Review by Booklist Review
Tully Jarsdel walked away from an academic career to join the LAPD. Anyone who's ever been the most educated person in the room will recognize what Tully's going through. Colleagues call him Prof not a compliment and greet his display of knowledge with another derogatory moniker: Encyclopedia. And yet, it's Tully's arcane knowledge that turns out to offer the little key that opens the big door when the cops are confronted with the cruelest murder in their experience and probably in all crime fiction: the victim was cooked to death. It took two hours. Tully has, by chance, read of such a horror in a biography of Sicilian tyrant Phalaris. Thus is launched an entertaining, if esoteric, police procedural, salted with enough violence to keep things from getting too lofty. Since it's L.A., a screenplay by a filmmaker wannabe brings everything home. The novel is a bit long, and conversations about balance in the universe could embarrass a freshmen bull session. As compensation, Schneider offers a wacky subplot: someone is poisoning dogs on their owners' wedding day.--Don Crinklaw Copyright 2020 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
LAPD rookie detective and former history PhD candidate Marcus Tullius Jarsdel, the hero of Schneider's uneven first novel, is called to Thailand Plaza, a restaurant-market complex, where a burned corpse is curiously posed in front of a pagoda. One clue is a 1996 quarter painted red and glued to the hand of the victim, later identified as Grant Wolin. Aided by his veteran, wise-cracking partner, Detective Morales, Jarsdel learns that Wolin worked several odd jobs in Hollywood and had few friends but apparently no enemies. A subplot, which involves the pursuit of a serial dog killer, serves mainly to introduce Aleena Andreotti, an inquisitive and irritating love interest for Jarsdel. Though readers will be intrigued by the atypical detective (he's half Iranian and was raised by two professor fathers who disapprove of his career change), the book is filled with unrelated philosophical tangents. The parts of the plot that involve real detective work lead to an utterly terrifying conclusion. Hopefully, any sequel will have fewer detours. Agent: Eve Attermann, WME. (Feb.)
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Review by Library Journal Review
DEBUT Det. Tully Jarsdel joined the LAPD instead of staying on the PhD path. His partner, Oscar Morales, and his lieutenant aren't fans of the new program to advance high-scoring rookies into the homicide division in Hollywood. Yet, Tully's history background proves invaluable when he and Morales catch the case of the corpse that was burned to death in some sort of oven, and dumped in Thailand Plaza. With no identification, and a fried corpse, it takes a great deal of time for the DNA to come back. After the initial footwork, Jarsdel and Morales's work on the cold case of the "Dog Catcher," an ongoing case in which dogs are poisoned on the owners' wedding day. The graphic details of the murders and crimes are in stark contrast to Tully's philosophical musings about his role in changing the world for good as a police officer. VERDICT The solid debut police procedural is an homage to Hollywood and its history, with descriptive details of corners of Hollywood, classic films, and even traffic jams. The atmospheric mystery introduces a fascinating new detective who will appeal to fans of Michael Connelly's Harry Bosch.--Lesa Holstine, Evansville Vanderburgh P.L., IN
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Review by Kirkus Book Review
Hollywood detectives catch the strange case of a brutally burned body. Detective Tully Jarsdel is a former academic, leading his partner, Morales, to call him Professor. When he fights his way through multiple news crews to reach a corpse one day, it's unlike any he's ever seen. The body is twisted, partially ravaged, and burned so badly it's unrecognizable. Jarsdel and Morales intensely question Dustin Sparks, the horror-movie special-effects expert who found the body. He eventually admits that he saw the body being dumped from a van, but his addiction to OxyContin makes him a compromised witness. While waiting for DNA results, Jarsdel and Morales watch missing persons reports closely. An odd red disk glued to the victim's palm turns out to be a 1996 quarter painted red: the case's first clue, albeit a murky one. DNA connects the victim to grizzled convict Lawrence Wolin, who identifies the man as his brother. The pieces of Grant Wolin's life come together via interviews prompted by a search of his dirty apartment. He sold jars of "genuine Hollywood dirt" on the street, smoked marijuana occasionally, and was apparently asexual. A dinner scene at the home of Jarsdel's scholarly parents provides insight into his psyche and his sense of isolation. Though he fits in with neither the gritty world of police work nor the ivory tower of academia, he has a passion for justice.Schneider's debut enlivens the police procedural with offbeat characters and an appealingly complex hero. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
