Comes out Tuesday....
Innocence Road by Laura
Griffin takes readers to far Southwest Texas in the Big Bend region and the
small town of Madrone in Chisos County. This read reminded me a lot of the Josie
Gray Mystery series by Tricia Fields. Innocence Road is
also a very good police procedural in its own right.
Leanne Everhart was saved from cleaning out
her old garage when she is sent to a location to meet Officer Will Akers. He
had been in a local Texaco getting a cup of coffee while on patrol when a woman
came into the place and told the young officer with six weeks on the job that
she had found a body. Patty Paulson is a member of the Desert Angels. A group
that puts jugs of water in the desert to try and save lives.
Everhart goes over to the nearby area of
train tracks where they cross a bone-dry small culvert and verifies that there
most definitely is a body in the culvert under the short railroad bridge. The
body has been there awhile. Buzzards are overhead and it is obvious that
animals and other things in nature have been at work doing what they do with
the dead. But, no animal smashed in the right side of the young dead woman’s
head hard enough to cave it in with shards of bone sticking up through her hair.
After spending eight years in Dallas,
Everhart is back home where she grew up. In some ways that is a good thing. In
other ways it is not, as she is again reminded that in the small town of Madrone,
everybody knows everybody. They also know all your business and have an opinion
on that as well as an opinion on everyone in your family going back decades.
It is January, tourist season, and news
of the discovery spreads like a wildfire. Not only are there plenty of tourists
in town, there are also plenty of reporters. Reporters that want to know what
she thinks and knows about the release of Sean Moroarty from Huntsville Prison
where he had been serving a life sentence without parole.
That was until new evidence came out
that his confession was coerced. Jim McBride, the current Chief of Police, was
the senior detective on the murder case of 18-year-old Hannah Rawls. Her dad
was also on the case. Both men were in the room when he confessed. Suspicion of
wrongdoing is landing primarily on her dad who is no longer among the living
and therefore can’t defend himself.
As part of her dad’s legacy in law enforcement
in the area, she is feeling a lot of pressure over what may or may not have
happened. The idea that her dad would do such a thing is unthinkable, though
her mom does not seem to share that same opinion. That family legacy and
division is just one piece of the secondary storyline involving the release of
Sean Moriarty. A release that has huge repercussions for several characters in
the read.
That case also affects the here and now
as Chief McBride wants to write off the dead woman beneath the railroad tracks
as just another dead migrant in the desert. Resources and funds are scarce and
he does not want to waste them on a dead migrant in the desert as that sort of
thing happens all the time. It is a way of life and just how things are. He
wants the bare minimum done and to close the books on the case as soon as
possible. As she investigates, and deals with his constant questioning of her
abilities, she becomes increasingly convinced that there is actually a serial
killer at work in the area. One that has been active going back many years.
What follows is a complicated police
procedural with a cast of interesting characters. Rich in setting details,
depth of characters both primary and secondary, and a complicated primary and
secondary storylines, the resulting Innocence Road by Laura
Griffin, becomes a highly entertaining police procedural read. One hopes it is
the start of a series.
Strongly Recommended.
Amazon Associate Purchase Link: https://amzn.to/4hHr0kc
My digital ARC was provided by the
publisher, Berkley, through NetGalley, with no expectation of a positive
review.
Kevin R. Tipple ©2025
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