Relentless by Shawn Wilson

The blooming cherry blossoms in DC are a prime tourist draw. Now DC doesn't have the best reputation when it comes to crime and the last thing that DC suits want is a body floating in the Tidal Basin; that body of water at the Jefferson Memorial that is surrounded by the cherry blossom trees. Brian (Brick) Kavanagh is a 10yr veteran of DC homicide. He and his less-than-a-year-Detective Ron Hayes draw the case. The young female victim appears to be Hispanic, but that's about all. Not much to go on. 

Brick (an old nickname for his red hair to go with his Irish heritage) lives in a NW DC studio condo and frequents local haunts for meals and drink. Especially Boland's, a local Irish pub. A recent immigrant from Guatemala works the kitchen. Good kid. Works hard. Trying to find his way in the USA. He fails to show for a couple shifts so Brick and one of the bar owners go to Jose's apartment only to find him beaten to death. The death is called in and the crime scene unit arrives. Brick sticks around even though it's not his case. In looking the crime scene over, Brick notices a photo on the fridge and is stunned to see that Jose is pictured with his Tidal Basin victim. She was Jose's sister. 

The investigation plods along slowly for various reasons. Brick's boss wants to made a splash with his superiors and orders up a task force of Metro DC police, ICE, FBI, and anyone else that'll improve his own visibility. No one is really happy about that, but what do you do? Within a couple days, ICE rounds up a guy named Garcia who actually confesses to the murders during his arraignment.

A bunch of subplots creep in, like Ron's wife is expecting twins, the other owner of Boland's wants to accompany the bodies back to Guatemala, Brick and the detectives assigned to Jose's murder don't play well together, not to mention the various lawyers that inhabit places like the DC court system, federal attorneys, and the public defender assigned to Garcia.

This is a pretty standard police procedural. While it's routine, I found it to be well written and realistic to what I imagine such investigations to be. Turns out that this is the debut novel of Shawn Wilson, just released in December 2019. She spent a career working in various areas of federal law enforcement in DC so her local geography is spot on. I wouldn't say that this is a top shelf debut, but I kind of liked it and if she continues with a series about Brick Kavanagh, I'd be interested. Solid if unspectacular. I sure wasn't sorry for the time invested to read this one. Give it a chance. You just might like this.

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An Act of God by Stephen Francis

 

Early 1950s in DC. Eisenhower has been elected President and the world continues to recover from World War II. Daniel Miller was a Brit operative in the war and has relocated to DC and his wartime rep continues to follow him.

Near the end of the war, the Allies and the Russians were competing to pull German scientists to their side. One of the many opportunities that were available to the victors. The US set up the Vatican-interceded 'Operation Paperclip' that successfully placed about 1500 such scientists and their families in the US (and yeah, Operation Paperclip was a successful venture by what would become the CIA). Those who came were scattered across the US and as they settled, some were returning to work in their chosen fields. Despite the end of the war, there remained a considerable number of patriots in Europe and South America who looked forward to a new Reich.

As expected, some weren’t all that happy and considered those relocated to be traitors to the Fatherland. Former Nazis, and some Russians who weren’t as successful at getting what they thought was their fair share of Germany’s former brainpower, have culled together a small network. If Germany or Russia can’t have them, then certainly neither can the US. A plan is put in place and one by one, former German scientists are dying. Some deaths appear natural, but many are downright executions.

Given the sensitive nature of the victims, the FBI has to investigate quietly and out of the eyes of the press. Rather than pile a ton of resources into a manhunt, they contact Daniel Miller and his handler to work as ‘consultants’ and report back with their findings. Miller figures out that his presence allows the FBI some level of deniability as well as being expendable if he fails.

As the death toll mounts, Miller’s guesses and assumptions begin to find enough traction that the bad guys turn their sights on him.

An entertaining post WWII mystery for folks who like that era of history. I had a pre-release copy of the ebook from NetGalley. The version I read had a number of editorial issues (the didn’t really detract from the story) that I would assume would be correct by the time the print version becomes available.

East Coast Don

The Body in the Snow by Nick Louth

Tomorrow (Monday) CSI trainee Kristy Mockett is set to begin her first day on the job. She’s just finished her training and is eager to get to work for the Surrey Police. Today (Sunday) she goes out for a jog in the crisp winter morning air. Light snowfall last night.

She is dang near run over by a cyclist but continues on. Near the end of her path through the park she comes across an older Indian woman who has been assaulted and fatally beaten. Her initial shock is pushed deep as her training kicks in. She calls it in and sets out to isolate and preserve the crime scene.

DCI Craig Gillard gets the case. After studying the crime scene, he has to make the family notification. Turns out, the victim, Tanvi Roy, was the matriarch of a highly successful business that imported Indian spices and foods to her UK-based grocery stores. Even expanded into TV cooking shows. Yeah, the Roy family is doing pretty dang good.

As in most murder investigations, DCI Gillard starts with the family as well as anyone that would stand to gain from Mrs. Roy’s death. In this case, he didn’t have to look much past the toxic interrelationships within the family. Most everyone has a reason to see her dead. Some financial, some personal, some cultural.

This isn’t an action-based novel by any stretch. A little Agatha Christie-ish? Maybe. Having just seen the 2019 movie Knives Out, the similarities are apparent (death of the family scion to a very troubled family). Anyway, it’s probably a more realistic example of a police procedural than all those car chase-shoot-em-ups so common these days. Louth’s DCI Gillard is a believable and sympathetic detective who deals with suspects, colleagues, and his bosses much the way you might expect you would, if you were in Gillard’s shoes. This is the 4^th DCI Gillard story by Louth (they are all titled as "The Body In The . . . ") and I suspect the series would be easily entered and completed in short order.

