Maine Sunday Telegram #1 Bestseller * Winner of the Maine Literary Award for Best Crime Fiction * Winner of the Killer Nashville Silver Falchion for Best InvestigatorThe latest gripping installment of the award-winning, #1 bestselling Detective Byron mystery series: a grisly crime captivates Portland, sending John Byron and his team on a wild chase to catch the killer before it’s too late“These … catch the killer before it’s too late
“These books are absolutely superb, beautifully plotted. I can’t recommend them highly enough.” —Douglas Preston, #1 bestselling co-author of the Pendergast series
Amid the dog days of summer, Detective Sergeant John Byron is called to the scene of a horrific crime: a young woman’s body, dismembered and left in an abandoned Portland lumber yard. The killing shares striking similarities with a spate of murders committed in Boston by a serial killer known only as the Horseman.
As Byron’s team investigates the case, they quickly push up against powerful forces in town. But Byron will stop at nothing to find the truth, not when there is a killer on the loose and everyone is a suspect. Has the Horseman expanded his killing field? Is this the work of an ingenious copycat—or is nothing what it seems? One thing is certain: Byron must uncover the truth before the killer strikes again.
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Within Plain Sight is the fourth book in Bruce Robert Coffin’s John Byron series. It was more of the same great writing and I loved it. Detective John Byron is a well-respected member of the Portland, Main police force. Personally, Byron has some issues. His divorce for starters, a daughter driving him crazy, and a new Chief of Police. When the headless body of a young woman is discovered there are a number of witnesses, none of whom turn out to be reliable. Coffin’s writing style makes the story completely believable. I found this to be yet another wonderfully entertaining read in a great series.
WITHIN PLAIN SIGHT by Bruce Robert Coffin is the fourth book in the Detective Byron series. It’s the story of Detective Sergeant John Bryon and his team as they try to find the answers and the person behind the recently murdered and dismembered Jane Doe found at a local abandoned lumberyard.
Their jobs are complicated by evidence implicating a prominent socialite’s family, informational leaks that seem to be coming from the inside and personal problems from births, possible promotions and addictions.
Can Detective Sergeant Bryon and his team do justice to the victim and her family? Can Bryon keep the victim’s father from taking the law into his own hands? Has the Horseman moved to Portland and struck again or was this just a crafty murderer trying to throw them off track? Will the new Chief work with them or hamper their investigation? Will Diane’s possible promotion put a damper on her relationship with Bryon? Can they find out who is leaking information before any more pertinent information is given out to the press hindering their investigation? Will the murderer strike again or will they figure out this puzzle and ID the bad guy in time?
WITHIN PLAIN SIGHT is the well-crafted, attention to detail book that every police and/or murder mystery lover dreams of. The twists and turns of this novel keep you turning pages and scratching you head along with the detectives. About the time you think you have it figured out, there’s a new clue or another avenue to explore.
Love the way Bruce Robert Coffin uses his law experience to make this an accurate and detailed story making it an enjoyable and exciting read. After reading WITHIN PLAIN SIGHT, I will definitely be checking out other books by this author.
Although this is part of a series, I can attest to the fact that it can be read as a standalone since this is the first book in the series that I have read. Although I’m sure the characters have developed in the previous books, I was instantly able to figure out who was who and how they figured into the story making them feel like old friends from the start. As a slight disclaimer, I will say that there is a few instances of foul language that some might take some objection to. However, with the subject matter and the intense feelings of dealing with such, to me the language was not excessive and in fact made the situation very believable.
WITHIN PLAIN SIGHT by Bruce Robert Coffin is a fast-paced tale full of intrigue, witty dialogue, and great characters. With twenty-seven years of law enforcement experience behind him, Coffin writes with authority that will keep his readers coming back for more. If you’re looking to lose a night’s sleep, this is the book for you.
Detective Sergeant John Byron is back as the protagonist of the fourth Bruce Robert Coffin novel in the series, “Within Plain Sight”. As always, the attention to detail is excellent and the authenticity of the investigation is superb.
