Without warning

Review by Booklist Review

Descriptions of Rosenfelt's latest stand-alone: Spooky. Creepy. Edgy. Chilling. Shuddery. What more could anyone want? The author of the Andy Carpenter series offers an offbeat premise. A snoozy Maine town fills a time capsule with predictions and instructions to open it in 50 years. After only five years, though, the capsule is broken by a flood, and folks get a premature look at the predictions. They're a shock. Some forecast vile things that have happened; others predict they're going to happen. Then they start happening, ahead of schedule, and they all obliquely involve police chief Jake Robbins. The novel steps into Michael Connelly ground as Robbins learns that the savage murders he's investigating are about him. The cop and the reader struggle together to figure out why. So effective is this approach that it's almost disappointing when the air of mystery evaporates as the plot becomes clear. The novel is a tad too long, and Rosenfelt's most engaging quality a sense of humor in the face of growing menace sometimes feels a bit inappropriate. Still, this is highly recommended for readers craving that elusive something different. --Crinklaw, Don Copyright 2014 Booklist

From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.

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Review by Publisher's Weekly Review

Rosenfelt's latest hapless hero, Jake Robbins, is the police chief of Wilton, Maine, a job that becomes considerably more difficult after a powerful hurricane and flood unearth the town's 50-year time capsule about 46 years prematurely. It was put in the ground several months before Jake's wife, Jenny, was murdered. Inside, Jake finds are skeletal remains and a set of predictions about future crimes that accurately describes Jenny's death along with several other murders. Narrator Steitzer, who has recorded several of Rosenfelt's recent novels, uses a strong, resonant voice for the stalwart Jake. The police chief narrates much of the book, starting out casually and naturally, but becoming more emotional as the mysterious killer tightens the frame. Steitzer takes an appropriately more detached approach to the objective chapters. The men who work for Jake speak in different shades of gruff. The unsympathetic mayor sounds like the boisterous phony the author describes. Reporter Matt Higgins is aggressively ambitious. The result is a entertaining whodunit. A Minotaur hardcover. (Apr.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

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Review by Kirkus Book Review

A methodical serial killer is on the loose in a small Maine town, and it's up to the police chief to resolve the case before more people die in Rosenfelt's latest police thriller. Jake Robbins is a war hero, but it's a role he neither likes nor covets. While in Afghanistan, he was involved in an incident that won him the Navy Cross, but though he saved lives that day, others were lost, and it's something he has a hard time reconciling. When he returned to Wilton, where he grew up, he worked his way up to chief of police, but life there has its own price: His wife, Jenny, was murdered by Roger, the publisher of the local paper, with whom she was having an affair. Roger was murdered in prison, leaving his wife, Katie, to assume control of the paper. After Wilton suffers damage from a devastating hurricane, Katie decides to dig up the town's time capsule, something that's buried every 50 years, to make sure it's not damaged; when workers open the hole, they find the skeletonized body of a man who apparently died about the same time the capsule ceremony took place. Even more disturbing is the fact that the capsule, which in addition to artifacts holds predictions written by local dignitaries, now contains an extra box of predictionseach of which addresses a murder. Some of those murderslike Jenny'shave already taken place, but others have not, and Jake must resolve the mystery before more people are killed. Rosenfelt's staccato writing style is clean if a bit abrupt. While the action moves along at a rapid pace, he fails to flesh out the characters, making the ensuing romance between Jake and Katie seem both forced and predictable. A romance camouflaged as a thriller but a short, smooth read most will enjoy.]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

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The dam broke at three AM, four hours after the storm hit. Fortunately, only the North Dam was affected, leaving the other two intact. Had they been breached as well, the eighteen thousand residents of Wilton, Maine, would be former residents of a town that no longer existed. The destruction came as a surprise to everyone, especially the engineers that had certified the dams as "low risk" just eighteen months before. Certainly Hurricane Nicholas was a powerful storm, especially for early August, but no more so than others that had struck the area in recent years. But the dam completely came apart from the pressure and flooded the areas in Wilton it had sworn to protect. Because it was the least important dam of the three, this meant that three streets on the outskirts of Wilton were flooded and badly damaged, as was the park and the small, private airport. The only citizen to lose his life was seventy-three-year-old Warren Simpson, who suffered a heart attack during the chaotic evacuation process. He was flown to Bangor Hospital, but was pronounced dead on arrival. The people of Wilton were resilient and had no doubt they would bounce back from the storm damage. It would cost money and take time, but the town whose charter had been ratified in eighteen forty-eight made plans to persevere and overcome. Of course, they had no idea what was coming. I have a lot of anniversaries. I try not to pay attention to them, but sometimes it's hard. Dates are everywhere, from the TV when you switch channels, to the front of cell phones. March thirty-first is my birthday. January fourteenth is the day that Jenny and I were married. September seventeenth is the day I joined the force. April first is the day I was promoted and officially became Chief Jake Robbins. My real name is Jason Robbins, but how Jason became Jake is a puzzle my parents never adequately explained. August seventh is the day Jenny was murdered; I try not to change channels or look at my cell phone that day. Of course, there are some anniversaries whose actual date I don't even know. For instance, I have no idea when I got to Afghanistan, or when I left. I don't have a clue when our old friend Katie Sanford introduced us to Roger Hagel, the guy she would eventually marry. Nor do I know the date that Jenny and I first went out with them, although I do remember that the four of us went bowling and then to dinner. While I know the date Roger murdered Jenny, and even know that it happened at 3:00 PM, I don't know the date he was convicted, nor the date a few months later when he was murdered in prison. I know that I learned of their affair on June nineteenth, but I don't know exactly when it began. I was tempted to leave Wilton after Jenny died, but I never took any action toward that end. I had the job I always wanted, more good friends than I could ever need, and was living in a town that I liked a great deal. For a person who never had much of an interest in putting down roots, I somehow found myself rooted. All I didn't have was Jenny, but no matter where I went, she would never be with me. Roger Hagel saw to that. Pretty much everything in Wilton reminds me of Jenny, but that's okay. I want to remember her, the good times and the bad. Especially the good. So I stayed, and life went on. Copyright © 2014 by Tara Productions, Inc. Excerpted from Without Warning by David Rosenfelt All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.

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