Kevin Flynn prosecuted violent
crimes in Washington, DC, for the Department of Justice for more than
thirty-five years. Rock Creek (Kilimanjaro Press, 2024) is his second
book; it reflects his deep knowledge of the city, its history, and the people
who live there.
In 1952 Washington, DC, was
still a small sleepy Southern city. Still a year or so away from the explosive House
Un-American Activities Committee hearings chaired by Senator Joseph
McCarthy that wrecked the careers of so many, and three years before Rosa
Parks was arrested for failing to yield her bus seat to a white man, setting
off a firestorm that resulted in the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the city did not
call much attention to itself.
Emily Rose came to the city to
escape her past and start over with a brand-new name and life. She managed to
find a job in a Congressional office but unaccountably was murdered and her
body abandoned in the lush forested park along the banks of Rock Creek in
northwest Washington.
Shane Kinnock is a homicide
detective whose nights are haunted by his war experience and whose days are
complicated by colleagues whose professional standards are abysmal. Between the
police chief who is quick to close cases without examining them in any detail
and Capitol Hill personnel who feel Kinnock is getting too close to matters
better kept private, he is swimming upstream, so to speak, to identify Emily’s
killer. He is supported by a member of the Park Police who wants to do more
than ride his horse around the park all day but who sorely lacks training.
The somewhat rambling story
bears more than a passing similarity to the real-life murder of Congressional
intern Chandra Levy in 2001, which has never been closed. I expect Flynn was in
a position to hear all about the search to find the intern who was missing for
a year before her body was found in Rock Creek Park and then the ensuing
homicide investigation.
An
engaging read set in a time and place not common to historical crime fiction.
·
Publisher:
Kilimanjaro Press (May 14,
2024)
·
Language:
English
·
Hardcover:
348 pages
·
ISBN-10:
1662950179
·
ISBN-13:
978-1662950179
Amazon Associate Purchase Link: https://amzn.to/4iKz7vc
Aubrey Nye Hamilton ©2025
Aubrey Hamilton is a former librarian who works on Federal
It projects by day and reads mysteries at night.
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