Thursday, April 14, 2016

Lives Fractured by the Hit-and-Run Death of a Child

A mother walks her five-year-old son home from school. It's raining and he's eager for his snack. She raises her hand to push the wet hair out of her eyes. He drops her hand, runs into the street, and is struck by a car. The driver doesn't stop leaving the mother huddled over the body of her son.

Detective Ray Stevens gets the case. His young assistant, Kate, is pulled into the case, and it becomes an obsession to find the hit-and run-driver. Working intensely on the case, Ray and Kate become close, perhaps closer than they should. Ray loves his wife, but the stresses of growing children and long hours are taking their toll on the closeness they used to have.

The first half of the book is primarily about the investigation and the frustration of being unable to solve the case. In the second half, the story shifts to the characters affected by the tragedy and how they cope. It's quite a twist. In one way, I like it, but in another it felt a little too much like slight of hand.

This is a well done psychological thriller. The author gets us into the heads of the good characters and the bad and draws you into their world. I also enjoyed the police procedural narrative in the early part of the book. It's not easy to pull together a police procedural with a serious psychological mystery, but the author did an good job.

I recommend this book. It will draw you in and force you to look at loss and abuse in a very personal way.

I received this book from Net Galley for this review.


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