When all light fails

Randall Silvis, 1950-

Book - 2021

"There's not much that would convince retired police sergeant Ryan DeMarco to take on another private investigation case, but he can't refuse a nine-year-old girl begging for help finding her biological father. DeMarco and his partner, Jayme, get some good leads, but then tragedy strikes. The girl and her grandmother are found dead in their home, supposedly of carbon monoxide poisoning from a blocked furnace vent. But something feels fishy to DeMarco, and he keeps digging. What he finds is rampant corruption, from a local judge to the fire inspector. In When All Light Fails, the secrets DeMarco digs up are darker than anyone could have imagined"--

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Subjects
Genres
Mystery fiction
Detective and mystery fiction
Published
Naperville, Illinois : Poisoned Pen Press [2021]
Language
English
Main Author
Randall Silvis, 1950- (author)
Physical Description
452 pages ; 21 cm
ISBN
9781728223582
Contents unavailable.
Review by Booklist Review

In the fifth Ryan DeMarco novel, the retired cop really isn't interested in doing any more private-investigation work. But when a little girl asks him to help her find her daddy, well, what choice does he have? When disaster strikes, DeMarco will stop at nothing to find justice. Silvis has a way of jumping right into the story--the book begins with DeMarco narrowly escaping a potentially deadly situation--that pulls readers into the book. DeMarco, too, is an interesting character: not just your typical ex-cop-with-a-past, but rather a vividly realized, robust, and abundantly human character. Not exactly sunshine and birdsong to start with, the novel becomes increasingly dark as DeMarco digs deeper and deeper into the cause of a heartbreaking tragedy, and we wonder: what exactly is this man capable of? Silvis has published nearly 20 books since his debut in 1984, and he's been twice nominated for a Hammett Prize for crime fiction (one of the nominations was for the first DeMarco novel), but he isn't a household name. Perhaps this hard-edged, smartly plotted novel will raise his profile.

From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review

At the start of Silvis's elegiac if slightly overstuffed fifth and final outing for Pennsylvania PI Ryan DeMarco (after 2020's No Woods as Dark as These), DeMarco survives being shot in the chest during an ambush outside an abandoned mill where he's been lured by an old adversary, Daksh Khatri. Meanwhile, state police officer Daniella Flores, who has rushed to DeMarco's rescue, suffers a serious leg injury when the fleeing Khatri rams her car with his. While in the hospital, the former state police sergeant waxes philosophical as he reviews various cases he has worked over the years. Daniella, who's in the same hospital, and his devoted girlfriend, Jayme Matson, are much on his mind. After DeMarco recovers, a judge seeks his help determining the paternity of a child the judge thinks may be his. Jayme joins DeMarco on the long path to the bloody and tragic resolution. As usual, Silvis delivers crisp action sequences, but most memorable are DeMarco's long, ruminative digressions that sum up the career of a complicated, honorable man. Readers will be sorry to see the last of him. Agent: Sandy Lu, Book Wyrm Literary. (Aug.)

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Review by Kirkus Book Review

Lovers and former Pennsylvania State Troopers Ryan DeMarco and Jayme Matson work to establish the paternity of a child no one's much wanted until now, when she's wanted in all the wrong ways. The sudden, violent resolution of the cliffhanger ending of No Woods So Dark as These (2020) leaves DeMarco, Jayme, and State Trooper Daniella Flores licking the very different wounds they received in the encounter and Silvis in no hurry to present them with a new case. When a client does approach them to do some private investigation, his request seems almost timid. District Court Judge Emeritus J.D. Morrison has gotten a letter from 9-year-old Emmaline Barrie of Branch Township, Michigan, asking whether he's her father. Could DeMarco discreetly procure a DNA sample from Emma so that Morrison, who'd never heard of her before, can determine which of the three men who'd spent an eventful night with Jennifer Barrie 10 years ago is her father? DeMarco accepts the case, packs his RV, and heads with Jayme to Michigan, where they're both entranced by the girl, whose mother's rapid decline from suspected Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease has sent her to the hospital, where she's in a medically induced coma, and left her daughter in the custody of her irresponsible, alcoholic Grandma Loey. But because they're more and more troubled by the judge's demand that they keep their mission secret in order to avoid compromising the three candidates for fatherhood, DeMarco decides to cancel his agreement with Morrison and go to work pro bono to answer the same question on Emma's behalf. It's a bighearted decision with disastrous consequences. A soulful, deeply felt story less invested in the mystery at hand than in the mysteries of the universe. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.