FFB Review: Within Plain Sight: A Detective Byron Mystery by Bruce Robert Coffin

Portland, Maine has gone from the season of ice and snow in the last novel, Beyond the Truth, to the season of heat and great humidity in Within Plain Sight: A Detective Byron Mystery. It is middle of July in 2017 as the read by Bruce Robert Coffin begins and it is just after 5 in the morning when Police Detective Sergeant John Byron arrives on scene. As the lead homicide detective, it will be up to him and his team to identify the murder victim, identify the killer, and arrest the person or persons who did it. Clearly she met with foul play and clearly that event happened some unspecified time earlier at another location. A quick overview of the scene indicates to Detective Sergeant Byron they have little to go on as forensics are going to have to provide some avenues of inquiry.

 

It would really help the case if they also had her head.

 

Unfortunately, they only have her body that was dumped in the weeds of a long since derelict lumberyard. Specifically, the weeds and dirt inside an open-air drying shed, one of several such sheds and other decaying structures, on the long since abandoned property. Though it is not completely abandoned as a roving security guard found the body inside the fenced lot and called it in to the 911 system. Whether it is the work of a serial killer known as the “Horseman” who has been active over in the Boston area, a copycat of some type, or something entirely else is going to take time to determine. Time they don’t have once the media gets wind of the case and events begin to escalate in dangerous ways.

 

The fourth book in the series that started with Among the Shadows continues to build on that initial police procedural. While these are billed as mysteries, they only are in the sense that the criminal or criminals are not known to the reader or the team. These books are police procedurals and each one builds on the preceding read. Characters develop and change, even die, in this series as things are not at all static. Politics and the personal lives of a number of characters are interspersed with the complex cases, flashes of humor, and plenty of action. Each read is an intense one that delves deep into police work and the complexities and personal consequences of doing the job. Such is the case again here in Within Plain Sight: A Detective Byron Mystery. This book and the entire series are strongly recommended.

 

 

Amazon Associate Purchase Link:  https://amzn.to/3VUsjCB

 

My reading copy was a print edition from the author with no expectation of a review.

 

 

Kevin R. Tipple ©2020, 2025

FFB Review: Beneath The Depths: A Detective Bryon Mystery by Bruce Robert Coffin

 

From the archives…

 

It is late April 2016 when Beneath The Depths: A Detective Bryon Mystery by Bruce Robert Coffin opens and attorney Paul Ramsey is soon dead. The prominent local attorney, just hours after losing a very high profile multi million dollar trial, has been fished out of Casco Bay after being found by a local lobsterman in the hours before dawn as he worked his traps. It is a cool morning in Portland, Maine, but the day will heat up fast in more ways than one.

 

Portland Police Detective Sergeant John Byron and his partner, Detective Diana Joyner, are first on the case. Sergeant Bryon has good cause not to care for the flamboyant attorney, but that no longer matters. With the man dead, he is a victim and deserves the full efforts of everyone on the case. It does not take long before it is clear that this was no accident and was, in fact, a murder. The suspect pool is massive and seems to grow larger by the hour.

 

 

Beneath The Depths: A Detective Bryon Mystery is the second book in the series that began so well in Among The Shadows. Numerous plotlines, several involving the personal lives of Bryon and members of his team, continue here and serve as background to the main plotline as noted above. This is a series that is not static. In this series, people age, situations and characters evolve, and time relentlessly moves forward. The foundation for the series was laid in the first book and here the building of what promises to be a complex and entertaining series continues.

 

Like Among The Shadows, this second book, Beneath The Depths: A Detective Bryon Mystery, is a very good and strongly recommended. If it is not clear already, this is a series that needs to be read in order to be fully appreciated and enjoyed.

 

Amazon Associates Purchase Link: https://amzn.to/3VcBq0V

 

 

I recently received a print copy of this book, as well as the next two, from the author with no expectation of a review.

 

Kevin R. Tipple ©2020, 2025

Friday's Forgotten Books: Among the Shadows: A Detective Bryon Mystery by Bruce Robert Coffin

 

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

Review: Within Plain Sight: A Detective Byron Mystery by Bruce Robert Coffin

Portland, Maine has gone from the season of ice and snow in the last novel, Beyond the Truth, to the season of heat and great humidity in Within Plain Sight: A Detective Byron Mystery. It is middle of July in 2017 as the read by Bruce Robert Coffin begins and it is just after 5 in the morning when Police Detective Sergeant John Byron arrives on scene. As the lead homicide detective, it will be up to him and his team to identify the murder victim, identify the killer, and arrest the person or persons who did it. Clearly she met with foul play and clearly that event happened some unspecified time earlier at another location. A quick overview of the scene indicates to Detective Sergeant Byron they have little to go on as forensics are going to have to provide some avenues of inquiry.

