The Circumstantial Man A stand-alone book and brilliant departure from the two published Gary Reilly series.
There’s a stolen car, a hit-and-run accident, mistaken identity, a body in Pete Larkey’s bathroom and a deadly encounter with a condescending con man named Benny.
Read More…Published April 2018
Two Great Series by Novelist Gary Reilly
The Asphalt Warrior Series
Featuring Denver Cab Driver Brendan Murphy, a.k.a. "Murph"
Read More....Gary Reilly highlighted on National Public Radio's weekend edition with Scott Simon
December 2015: Pick Up at Union Station "... a rattling good yarn."
December 2014: The Asphalt Warrior Series... "Huge Fun."
The Vietnam Series
Stories of one young man's search for his place within the ranks and his place in the world.
Read More.... "Honest and artfully told ... highly recommended."
~ Tim Bazzett, author of the Cold War memoir, SOLDIER BOY: AT PLAY IN THE ASA
" 'What good are MPs?' Gary Reilly's Private Palmer wonders. Like Michael Casey's Obscenities, The Detachment answers by following one military policeman across his absurd tour of duty in Vietnam. The character trajectory and treatment are classic as so is The Detachment."
~Stewart O'Nan, author of The Names of the Dead; editor of The Vietnam Reader
"When a novel like The Detachment sensibly illuminates every process of a vast crazy enterprise, such as the war in Vietnam, it is invariably -- and appropriately -- compared to the masterpiece Catch 22. Gary Reilly has measured every action through soldier Palmer's time in the service, every duty, in prose which is clean and careful and he brings us scene by scene the aggregate of one man's experience. It's a powerful and convincing book, Catch 23 or 24, vivid, considered, and real."
~ Ron Carlson, author of Return to Oakpine and Five Skies
"There has never been a war novel quite like this, a minute-by-minute, stream-of-consciousness, unerring accurate portrait of army life."
~ John Mort, author of Solider in Paradise and DONT MEAN NOTHIN, Vietnam War Stories
"Gary Reilly is the G.I. Charles Bukowski."
~
Fred Hafaele, author of Rebuilding the Indian
Recent Posts
Gary Reilly’s Palmer is “back in the world.”
No book I’ve read better captures the anomie that poor, befuddled Palmer struggles with. Behind the wheel of a taxi, Palmer finds his place in America—permanently on the move, always changing his destination—a destination chosen by others. ~ David Wilson, Vietnam Veterans of America Books in Review II, June 23, 2017 Read David Wilson’s full […]
Read PostBooklist: “That rarest thing in fiction, originality”
The long, second novel of Reilly’s Vietnam trilogy takes a dark turn, though the innocence of Private Palmer from The Enlisted Men’s Club sometimes feebly glows. After he is assigned to an MP detachment in Vietnam, Palmer’s fledgling talents as a goldbrick come to fruition. Read the John Mort’s full review of The Detachment on […]
Read PostBooklist: “This ordinary soldier is universal”
With The Enlisted Men’s Club, published in 2014, Running Meter launched Reilly’s Vietnam trilogy, which introduces the self-absorbed Private Palmer, formerly a slacker civilian who works hard to become a slacker MP at the Presidio as he awaits his orders for Vietnam. Palmer is a practiced, lonely drinker clearly on his way to alcoholism, and […]
Read PostBooklist: Murph is “a fascinating companion”
Unlike Reilly, whose pomp and bluster create chaos, Murph is a go-with-the-flow philosopher (comparisons to The Dude in The Big Lebowski seem somewhat inevitable), a man who wants to avoid people and will do almost anything to avoid confrontation, but whose internal monologue makes him a fascinating companion. Every few pages readers will find an […]
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