Reason Read: I Don't Know why this appeared on my BookBingo Card. It's a mystery, crime, police procedural set in Minnesota by Minnesota author Allen Eskens. He is a new to me author.
This is the story of a homicide detective who is struggling four years after the violent death of his wife and a lawyer who is retired from practice, teaching at Hamline University after his own tragedy of not doing right by a young client. The story revolves around the death of a socialite wife of a lawyer and Rupert is one of the detectives on the case, and the lawyer requests the retired lawyer to represent him. The detective and the retired lawyer used to be friends. It is an interesting mystery with twists and turns as is to be expected. I really was frustrated with the detective. I can't say that I found him that likable. The lawyer was more likable. The court room drama was good; murder, betrayal, deception, perjury, injustice, conspiracies or sex. This book had murder, it had betrayal, deception, perjury, and sex. There were a number of possible bad guys. "A genre of dramatic fiction which focuses on law enforcement, crime, detective-based mystery-solving, lawyer work or civil litigation.” and it had all of this. ( )

Allen Eskens is an exceptional writer! I love how he writes a series with a main character, Max Rupert, and incorporates characters from his previous stories to have a central part in each new book. In this installment, Max is still trying to figure out who killed his wife while solving the murder of an attorney’s wife. Eskens knows how to create characters who are easily likeable and a story line that immediately sucks you in. ( )

Exceedingly gripping and quick read.

In some ways I view crime/suspense genre authors like a professional baseball pitcher. The 'wind up' sets the stage with characters, situations and of course, the inciting incident aka crime. In some cases it takes a while for the pitcher to grip the ball, or in this case, story in order that it flies towards the catcher correctly. Since a 'change up' pitch can shift speed, some authors tend to pace the story evenly and in some cases slow it down. Such is the case with this one which plods along nicely, slows then speeds up dramatically over the last 20 pages. Here Eskens not only changes the pitch, but throws in a last minute showstopper, which isn't unusual with best seller crime writing. I like what he did with this Max Rupert story, though in some ways I saw it coming. Regardless its well written, characters are shallow but interesting and the finale is worth waiting for. ( )

I was annoyed by the time jumps that had no indicator. I don't like "what???" moments that send me back a couple of pages to make sure that I was, indeed, in a different time. Glad I didn't buy it -- back to the library it goes, unfinished. ( )