A Reason to Live by Matthew Iden

A Reason to Live by Matthew Iden is the first in a series of crime fiction novels featuring Marty Singer, retired DC homicide detective.  Marty didn’t want to retire.  He loved his job and it consumed his life for 30 years leaving him in his early 50’s without a wife or children or even a hobby to look forward to enjoying.  Marty has cancer and his treatment promises to sap his physicality… make him a lesser cop.  Marty can’t tolerate that so he retires planning to deal with the consequences of starting a new life if he survives the cancer.

Before his first chemo treatment, Marty is approached by a George Washington University graduate student, Amanda Lane.  Twelve years earlier when Amanda was a child, her mother was murdered by a rouge DC cop, Michael Wheeler.  Marty worked the case but Wheeler was acquitted through some apparent behind the scenes political influence.  Marty blamed himself for his role in allowing the murderer to walk. Now years later, Amanda is being stalked… she thinks by her mother’s killer.  She’s scared and doesn’t know where to turn for help so she calls Singer.  He seizes the opportunity for redemption… a reason to live.

But Marty is no longer a cop.  He doesn’t have access to the MPDC resources needed to protect Amanda let alone find the killer.  He calls on his former partner, Kransky who is still in the police department.  He engages Wheeler’s former attorney who unknown to Singer craves her own chance at redemption.  Meanwhile, Marty begins his chemo treatments and is seriously hampered from his new found quest.  So this trio of part time crusaders stumble through a scarcity of stale clues hoping to right a wrong and prevent further tragedy.

I’m excited about this new found author, Matthew Iden.  First, I like his writing.  When he describes a place it jumps out at you and makes you feel like you are there… you know exactly what he means and can picture it in your mind.  Second, I like this character, Marty Singer.  The guy has his own self-imposed sense of justice like Lee Child’s Jack Reacher or Robert B. Parker’s Spenser but with a vulnerability that makes him more human.  Third, Iden is self-published.  I read where he gives away more copies of his books than he sells… makes me feel like I stumbled onto something.  The quality of his writing is as good as any of the more prolific authors I normally read.  I have two more Marty Singer books loaded on my Kindle and hear a fourth is in the works.  It’s what we live for at MRB.