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The Museum of Desire by Jonathan Kellerman

In Kellerman’s thirty fifth murder mystery, LAPD Lieutenant Milo Sturgis and his talented sidekick, psychologist Dr. Alex Delaware are dealt a bizarre and gruesome multiple murder case.  Four bodies are discovered in a limousine parked at an uninhabited Bel Air mansion.  The scene appears almost theatrical or staged as the four victims seem to have little in common.  The chauffeur, a middle aged mentally challenged man, a homeless woman, and a playboy, all murdered by different methods and leaving an inordinate amount of blood.  The duo is challenged to identify the victims let alone discover a possible motive.  But as more bodies related to this crime begin to fall, the imagination of Dr. Delaware and tenacity of Lt. Sturgis narrows in on a probable suspect.

This is Kellerman at his best--stage a bizarre crime with disturbing perpetrators looming in the background.  Delaware finds clues and draws conclusions seen only by him while Sturgis, who has learned not to dismiss even to most bizarre of the good doctor’s hunches, charges forward… great entertainment.  We learn little about the lead characters because after thirty five novels, we know them well.

Thanks to Netgalley for an advance copy of the book.

Light It Up by Nick Petrie

Peter Ash, once a highly competent Marine Lt in Afghanistan, is trying to adjust to life back in the States. He’d seen, and done, plenty he’d like to forget, but his PTSD-induced severe claustrophobia limits his options. He was doing trail maintenance work up in Oregon with a bunch of college aged tree huggers and Henry, a crusty Vietnam-era vet. A couple months of sleeping in a hammock and writing weekly letters to about the only woman who kind of understands him, June Cassidy,  a foul-mouthed Portland-based investigative reporter who worked her way through school as an exotic dancer.

Henry is from Denver and when the trail thing came to an end, he invited Peter to come to Colorado for a few weeks to help with his daughter’s security company. Sounds OK. And it’s outside, so even better.

Private security is a growth industry in Colorado. Federal banking rules have forced the burgeoning cannabis industry to be a cash-only business. So there are a lot of security companies opening up to protect the movement of all that cash.

Today’s assignment requires four guards. They are taking a bucket load of cash up into the mountains where a grower is stashing his profits. The shipment is stopped way up in the mountains by an ambulance, a tow truck, and what appears to be a state trooper. The robbery is a highly organized and professional hit. A simple snatch-and-grab turns into a blood bath as 3 of the guards are killed (including Henry) and Peter manages to take out 4 of the 5 bad guys using all manner of skills perfected in the ‘Stan.

Detectives from the Denver and Colorado police join up to question Peter. But Henry’s death weighs heavy on Peter and he decided to not let the cops handle everything. With the help of Lewis, a long-time friend from Milwaukee, Miranda (local lawyer hired by Lewis), and June’s online investigative skills, Peter narrows down the who and the why of the attack (which carry a high degree of probability of being real-life situations).

It’s this combination of people with skills that sets this story apart from other loner against the bad guys books. Peter, Lewis, June, and Miranda are characters you want to hear more from (although I think Miranda will be specific to these events). The book cover blurbs are glowing in the comparisons to Jack Reacher and with good reason. Both are ex-military. Both are loners. Both wander the country helping people in need. Both have lethal skills. But there are differences, too. Reacher was mustered out of the Army during a reduction in force. Ash was discharged and carries a couple huge pieced of baggage that weigh on is conscious leaving him an emotionally wounded warrior. Reacher is cock sure of himself. Ash? Not so much. Reacher lives by his own code of right and wrong that mostly ignores the law. Ash's crumpled psyche makes getting by a daily challenge and much of his reaction to stress is an attempt to keep manage his PTSD. But make no mistake, If Reacher isn’t available, Peter Ash is a more than capable substitute.

This is the third of 5 Peter Ash books. I’ve already requested from the library the first (The Drifter) to get all the backstory. Here's what I found interesting. Petrie has undergrad and graduate degrees in creative writing. But his day job is running a home inspector in Milwaukee. Some of my favorite authors have a primary career and write as a side venture.

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No Truth Left To Tell

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In No Truth Left To Tell, the author Michael McAuliffe tells about a Klan hanging that happened 100 years ago in Lynwood, Louisiana. It’s an ugly and brutal scene of which he writes in 1920. A black man and his daughter, Netttie Wynn, nearly stumbled into the scene, but escaped from being detected or they too would surely have died. Jump forward to 1994 when Nettie was now an old woman. Over the years, the Klan had gotten smaller in membership, but it was still there. Frank Daniels, the current grand dragon, wanted to wake up the locals to start a new race war. He thought that by burning crosses in several well chosen sites, that he could achieve that. He chose the outside of a law office where lawyers worked who defended the rights of blacks, the courthouse, the local office of the NAACP, a “Jew bank,” and Lettie’s home which she inherited from her parents and where she continued to live by herself.

There was never any real doubt to those investigating this Federal hate crime about who was responsible. Where was the evidence in this tight-lipped community who would say nothing meaningful to outside investigators. It was a stunning surprise when Daniels confessed, was convicted, and went to jail. But, what would you do if you realized Daniels’ confession was tainted, that it was obtained illegally? Is it tolerable to do the right thing by putting away this scum of a man, but to have done it for the wrong reasons?

McAuliffe spins a fabulous story about racism and truth. There were good guys and bad, all of whom were believable characters. I was hooked on this one from the beginning, and you will too.