Gary Cowan, an employee at the recently opened Porter Square Books, located in the Porter Square shopping center off of Elm St., reviews three titles for this issue.

“Boyos,” by Richard Marinick

"Boyos" is a raw and revealing Boston crime novel. Publishers will inevitably compare Marinick to others who work the same turf, like Robert Parker and Dennis Lehane. But, whereas Parker does research and Lehane keeps his ears open around the parish, Marinick’s talent is tempered by real experience: he actually lived this sort of life. The author’s street credibility comes through in the dust jacket biography alone.

Marinick was a Southie stickup man in the Whitey Bulger days and learned the writer’s craft in prison. The first couple of pages of “Boyos” bear the over-careful punctuation of the sincere beginner, but soon the rhythm catches and the depiction of life’s murky operations in the Boston underworld starts to fascinate. The characters are compelling, if nasty, and the dialogue is so spot-on you can hear the accents.

This is a vivid picture of a violent, closed world already passing into history.

“Embers,” by Sandor Marais

A novel of a different, more silken intensity is "Embers". A major Hungarian author between World War I and World War II, Marais was largely forgotten until a publisher came across an old copy of the novel and decided the story was too good to remain unknown. The resulting translation is smooth and elegant.

In the waning days of Hapsburg Europe an aristocrat and a general, best friends and rivals in love, reminisce in a series of delicious flashbacks. “Embers” contains passages of such beauty as to call the reader back, to reread and marvel at their power.

“The Clearing,” by Tim Gautreaux

Gautreaux’ “The Clearing” is a story set in a 1920’s era Bayou logging camp, a harsh place full of everyday dangers such as snakes, gators, industrial accidents, and outbreaks of violence. It is the novel’s triumph that none of these scenes seem gratuitous, but rather simply part of the world of the camp, and the reader is more taken with the characters and the story. The characters grow and change and the plot carries the reader right along.

Gary Cowan was born last century in Quincy, lives in Concord, and has read an aircraft carrier-full of books during the journey.

Porter Square’s website is www.portersquarebooks.com