Book description:
It started with a case so horrific it sent Chicago cop Marty Hogan straight over the edge. Unable to put her disturbing memories behind her, she lost her job and was forced to flee to small-town Texas, to the only police department that would hire her.
She’s about to learn you can’t outrun the past . . .
Police Chief Clay Settlemeyer knows something about making mistakes, which is why he was willing to give Marty a second chance. But when her ex-partner is brutally murdered, it’s clear that Marty’s past has come back to haunt her.
And she’s the next intended victim . . .
Have you ever read a book by an author that was so good that all subsequent books seem to pale in comparison? That’s how I’ve been with Linda Castillo ever since I read the masterpiece that was Depth Perception. It’s not that the books she released after that were bad (with the exception of A Whisper in the Dark). It’s actually my expectations that got higher. I really hate that. A book that I would normally be totally into, is just meh.
Since The Incident that ended her career on the Chicago Police Force, Marty Hogan has applied at nearly every law enforcement agency in the country. The only one willing to hire her was in Bum-F Texas. Unfortunately for Marty, beggars can’t be choosy. Pul-lease. All Marty did was bitch, bitch, bitch. I got it by Chapter 2.
-Marty didn’t like Texas. Check.
-Marty didn’t like Texas. Check.
-Marty didn’t like Texas. Check.
Six months earlier, Marty and her partner were on patrol and ended up seeing a man shoot a nine year old girl point blank. Marty went a little ballistic. Which is putting it politely. While the guy was in handcuffs, she beat his azz. Unfortunately (again) for Marty, some guy got it all on tape. Not only did Marty get fired from the Chicago PD, but she also got charged with assault. While acquitted of the assault charge, Marty was no longer welcome in Chicago and as she soon finds out, it’s not as easy to find a job as she’d hoped.
Clay Settlemeyer is the total cliched small-town Chief of Police. The only one willing to give Marty a second chance, he hires her as a deputy and hopes for the best. In no time at all he realizes that Marty has major baggage and he may have made a mistake. Recognizing PTSD for what it is, he tries to intervene and help Marty. Of course he’s helplessly attracted to her, though I never did see the draw. She’s an alcoholic. She has a major attitude problem. She has a problem w/ authority. She refuses to admit she needs help.
Marty’s past catches up to her soon enough. Remember the guy that she beat and went away to prison? Well his siblings are pissed and decide to hunt down every Officer involved in his assault and subsequent arrest. They start w/ Marty’s former partner. They lure him in and torture him, then kill him. Then then head to Texas to finish Marty off thus avenging their brother.
In between Marty getting shot at and grieving for her murdered partner, she falls for Clay. There is a problem with her doing her boss, but what the hell. Marty never claimed to do the right thing. There’s also the problem of Clay not believing her when she gets shot at. He thinks that it’s a result of the PSTD, she knows it was real. Round and round they go.
One thing that really got annoying was whenever Marty would get into an altercation w/ someone (anyone–Clay, one of the other Deputies, the freakin’ mailman), there would be a paragraph about “Six months ago Marty would have come back w/ a smart-ass comment” or “Before The Incident Marty would have come back w/ a dry remark that would have dissolved the tension.”. It just got really old b/c Marty got into a lot of altercations w/ a lot of different people.
The ending was probably the best part of the book. Castillo does a great job of getting the characters desperation across. She also writes really good villains.
3.5 out of 5.