Review by Booklist Review
Recommend this one to anyone who loves courtroom dramas where lawyers tear into witnesses like pit bulls. And to anyone hot for a police procedural where tired cops make mistakes but slowly, relentlessly and with morbid humor get the job done. Redmond delivers both in one package. Lauren Riley, a detective with the Buffalo, New York, Police Department, is greeted with an unusual request: a criminal defense attorney, so successful the cops award him the ultimate insult slick begs her to use her investigative skills to prove his client innocent. She agrees, to the chagrin of her colleagues, and as she works away she takes on a couple of cold cases. So much for the plot. The real attraction here is a keyhole view into a world that turns our expectations upside down a world where a bullying, quasi-fascist cop can be the only one with a handle on reality. Keep your eyes on Redmond, a retired cop who knows how to write.--Crinklaw, Don Copyright 2018 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Buffalo, N.Y., cold case detective Lauren Riley, the heroine of Redmond's promising first novel and series launch, is also a licensed PI. It's in that latter capacity that lawyer Frank Violanti, with whom Lauren has tangled in court, hires her. His 18-year-old godson, David Spencer, has been charged with the second-degree murder of Katherine Vine, a customer at the store where he worked. He claims she lured him into her car one night and was still alive when he left her after an hour of wild sex. Lauren is dismayed to learn that the lead detective in the case is her ex-fiancé, the abusive Joe Wheeler, who, after discovering she's working for Frank, punches her in the face. In contrast, Lauren's married ex-husband, Mark Hathaway, with whom she's having an affair, is glad to provide information about the victim and her husband, whom he knows socially. Redmond, a recently retired Buffalo PD homicide detective, keeps everything moving nicely in this well-constructed crime novel, marred only by the cartoonish Joe. (Feb.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Kirkus Book Review
A detective's complicated past catches up with her when she investigates a murder.Together with her partner, Shane Reese, Detective Lauren Riley of the Buffalo Police Department has a great record clearing cold cases. Now a hot one is about to change her life. Frank Violanti, a cocky lawyer who's been her enemy in many a court proceeding, begs her to use her PI license to investigate the murder of Katherine Vine, which took place outside of the Buffalo police jurisdiction. His godson, David Spencer, who admits to having had consensual sex with Katherine in her car, parked near the store where he works, shortly before she was strangled with her own scarf, has been arrested for the murder. Since Lauren's two daughters from her youthful first marriage are both in college, she has some time on her hands. Against her better judgment she takes the case, at least in part because the arresting officer is Joe Wheeler. During the short time she dated him after her first husband bailed, she realized that Wheeler was a bad cop who was physically abusive to her. Unchanged by time, he expresses his rage over her interference after the first court hearing by punching her in the face. Although Lauren divorced her second husband, Mark Hathaway, for cheating, their sexual chemistry flares up when they meet again despite Lauren's reservations. After Mark, who runs with the same crowd, tells Lauren that Katherine's wealthy, well-connected husband has been having an affair, she comes up with plenty of information casting doubt on the case against David but also learns a few unsettling facts about his past. Stalked by a furious Wheeler and harassed by the unhappy district attorney, Lauren has all she can do to keep her life together.The first in a planned series by Redmond, a retired police detective, is an excellent police procedural combined with a psychological thriller. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
