Centre stage in this thriller is Kat Donovan, New York detective, fortyish, single, and likes a drink. She is third generation NYPD, and it did not end well for the previous two. Grampa shot himself and dad was rubbed out by the mob. This latter still rankles. Though the perp is serving life, Kat never understood the motive nor the exact circumstances.
Three things happen. One, the perp is dying, and Kat extracts an inadmissible retraction of his confession, setting her off on an unofficial re-investigation of the shooting. Two, her friend Stacy reckons Kat needs to get laid so signs her up for a dating website, on which she stumbles over her long lost, long dumped, boyfriend, Jeff, and discovers her long-buried feelings remain an itch to be scratched. Her on-line approach is rebuffed but she’s a detective, right, so she’ll find him ‘IRL’. Three, a young lad called Brandon turns up at the station to report his mum as missing, gone off with a new boyfriend but now uncharacteristically unresponsive to his calls.
Quite a workload for Kat, but as we follow her high energy investigations it is no surprise to discover links between the threads. Particularly as her PoV narration is interrupted with disturbing scenes from a remote location where carefully selected rich folk (like Brandon’s mum) are held and tortured until they provide access to their financial assets.
The plot lines are skilfully drawn with a good scattering of reveals and surprises. The characters though are secondary, and only towards the end, as Kat makes some personal discoveries, are we drawn to her. But then we return to the action and an exciting climax.
It all makes for a
fair enough, page turning, thriller.
