A Familiar Crime-Thriller Plot Implemented with Some Gruesome Action

Righteous Assassin features a dinosaur of a police detective (Detective Mike Stoneman) who has seen it all. He’s partnered with a young, ambitious rookie. Over the course of the story, he develops a romantic interest in an intelligent, attractive woman. And of course, he has a brilliant, psychotic, serial killer to chase. Sound familiar? If you’re a reader of crime thrillers, these threads should be. And so, the question becomes, how effectively are they implemented by the specifics of this book? For the most part, I’m happy to say, quite well with one ‘it depends’ on the list. That last factor is the author’s use of violence to provide much of the tension. You only need look at the first three sentences of the book’s synopsis to know that rather bizarre deaths play an important role in the story. The descriptions of those assassinations are often explicit, which may make the violence over-the-top for some readers. Be forewarned.

There are many factors, however, where I don’t need to equivocate. The writing is excellent, with a good mix of believable dialog and descriptive storytelling. The main characters – Stoneman, Detective Jason Dickson (the partner), and Dr. Michelle McNeill (the love interest and Medical Examiner) – are well developed, although the times Dr. McNeill ‘giggled’ seemed a bit out of place. The pacing was excellent. As the killer planned his murders for the last Saturday of the month, there was always a countdown to make the detectives sweat and to keep our stomachs in a knot. And there was even some humor that I enjoyed, such as Dickson trying to help Stoneman with his budding relationship with McNeill. But other quips, particularly some of the stationhouse humor, seemed a bit juvenile and crass.

Of the factors that could have used attention, a lack of realism in police procedure would be the top of my list. For example, knowing the killer had planned three escape routes from one assassination site, the four detectives and two building security officers covered exactly one entrance … and then, let the door slam. Of course, the killer escaped. Or in another place, the detectives knew the killer had been in the Army and they had a sample of his blood and yet, they never checked the military’s DNA database. Many of the leads they pursued, on the other hand, seemed destined to failure from the start – like tracing a name that was surely an alias. And finally, some of their breakthroughs seemed a bit too convenient, the connection to the Plagues of Egypt being an example. Even so, these limitations didn’t outweigh a very dynamic, gut-wrenching story.

Overall, Righteous Assassin is a somewhat prototypical, crime thriller that sets itself apart with excellent writing, good character development, edge-of-your-seat pacing, and significant, sometimes explicit violence. With greater attention to police procedure, its appeal could have been increased even further. ( )