Kenney, Charles 1950-

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Kenney, Charles 1950-

PERSONAL:

Born August 7, 1950, in Boston, MA; son of Charles C., Jr. (a firefighter) and Anne L. Kenney; married Anne L. Detmer (in financial services), August 27, 1983; children: Charles Frederick, Elizabeth Smith.

ADDRESSES:

Agent—Phillipa Brophy, Sterling Lord Literistic, 65 Bleecker St., New York, NY 10021. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER:

Writer. Boston Globe, Boston, MA, reporter and editor, 1978-94.

WRITINGS:

NONFICTION

(With Robert L. Turner) Dukakis: An American Odyssey, Houghton (Boston, MA), 1988.

Riding the Runaway Horse: The Rise and Decline of Wang Laboratories, Little, Brown (Boston, MA), 1992.

John F. Kennedy: The Presidential Portfolio: History as Told Through the Collection of the John F. Kennedy Library and Museum, introduction by Michael Beschloss, Public Affairs (New York, NY), 2000.

(With James E. Muller) Keep the Faith, Change the Church: The Battle by Catholics for the Soul of Their Church, Rodale (Emmaus, PA), 2004.

Rescue Men, Public Affairs (New York, NY), 2006.

FICTION

Hammurabi's Code (novel), Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 1995, also published as Code of Vengeance.

The Son of John Devlin (novel), Ballantine (New York, NY), 1999.

The Last Man (novel), Ballantine (New York, NY), 2001.

SIDELIGHTS:

Charles Kenney began his career as a reporter for the Boston Globe. His first novel, published after nearly twenty years as a journalist, is Hammurabi's Code. Utilizing Kenney's familiarity with Boston, the novel concerns the murder of much-revered, liberal Boston councilman Philip Stewart. Investigative reporter Frank Cronin uncovers the truth about Stewart as he tries to figure out who killed him, and finds that the politician was not nearly as saintly as he looked. Cronin discovers that Stewart was involved in corruption, extortion, and the mob. As Cronin digs deeper, he finds that the police, the media, and the politicians have crafted a complicated system of graft that involves many of the city's influential leaders. Critics enjoyed Hammurabi's Code. Denise Perry Donavin in Booklist called it "an excellent first novel," and a writer for Publishers Weekly praised the book's "gripping level of tension" and Kenney's "splendid use of his insider's knowledge of the local political and journalistic scene to flesh out his plot and characters."

Boston police officers are on center stage in The Son of John Devlin, whose hero, officer Jack Devlin, is a Harvard University graduate who goes undercover to investigate corruption in the Boston Police Department. His aim is personal. Devlin's father was a cop who committed suicide when faced with accusations of bribery and, twenty years later, Devlin wants to clear his father's name and restore his reputation. Devlin's quest intensifies when he uncovers a letter his father wrote before he died. In the process of the investigation, Devlin falls in love with Emily Lawrence, an attorney who is investigating a drug ring possibly connected with Devlin's case. Critical opinion was favorable. A reviewer for Publishers Weekly said that "the influence of the past permeates and corrodes the events at the heart of this stunning story," additionally calling it a "well-plotted, moving thriller." A.J. Anderson in the Library Journal wrote that The Son of John Devlin is "a veritable traffic jam of intersecting plots and insignificant detail" that nevertheless "has holding power." Wes Lukowsky of Booklist compared the book to classics of the genre, such as All the King's Men, calling it a "fully realized, character-driven novel … [and] classic example of the good-cop, bad-system crime novel."

The past once again infringes on the present in The Last Man, Kenney's novel about a World War II concentration camp survivor who recognizes a long-missing, high-ranking Nazi official living in Boston. When the U.S. Attorney General's office is asked to investigate, it is discovered that David Keegan, the lead attorney involved in the case, is dating the alleged Nazi's daughter. Complications arise when a rival attorney leaks the story to a reporter and blames Keegan for the leak. Another plot line involves Keegan coming to terms with the death of his mother in 1954 in a car accident that left his abusive father unharmed. A reviewer for Publishers Weekly wrote that the presence of two plot lines forces the author "to shortchange each of them, and the result is two plots that keep hitting melodramatic high points instead of one story told in dramatic depth." But Connie Fletcher of Booklist called The Last Man a "moving suspense story" that "is complicated by the tension between the desire for vengeance and the need for mercy."

Kenney is also the author of several nonfiction books as well, most of which are based on events that took place in Boston (and surrounding areas). His 1992 nonfiction book Riding the Runaway Horse: The Rise and Decline of Wang Laboratories tells the story of Chinese immigrant An Wang, a Harvard Ph.D. and trailblazer in the computer industry. Described by a reviewer for Publishers Weekly as a "gripping, remarkably intimate saga," Riding the Runaway Horse follows the rise of Wang's small Boston-based firm into a leading computer corporation in the eighties, and later the fall of Wang Laboratories due to Wang's controlling nature and his mixing of business with family to the detriment of the company.

