RaveLos Angeles TimesNoir isn’t the easiest genre to pull off; its tropes have been endlessly imitated and parodied. But The Churchgoer is both defiantly original and faithful to its literary predecessors—the novel’s pacing is perfect, and Coleman does an excellent job building suspense … Coleman uses red herrings and misdirection to keep the reader guessing, which isn’t an easy trick, but he executes it brilliantly. Coleman also displays a masterful grasp of the language that become associated with noir fiction, while never descending into cliche … His greatest accomplishment in The Churchgoer, though is the character of Haines …Troubled detectives are nothing new in noir fiction, of course, but the self-awareness Haines exhibits makes him fascinating; he freely admits that he’s become governed by resentment and rage … Coleman’s book reads like a tribute to California noir, but there’s nothing well worn or derivative about it. The Churchgoer is a wonderful debut novel from a writer with more than a few tricks up his sleeve.