 

It would really help the case if they also had her head.

 

Unfortunately, they only have her body that was dumped in the weeds of a long since derelict lumberyard. Specifically, the weeds and dirt inside an open-air drying shed, one of several such sheds and other decaying structures, on the long since abandoned property. Though it is not completely abandoned as a roving security guard found the body inside the fenced lot and called it in to the 911 system. Whether it is the work of a serial killer known as the “Horseman” who has been active over in the Boston area, a copycat of some type, or something entirely else is going to take time to determine. Time they don’t have once the media gets wind of the case and events begin to escalate in dangerous ways.

 

The fourth book in the series that started with Among the Shadows continues to build on that initial police procedural. While these are billed as mysteries, they only are in the sense that the criminal or criminals are not known to the reader or the team. These books are police procedurals and each one builds on the preceding read. Characters develop and change, even die, in this series as things are not at all static. Politics and the personal lives of a number of characters are interspersed with the complex cases, flashes of humor, and plenty of action. Each read is an intense one that delves deep into police work and the complexities and personal consequences of doing the job. Such is the case again here in Within Plain Sight: A Detective Byron Mystery. This book and the entire series are strongly recommended.

 

The series and my reviews: 

Among the Shadows: A Detective Byron Mystery (April 2020)

Beneath the Depths: A Detective Byron Mystery (May 2020)

Beyond the Truth: A Detective Byron Mystery (December 2020)

Within Plain Sight: A Detective Byron Mystery (You Are Here)

 

 

Within Plain Sight: A Detective Byron Mystery

Bruce Robert Coffin

http://www.brucerobertcoffin.com/

Witness Impulse (HarperCollins Publishers)

http://www.witnessimpulse.com

February 2020

ISBN# 978-0-06-297134-0

Paperback (also available in eBook format)

432 Pages 

 

 

My reading copy was a print edition from the author with no expectation of a review. 

 

Kevin R. Tipple ©2020

Review: Beneath The Depths: A Detective Bryon Mystery by Bruce Robert Coffin

It is late April 2016 when Beneath The Depths: A Detective Bryon Mystery by Bruce Robert Coffin opens and attorney Paul Ramsey is soon dead. The  prominent local attorney, just hours after losing a very high profile multi million dollar trial, has been fished out of Casco Bay after being found by a local lobsterman in the hours before dawn as he worked his traps. It is a cool morning in Portland, Maine, but the day will heat up fast in more ways than one.

Portland Police Detective Sergeant John Byron and his partner, Detective Diana Joyner, are first on the case. Sergeant Bryon has good cause not to care for the flamboyant attorney, but that no longer matters. With the man dead, he is a victim and deserves the full efforts of everyone on the case. It does not take long before it is clear that this was no accident and was, in fact, a murder. The suspect pool is massive and seems to grow larger by the hour.

Beneath The Depths: A Detective Bryon Mystery is the second book in the series that began so well in Among The Shadows. Numerous plotlines, several involving the personal lives of Bryon and members of his team, continue here and serve as background to the main plotline as noted above. This is a series that is not static. In this series, people age, situations and characters evolve, and time relentlessly moves forward. The foundation for the series was laid in the first book and here the building of what promises to be a complex and entertaining series continues.

Like Among The Shadows, this second book, Beneath The Depths: A Detective Bryon Mystery is a very good and strongly recommended. If it is not clear already, this is a series that needs to be read in order to be fully appreciated and enjoyed.

I recently received a print copy of this book, as well as the next two, from the author with no expectation of a review.

Kevin R. Tipple ©2020

Review: Among the Shadows: A Detective Bryon Mystery by Bruce Robert Coffin

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. 

My reading copy came by way of the Skillman Southwestern Branch of the Dallas Public Library System. The second book in the series, Beneath the Depths, is now on my hold list. It is only available in print and the library system is closed tight until at least April 30^th if not way longer.

Kevin R. Tipple ©2020