Another nonfiction work by Kenney is 2000's John F. Kennedy: The Presidential Portfolio: History as Told Through the Collection of the John F. Kennedy Library and Museum, the first in a series of books based on material from the various presidential libraries. The book is notable for containing a compact disc, which allows readers to hear some of the more memorable moments of Kennedy's presidency rather than reading the words on a page. Also included are reproductions of various artifacts such as report cards, telegrams, and a note from Harry Truman advising Kennedy to ignore "these damn columnists and editorial writers." Because the book is derived from materials in the John F. Kennedy Library, it focuses on politics rather than Kennedy's personal life, with documentation of the Cuban missile crisis and the civil rights movement taking center stage, although the roles of Jacqueline and Bobby Kennedy are also examined. Mary Carroll of Booklist wrote that if subsequent titles live up to this one, the series is destined to "offer fascinating multimedia portraits." Karl Helicher of the Library Journal commended the inclusion of the compact disc, "because it includes dialog demonstrating Kennedy's battle with racist [Mississippi] governor Ross Barnett" and "the president overruling a belligerent general during the Cuban confrontation."

Keep the Faith, Change the Church: The Battle by Catholics for the Soul of Their Church takes a look at the emergence of the Voice of the Faithful, an organization that came about as a reaction to the Boston clergy sex abuse scandal. Coauthored by Dr. James Muller, the founding president of the organization, Keep the Faith, Change the Church is a journey through the first two years of the organization. What began as a modest group of parishioners congregated in the basement of a Boston church grew into an international force of ten thousand members strong and growing. "In clarifying the origins and orientation of Voice of the Faithful, this informative book is itself a prayerful voice and an important contribution toward strengthening lay participation in the church," commended Edward P. Hahnenberg in his review of the book for the National Catholic Reporter.

The 2006 title Rescue Men takes a look at Kenney's own family, firefighters for three generations, in what Boston Globe reviewer Chuck Leddy described as "a profoundly moving, multi dimensional story." The Kenney firefighter legacy begins with Charles "Pops" Kenney, Kenney's grandfather, who joined the Boston Fire Department in 1932 and was forced to retire in 1942 after being injured in the infamous Cocoanut Grove nightclub fire in downtown Boston. Pop's son, Sonny, also went on to become a firefighter, and like his father was also injured in the line of duty and forced to retire. Later in life, he becomes obsessed with discovering the cause of the nightclub blaze that injured his father and killed almost five hundred people in less than fifteen minutes. Kenney also delves into the lives of his six brothers, who planned to follow in the footsteps of their father and grandfather and work as firefighters for the Boston fire department until city desegregation regulations changed their plans. "Enriching Kenney's saga is that he tells it against the backdrop of social change," observed Steve Goddard in his review for History Wire. The Kenney family story "snakes through World War II, the civil rights movement, school integration and, finally, 9/11 itself," added Goddard. Since Kenney never experienced what it was like to serve as a firefighter, he relies on "documentary-style narrative techniques that maintain an air of authority but mitigate the pathos of the personal" to tell the stories of his firefighting brethren, noted a reviewer for Publishers Weekly. The reviewer also acknowledged that the descriptions of firefighting were "well handled and moving." "Rescue Men brims with breathtaking heroism, but its power comes from the quiet moments between crises, as men struggle to make sense of loss and love, devotion and suffering," concluded Leddy.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

BOOKS

Kenney, Charles, John F. Kennedy: The Presidential Portfolio: History as Told Through the Collection of the John F. Kennedy Library and Museum, Public Affairs (New York, NY), 2000.

PERIODICALS

Booklist, March 1, 1995, Denise Perry Donavin, review of Hammurabi's Code, p. 1182; December 1, 1998, Wes Lukowsky, review of The Son of John Devlin, p. 653; October 15, 2000, MaryCarroll, review of John F. Kennedy: The Presidential Portfolio: History as Told Through the Collection of the John F. Kennedy Library and Museum, p. 387; April 15, 2001, Connie Fletcher, review of The Last Man, p. 1534.

Boston Globe, March 27, 2007, Chuck Leddy, review of Rescue Men.

Kirkus Reviews, September 15, 2006, review of Rescue Men, p. 940.

Library Journal, December, 1998, A.J. Anderson, review of The Son of John Devlin, p. 156; November 15, 2000, Karl Helicher, review of John F. Kennedy, p. 80; February 15, 2007, David Alperstein, review of Rescue Men, p. 132.

National Catholic Reporter, October 8, 2004, Edward P. Hahnenberg, review of Keep the Faith, Change the Church: The Battle by Catholics for the Soul of Their Church, p. 8.

New York Times Book Review, May 1, 1988, Fox Butterfield, review of Dukakis: An American Odyssey, p. 12.

Publishers Weekly, January 27, 1992, review of Riding the Runaway Horse: The Rise and Decline of Wang Laboratories, p. 85; January 30, 1995, review of Hammurabi's Code, p. 84; November 9, 1998, review of The Son of John Devlin, p. 58; May 21, 2001, review of The Last Man, p. 78; October 16, 2006, review of Rescue Men, p. 43.