a little more what Daniel McEvoy hoped was going on with Connie than what she'd actually agreed to. Winning your own business also might seem like an opportunity, and Dan certainly starts off with the best interests of his new employees at heart, but he's distracted. Partially by his barking mad upstairs neighbour who seems to think he's her long lost husband. But really his major problem is his dodgy hair transplant surgeon has gone missing and Dan's new hair plugs itch. Well maybe that and the fact that he's managed to make an enemy of one of New Jersey's most ruthless drug-dealers, he's been framed for a crime he didn't commit, his only ally seems to be a cop-killing female cop, and all this getting shot at is likely to start him pulling out his hair - which he really cannot afford to be doing right now.So, a slightly manic plot and a slightly bizarre situation which, luckily proved hugely entertaining and very very funny at points. The crying with laughter bit helps a lot as well as this is such a busy busy plot, there are some rather desperate attempts to keep the whole thing on track and tied up at points. Which frankly I didn't much care about. This is a good old fashioned caper novel, with a wonderful, try hard sort of bloke at the centre who truly is a very likeable character. There is a good cast of equally eccentric individuals surrounding him, but somehow, they seem to sort of work in the world that they inhabit. Definitely intended as sheer entertainment, PLUGGED, really delivered that component in spades. It is a caper though, it is intended to be funny, so don't look too closely at the details. PLUGGED probably should have come with a warning that reading in an area with other people may get you some startled looks because you really should find yourself laughing out loud frequently.

[muddyboy · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I thought that reading this book was just a real good time. I had not read any of Mr. Colfer's previous works but I liked this one. The main character is like an Irish version of Robert Parker's Spenser For Hire. He talks fast and he punches hard. There are strippers, tough guys and lunatics in the book and some are combinations of those previous words. The book is ultimately a murder mystery that needs to be solved but it is a wild ride getting there. The book goes extremely fast and there are many wacky adventures and a whole lot of talk about hair plugs.

[shanaqui_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

It proved impossible to take this book seriously, so I didn't even try. I'm too used to Eoin Colfer's Artemis Fowl books, and in a way, this hasn't grown up much from that -- just in the subject matter and the rating (for language and violence).

It doesn't touch Raymond Chandler in terms of the detective character, who isn't nearly as quick-thinking, slick-talking, smart-assing as Philip Marlowe. On the other hand, he's fun in himself, with his inner monologues and his stupid ideas.

To be honest, I didn't even try to follow the mystery, just sat back for the ride. And it was a fun one. I think I'd probably have more complaints if I'd gone into reading this with super-high expectations, but I was just ready for Eoin Colfer to make me smile and maybe giggle a little, and he did that. (I have the girliest giggle in the world, it's terrible.)

[zmagic69 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

A fun quick read, the jacket compares the author to Carl Hiaasen which is a major stretch, but the book was fun. One slight problem was with the action sequences, of which are are quite a few, during these, the writing becomes too scattered, and it is hard to to tell what is going on, who is doing what, and how it happened.

[maj_bootred-1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Ich hatte mich so auf dieses Buch gefreut - gehört doch die Artemis Fowl Reihe zu meinen Lieblingsbüchern. Und jetzt mal was für Erwachsene.

Zugegeben: wäre es nicht Colfer gewesen, ich hätte es nach ein paar Seiten wieder weggelegt. Der Anfang ist sehr, sehr schleppend und irgendwie unatmospährisch - obwohl das doch eigentlich eine der Stärken Colfers ist. Bis ins letzte Drittel habe ich mich eher gequält - wo ich eigentlich Spannungsaufbau erwartet habe, passieren die Dinge einfach so nacheinander. Irgendwie hölzern. Nur den Protagonisten - der harte Kerl, zu schlau, zu hilfsbereit für seine Welt - den mochte ich von Anfang an.

Aber dann, aber dann: Im letzten Drittel - ich habe es in einem Rutsch regelrecht weggefressen - schmiert sich alles zusammen wie in einem guten Action Film. Es klipp-klappt auf's Feinste. Eins passt aufs andere, dem richtigen Griff folgt der glückliche Einfall, folgt der gezielt gesetzte Schuss. Plötzlich macht alles Sinn und verhilft zum Guten. Die Fehler vom Anfang, die nervige innere Stimme, die permanenten Flashbacks - alle konzertieren zu einem wirklich tollen Finale. Warum konnte nicht das ganze Buch so großartig sein?

[othemts · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

The author of the Artemis Fowl books branches out into grown-up novels with this crime adventure. Daniel McEvoy is a war veteran turned bouncer, who has to struggle with his new hair implants and not getting killed when he stumbles into the middle of an organized crime ring (hence the double pun of the title). The story is a humorous parody/pastiche of the mistaken identity crime novel. It’s alternately bonkers and vulgar and while enjoyable it’s no masterpiece.

[juniperjungle · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I must start this review by admitting that until I started to read this book I’d never read anything by Eoin Colfer. I’ve been meaning to give the Artemis Fowl books a try for some time but I’ve just never got round to it. I was lucky enough to hear Eoin talk on a panel at the London Book Fair and hoped that his writing was as funny and charming as the man himself.

I certainly wasn’t disappointed, within a few pages I was hooked and I thoroughly enjoyed the time I spent reading the book. It’s narrated by Dan, a former soldier now turned bouncer. I’m not always keen on books written in this way but for this particular book it really worked and I found Dan to be a really entertaining narrator. The plot is full of action and whilst it had the potential to become silly Colfer always managed to keep it from going too far.

The cast of Plugged are all well created and interesting characters. They were vividly described in such a way that I could picture them all. As well as loving Dan I developed a real soft spot for ghost Zeb, his little comments and asides were very entertaining. A notable mentions must go to Mrs Delano, Dan’s slightly odd neighbour.

I found Plugged to be a really entertaining read, and it’s reinforced my plan to read more by Colfer. I don’t know if he plans to write more about Dan but if he does I shall certainly look forward to reading it.