Burnt out after years of working violent cases in East Harlem, Detective Neil Jericho transfers to peaceful East Hampton. But after the mysterious disappearance of a wealthy real estate developer, Jericho is caught in a web of intrigue and lies centering around Susannah Cascadden, the missing man’s beautiful wife.
Is Susannah a calculating black widow or an innocent victim? Jericho better find … better find out fast or the Hamptons just might be the death of him.
“A fast-paced mystery with plenty of action and colorful characters.” – Kirkus Review.
more
Death Hampton, Introducing Detective Jenrico, Book 1 in The Detective Jericho Series, is the second book in the series that I gave read. The first book in the series that I read was Book 2, The Battle of Jericho. Death Hampton, Introducing Detective Jenrico was an exciting read, the promising beginning for a new detective series. The opening scene, where a stocking masked man appears to have broken into a woman’s home and is about to rape her in her own bed, grabs the reader’s attention. We soon discover that the rapist is the woman’s husband playing one of his twisted sex games with her. But what appeared to be a rape wasn’t all that far from the reality of what was to come.
The husband is demented and hires a professional killer, a man called “Mort”, to kill his wife and make it look like an accident. Susanna, his wife, over hears this when her husband leaves his phone on during their negotiations. She turns the tables on him. This book has hired killers, blackmailers and shady lawyers. It’s a real page turner and keeps the reader turning the pages until the very end. All the characters are well developed and so like real people that the temporary suspension of disbelief is natural. The story so realistic that it could have been taken from yesterday’s headlines.
On the whole, this story does come to a satisfying conclusion, but the author does leave us hanging on a few points. What happened with the developing love relationship between Jericho and Susanna? Did the shrink give him a clean bill of health so he could return to active duty? There were a few technical errors as well, like calling a semiautomatic pistol an automatic pistol. That one jumped out at me and hit me in the face because I’m a gun person. Taking all those things into consideration, this is still a book I would/will read again.
I really enjoyed this twisted story! I thought the author did a good job of pulling the strings together of the side stories to bring them in to the main storyline. Can’t wait to read the next book!
Author Walter Marks has created some great characters in this book for us to learn about. First, and most important, is Detective Neil Jericho, a cop with a past, a five-year-old daughter, and an ex-wife. He moved to the Hamptons to be closer to his daughter and to get away from the stress of police work in the big city. His ex has remarried and his daughter wants to know if it’s okay to call her step-father Daddy. Daughter Katie plays a small but endearing part in this book, probably the most lovable character in it. Then we have Katie’s dance teacher. We learn quite a lot about the dance teacher, not all of it good. The finale of the book builds up to a big climax, one that I liked and I think you will too.
Jericho is a great detective. Picks thru all the clues to find the truth. A very interesting read