Synopsis

A noir mystery set in a fictional midwestern city. As a gang war erupts, a gangster and the detective who sent him to prison work together to stop a serial killer and bury the past.

Kane Kulpa learned which laws could be bent and which broken after a short stint in prison courtesy of Detective Vincent Bayonne. Bound by time, integrity, and the reality of life in Central City, Bayonne and Kane made peace with the past. Now, gang tension spirals from corrupt to deadly, and a series of murders stresses Kane and Bayonne’s uneasy alliance. Kane balances on a razor’s edge to protect his bar, power, life, and family, and Bayonne hustles to keep another lonely man from being strangled.

Central City is a city struggling for identity. The cops protect the rackets, and the criminals shelter the injured. Innocence is only an appearance, and rage finds a voice.

Amazon

Visit Central City Books to learn more about Central City and the characters.

Review

If you enjoy gritty noir mysteries, the mafia, turf wars and all that entails, then this will be right up your alley.

The book starts off with two young boys in the late 70s and their father in an altercation. The story jumps forward approximately 15 years and we meet a cast of characters that are intertwined in ways you may not even imagine. There are good and bad guys (and gals) and you might need a notecard to jot down who they are and how they know each other (or visit the Central City link above). We are drawn into the mystery of who is killing these men and why. Detective Vincent Bayonne is on the case with his new partner, Adam McKenna. Despite the fact that Adam is a new detective (and sometimes green around the gills), he plays an intricate role in this story.

Another key character is Kane Kulpa. Kane could be considered a CI for Bayonne but he isn’t without his own issues in this story. It took me a little bit to figure out how the various characters were tied to other characters. This is a good and bad thing because there is no shortage of characters, but there is a lot of backstories to wade through and get a good grasp on who each character is and the ultimate role they will play in this story.

There are some crazy twists near the end that really caught my attention and were not plot twists I expected. Perhaps I should have seen them coming, but alas I did not.

Noir mysteries are intriguing because while it is set in a slightly modern time, it feels historical. They don’t have cell phones or computers. The characters are in mafias or “gangs”. There are brothels. It feels very old school (think Rat Pack) to me but I like it!

We give this book 3 1/2 paws up.

About the Author

Indy Perro is a novelist, an independent thinker, and a recovering academic. Indy has a degree in history, graduate degrees in religious studies, comparative literature, and education, and has spent more than a decade teaching philosophy, religious studies, writing, and literature. He lives in northern Colorado, and when he’s not at his desk, he loves to hike, run, read, and study languages.

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