Anyone who knows me knows I am very much
into police procedurals. If life had gone just slightly different, I would have
been a cop. Dipping into the archive once again to remind you today of this
first book in a very good police procedural series…
Among the Shadows: A Detective Bryon
Mystery by Bruce Robert Coffin is the first
book in a police procedural series. Set in Portland, Maine, and the surrounding
area, it features Detective Sergeant John Bryon and his team of detectives.
Internal politics and rivalries play a role in this complicated police
procedural where former officers are dying a variety of ways.
Detective Sergeant John Byron is your classic
hard-working detective who drinks a lot, has a failing marriage, can’t get
along with the bosses, and has a slowly building attraction to his female
partner. He is also a very good detective and does not know how to back off in
his search for the truth.
He is called out in this far too warm September
morning to the house of Mr. James O’Halloran. At least he is missing the weekly
time wasting CompStat meeting that does nothing to suppress crime, but does
give the bosses an illusion that they are doing something and practicing
effective leadership while chewing out those under them. Mr. James O’Halloran
was under hospice care thanks to terminal bone and lung cancer, so his death is
not a surprise. However, as the body is examined in place in the home, it quickly
becomes clear that this was no suicide or natural caused death. Somebody
decided to speed up the process by forcefully applying a pillow over his face
and suffocating him. His current nurse is on the short list of possible
suspects, but nobody seems to be likely including her and she found the body.
Then a second retired former officer is also killed,
and Detective Sergeant John Bryon realizes that something far more sinister is
going on. Something that may also link back to his own father’s time on the job
decades ago and sudden death.
This is a classic police procedural that uses many
of the tropes familiar to readers and yet manages to twist them in ways that
create a highly entertaining read. Politics and rivalries serve as the backdrop
to an increasingly violent murder investigation that puts Bryon as well as many
members of his detective team at substantial risk. A solidly good read well
worth your time, Among the Shadows: A Detective Bryon Mystery by
Bruce Robert Coffin is recommended.
Amazon Associate Purchase Link: https://amzn.to/45MaHym
My reading copy came by way of the Skillman
Southwestern Branch of the Dallas Public Library System.
Kevin R. Tipple ©2020, 2025
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