Downfall is Mark Rubinstein’s latest novel, due out in 4/23. This book is a murder mystery and a thriller. It’s my opinion that Oceanside Publishing is developing a list of authors that are quite good at what they do, and this book has already been very favorably reviewed Michael Connelly, who is in my opinion the king of this genre.
Rick Shepherd is an internist in Brooklyn who followed his father, James Shepherd, into the world of medicine. The two doctors don’t have much contact with each other even though their practices are close to each other, and their practices are run quite differently. James Shepherd has an old time practice and still makes house calls. He is much more interested in delivering meaningful care than earning a dollar. Rick is part of a multi-practice specialty group, and the managing partner is all about making ever penny he can from the practice. Rick hates the way his practice is run, but he can’t see doing things his dad’s way. As the book begins, father and son have argued about that recently.
Rick is returning to his office building after lunch, but he can’t get into his building because the police have taped off the entrance. There had just been a murder, a shooting in the front of the building and a man Robert Harper was dead. It was later that same night that Rick and his girlfriend, Jackie, see the story on the news and are impressed by how much the pictures of Robert Harper looked like Rick, as if they were dopplegangers. They wonder if Rick was really the intended target. Only a couple days later, it is Rick’s dad, who is murdered in a very similar manner as he was going to make an evening housecall.
The police have no solid clues, and this leads to the introduction of detectives Art Nager and Liz Callaghan, both of whom are single and lonely, and they begin to develop a relationship. The story of the detectives added great depth to the novel. The author fills out the story with Rick’s sister Katie and his mother, as well as his Uncle Harry, the younger fraternal twin of James. Rubinstein develops the theme of sibling rivalry, using James and Harry, as well as Rick and Katie of examples of that. The ongoing unsolved nature of James murder becomes a significant stress on all parties, including the relationship between Rick and Jackie.
This is a very creative story, and it’s one I did not figure out until the author revealed the killer’s identity in the last pages of the novel. I understand why Connelly wrote so highly about this book and it gets my solid recommendation.
WCD
No comments:
Post a Comment