From the massive archive….
When Marquitta
“Skeet” Bannion left family and her job as a Kansas City Homicide Detective for
being the Chief of Police Chouteau University, she thought she would be able to
leave all the bad stuff behind and make a fresh start. It hasn’t worked out that
way as pulls back to Kansas City keep making their presence felt. She was sure
that, at least, she would be able to leave violent death and murder behind. The
fact that the editor-in-chief of the campus newspaper, Andrew McAffe, is very
much dead according to rookie Police Officer Dave Parker proves her wrong. Who
killed him by bashing his head in and why he or she did it will be her focus of
her investigation.
Figuring it out
will be much easier said than done. The
victim, who had recently been in a fight with his news editor, was certainly no
saint. Not only was the victim accused of various thefts and at least one sexual
assault, he had his fingers in a lot of areas. As Police Chief Bannion digs
into the case no secret is safe and the list of suspects grows. So too does her frustration with those who
are much more concerned about politics and alumnae fundraising than finding a
murderer. A murderer that clearly isn’t
about to stop.
For some reason
there is a blurb on this book comparing this novel to the works of Nevada Barr
and Sara Paretsky. One can only conclude that comparison is made because the
lead character in all cases is a female fighting, among other things, male
disrespect. While being compared to New York Times bestselling authors is nice,
that comparison does not address the actual storyline, type of characters
involved, settings, and other elements of the book that have nothing in common
with the aforementioned writers.
The novel does
remind one of the excellent Sheriff Rhodes series written by Bill Crider. Both
feature small police departments led by non-political bosses who are
straightforward, make pains to point out to suspects that all secrets
eventually come out, and understand that behind the public façade a far
different person often exists. Rhodes and Bannion ask lots of questions, expect
dishonesty from those often trying to hide other things that have no relation
to the actual case, and both use stress reliving tactics while thinking about
the case. Sheriff Rhodes sits out on the back porch and plays with his dogs
while ruminating on the case. Police Chief Bannion puts music on, picks up her
knitting needles, and goes to work while ruminating on the case.
“Winner of the
Malice Domestic First Traditional Mystery Novel Competition” Every Last Secret
is a strong debut novel featuring an interesting main character as well as
numerous interesting secondary characters. The characters involved are multi
dimension and complicated, like people in real life, and it does not take long
at all for these characters to become very real in the reader’s mind. The
action moves forward at a steady pace while gradually the character’s back
stories come into pay adding depth and nuance to the work. Just under 300 pages
the read is over way too soon leaving the reader wanting more.
Every Last
Secret
Linda Rodriquez
http://lindarodriquezwrites.blogspot.com
Thomas Dunne
Books (Minotaur Books)
http://www.thomasdunnebooks.com
April 2012
ISBN: 978-1-250-00545-8
Hardback (also
available as e-book)
289 Pages
Material supplied by the good folks of the Plano Texas Library System.
Kevin R. Tipple
©2012, 2021
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