Back on Murder

By Melissa Willis

GENRE: MURDER/CRIME DRAMA
PUBLISHER: BETHANY HOUSE
PUBLICATION DATE: JULY 2010

Roland March hated being farmed out for special assignments and labeled as the suicide cop.  Only a few years earlier, he was one of Houston’s top murder detectives, but due to a personal crisis and poor choices, his career plummeted.  However, when he discovered a body had been removed from the scene of a gang shoot out, a fact several detectives had missed, he gets the break he has been waiting for and finds himself once again working a murder case.  Meanwhile, a seventeen year old girl appears to have been kidnapped the same day as the shooting.  Can the two cases possibly be connected?  If so, how could a seemingly upstanding girl find herself entangled in a drug/gang related shooting?  March soon finds himself between the two cases, trying to solve the murder before being reassigned to a less glamorous task.  As he investigates, he quickly discovers more questions than answers including some unexpected implications against co-workers.

This is one of those books that had a great plot, but a shaky leading character.  Sometimes the rogue cops works and sometimes it doesn’t.  In this case, the rogue cop was annoying and I found myself struggling to have any true sympathy for him or pulling for him specifically to solve the crime.  That said though, I liked how his renegade antics tended to cause him more problems than solutions and in a way though his character was not one I could really like, I found it worked quite well as an object lesson in patience and how not to treat people.

Even though March’s character wasn’t outstanding, the story line was.  This was a combination murder mystery/CSI/crime drama.  It was a good mix that I enjoyed.  The mystery was very strong and the discovery of information was well paced.  Just when it seemed like the investigation was running out of angels new ones popped up.  It was hard to figure things out in advance because the hints provided usually came shortly before the revelation.  Additionally there wasn’t just a single mystery, but rather three major crime stories with several related minor crime elements.  Bertrand did a nice job of integrating these multiple stories and I thoroughly enjoyed this part of the story.

An equally good job was done of weaving the spiritual aspects into this book.  I particularly enjoyed his inclusion of the youth minister and his ‘radical’ ideas.  The conflict between what is safe and what is right was nicely presented as well as enacted.  It’s a tough balance and I love how Bertrand included this two edged sword.  Not only do we get to see it carried out, we get to better understand the risks as well as the rewards.

Back on Murder is the first book in the Roland March Murder series and while it has a mostly complete conclusion, there are some loose ends that will no doubt be tied up or extended in subsequent books.  Perhaps the following books will also give the reader some more positive glances into March’s character and make him a more likable character.  Regardless, this book is a very enjoyable, complex mystery that combines some of the best elements from classic murder mysteries and more modern crime dramas.

Review title provided courtesy of Bethany House Publishers