The Darkest Game: A Novel by Joseph
Schneider is the third book in this police procedural series that features LAPD Detective Tully Jarsdel. A former
academic who left his PhD program as he was working on his dissertation in
order to join the LAPD, he is an enigma to his police coworkers as well as his
parents who fled Iran long ago. This read builds on the previous books so it is
best to have read them before embarking on this read.
Things have been relatively calm by Los
Angeles standards, so Detective Jarsdel has been working cold cases. There are
plenty of them for the Hollywood Homicide Table, aka HH2, and Jarsdel likes the
emotional distance of old unsolved cases. It allows him to focus on the details
of each case. Focusing on the work also allows him to ignore how some at the
Hollywood station still treat him after all this time.
The cold cases and other matters are
going to have to wait as they have a fresh murder up in Laurel Canyon. The body
has been dead in the house for three days or so. The air conditioning has been
on so that helps a little bit. The fact that most of his face is gone, thanks
to being shot, does not help with the identification process. Not only is part
of the face mostly gone, so too are the bullet casings.
The initial officers responding to the
scene thought it was a home invasion gone wrong. That does not work for
Morales, Jarsdel’s partner, as he can’t figure out why a home invasion robber
would go to the trouble of picking up the casings out of the shag carpeting.
While his wallet seems to be gone, it is kind of weird that the cushions have
been yanked free and tossed randomly around on the floor. There was a lot of
anomalies at the crime scene and the detectives are not sure exactly what they
are looking at.
After figuring out who he was, they learn that he worked at a place named the
Harrington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens. They head there in the
June heat and learn that Mr. Dean Burken was officially the “Donor Engagement
Director.” A difficult man to get along with, he was in charge of securing
large donations-financial or physical objects.
It becomes clear that the victim, in
addition to be a difficult person to work with, also used his position as a
weapon against others who did not bow to his wishes. This was especially true
with the female staff and researchers. He was skilled at working things so that
his actions appeared innocent, but the reality of what he was doing goes far
deeper.
That means the suspect pool is quite
large. It also means that somebody had good reason to kill him in this very
complicated book.
Like the other books in this series, the
read is part police procedural and part history and culture book. Those segments,
whether it be art, Iranian history, or something else, are skillfully worked
into the police procedural as Jarsdel and Morales work the case.
This is a good series and the latest, The
Darkest Game: A Novel Joseph Schneider is a very good one. Strongly recommended.
The previous books in the series are One
Day You’ll Burn and What
Waits For You.
Kevin R. Tipple ©2023
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