When Byron is called to the murder scene in a Portland lumberyard, he finds a young woman, headless. This complicates the determination of cause of death as well as well as is eerily similar to a serial killer in Boston known as the ‘The Horseman’.
The victim worked at a local restaurant and the investigation leads to the celebrity owners of that establishment. They are wealthy, glamourous, and local icons. But, are they involved in murder? Or is it the wealthy patron who pawed her right before she left for the night?
The star witness is a dumpster diver, the suspects celebrities, the police department tainted by personal ambitions, and yet Byron with his crack team of investigators must find justice for a poor young woman and her family.
Coffin weaves together a fascinating police procedural untangling a web of deception that leads to a twisting conclusion that leaves the reader breathless at the conclusion. I would heartily recommend “Within Plain Sight” by Bruce Robert Coffin.
A grisly murder. A Hollywood chef. His movie star mother. A disgruntled ex-boyfriend. Plenty of suspects but the clues are scant.
Detective Sergeant John Byron is doing his best to find justice for the murdered young woman and take a dangerous criminal of the street. In what little spare time he has, he parses to AA meetings, his girlfriend, and family. He’s a man who constantly endeavors to be a better person and not afraid to admit when he’s wrong. I like that about him.
This fourth Detective Byron mystery is a page turner. The story is fresh. The voice is authoritative. I like this cop. Can’t wait for the next installment.
Flawless prose, witty dialogue, startling twists. In Within Plain Sight, a cross-country hunt for a killer spirals dangerously out of control. Akin to what Michael Connelly does for L.A., Coffin fully immerses us in a gritty, realistic Portland, Maine. Authenticity seeps from every page, from the police work to the resonating emotions. Unforgettable.
Within Plain Sight fires on all cylinders: a page-turning plot, compelling characters, outstanding dialogue, and an immersive setting. As usual, Bruce Coffin delivers. In spades.
Bruce Robert Coffin’s latest Detective Byron mystery, WITHIN PLAIN SIGHT, sizzles and pops like thick-cut bacon tossed into a smokin’ hot skillet.
This fast-paced tale has it all — the gruesome murder of a young woman, her headless body found in a shuttered lumber yard; a star-power family with a famous actress for a matriarch; more plot twists and turns than an Olympic slalom course; treacherous police department politics and the internal angst of Detective Sergeant John Byron, newly sober and trying to live up to his 90-day AA coin in the middle of a triple-decker stress-sandwich case.
Byron is an old-school murder cop who doesn’t gladly suffer fools, particularly lazy colleagues and career-climbing superiors. He’s thorough and obsessive, willing to throw protocol and chain-of-command out the window and put himself in harm’s way in pursuit of his prey. But he’s also a natural-born leader who takes care of his team.
The author has you riding shotgun in Byron’s head as he and his team painstakingly pursue every lead in a case where the suspects pile up, including the famous actress and her two sons, a boozehound businessman who pawed the victim at the five-star restaurant run by the sons and an ex-boyfriend who smacked her around and refused to believe it when she broke off the relationship. There’s also the dead-bang match of a headless victim to the modus operandi of a Boston serial killer on the loose dubbed the Horseman.
Add a few gunsels and thugs, a homeless Desert Storm vet who finds the head in a garbage bag at the bottom of a Dumpster he’s using as overnight lodging and a dark family secret and you’ve got the recipe for a mystery that will keep you guessing until the final bullet-riddled revelation.
Coffin’s a master of pace, deftly switching between the step-by-step progress of the case, sudden action, back-stabbing colleagues and the backstory of Byron’s struggle with the bottle and his relationship with a black colleague named Diane. All of these elements are seamlessly dovetailed and keep you turning page after page.
Chalk up another Detective Byron winner for Bruce Robert Coffin.
The author provided an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
Jim Nesbitt is the author of three hard-boiled Texas crime thrillers that feature Dallas PI Ed Earl Burch, a cashiered homicide detective — THE BEST LOUSY CHOICE, THE RIGHT WRONG NUMBER and THE LAST SECOND CHANCE. His website is: https://jimnesbittbooks.com