1550. A Cold and Broken Hallelujah

A Cold and Broken Hallelujah is the third novel in a four novel series by Tyler Dilts about Long Beach Police Department homicide detective Danny Beckett and his partner, Jennifer Tanaka. Long Beach is the city in California near Los Angeles. I have written very favorable reviews about these detective murder mystery novels, and this third novel is no less interesting and exciting.

 This is a story about three gang youths who jointly throw large cups filled with gasoline on a homeless man, and then light him on fire. The kids are quickly caught, having failed to clear the area of the murder quickly enough. They were dumb enough to have a video of themselves both preparing for the murder and then actually doing the deed. One of the youths was connected to a gang lawyer, a successful guy who had actually done prison time himself for a triple homicide. While in prison, Benicio Guerra, know was “Benny War” was able to graduate from college, and once out of prison, the lawyer managed to put himself through UCLA law school with a 4.0 GPA. However, rather than lead a straight and clean life, Benny War figured out how to make crime pay the illegal way.

 

The primary plot was driven by the fact that the LBPD had no idea who the victim was. Beckett had no idea and his given street name, “Bishop” did not help them find out who he was, at least not easily. As Beckett was trying to find out Bishop’s real identity, the story took us in and around the Long Beach area, and into the local crime scene as well as the more typical Long Beach residential neighborhoods. Beckett is the guy who suffered from significant burns from an earlier on-the-job injury, and he struggled with his chronic pain and his feelings about the death of his wife who died in a traffic accident when her car caught fire. Detective Tanaka was a most interesting character who could be the primary protagonist  in other novels.