Publication Day Review: Crime Writer by Vinnie Hanson

  

Any police officer will tell you there is no such thing as a routine traffic stop. Things can go bad in a second. That is exactly what happened to Officer Austin, and his ride along, Zoey Kozinski, in the new novel, Crime Writer by Vinnie Hansen.

 

Zoey is a writer and in the police car this September evening because she is working on her project. The novel is pretty much stalled and she is hoping that the ride along might provide some real-world inspirational details that will help get it going. Her agent certainly would like to see some progress too.

 

It is the night shift for those on the job in Playa Maria County in the central coast of California and the ride along isn’t doing much at all for her. Officer Austin isn’t sharing much with her at all despite her best efforts.

 

After several unremarkable situations, Officer Austin decides to pull over a random car. It takes a considerable distance for the driver to stop as the person seems oblivious to the lights and siren. Once it does stop, the officer approaches the vehicle. Within seconds he is dead on the roadway.

 

The shooter immediately speeds off and then, within a couple of minutes, as Zoey tries to comprehend what she saw and get help, comes back and passes the scene. There is no way the shooter did not see her as the car came by. That means the shooter knows she is a witness.

 

A witness that needs to be eliminated.

 

A witness that the police believe is actually the suspect.

 

A witness the devastated widow firmly believes needlessly distracted her husband and father of their children and thereby got him killed.

 

What follows is Zoey trying to come to grips with what she saw and the aftermath of the tragedy. At the same time, she has to deal with suspicious members of law enforcement who treat here as a suspect as well as killer who is trying to find her and silence her. Things are complicated in her life before the shooting. All that gets way worse afterwards and gets even more complicated before long.

 

Don’t forget Mom. She is sure she knows best on all things and Zoey isn’t having it.

 

Crime Writer by Vinnie Hansen is an entertaining fast moving read. It starts with a compelling idea about an officer killed during a ride along (a thankfully rare event) and builds out from there in a myriad of ways. Zoey is smart, funny, emotional, and a fiery redhead bundle of energy and contradictions.

 

It all makes Crime Writer by Vinnie Hansen a solidly good read.

 

Amazon Associate Purchase Link: https://amzn.to/4n6abkC 

 

 

My ARC digital reading copy came from the publisher, NetGalley where I was already preapproved and with no expectation of a review.

 

Kevin R. Tipple ©2025