Sometimes we're pleasantly surprised with our extracted hidden treasures...("oh yeh, been meaning to read that one for years....").......and sometimes we hold the book in our hands as if it's a year old take-out carton of fried rice.....("what the hell......how did this get in here?")
This book's inclusion in the bag stumped us, cause as wide ranging and eclectic as the BQ's taste runs, we rarely pick up police procedurals........it's one of the thriller/mystery genres that frankly, we have little interest in.....
Before anyone gets upset, we don't begrudge any fellow reader who takes pleasure in those many stories where dogged, determined cops painstakingly interrogate suspects and dig up clues as they hunt down their quarry..........what can we say, those books just aren't our particular cup of blood......
But on the basis that there must have been some rational reason why we tossed "The 9th Girl" into the big goody bag.....(possibly because we'd never yet tried a Tami Hoag thriller).....we gave it a shot.....
And had a great time reading it. We'd say a solid triple, as far as these police things go......
Hoag puts everything in place that you'd want......a centerpiece murder that's suitably ghastly and grisly (of an angry, rebellious teen girl), a horrifying and as yet, unidentified serial killer.....and of course, the two dogged, determined detectives who painstakingly......well, you know the rest....
Yes we'll admit.....the interrogation scenes in books like this tend to bore us into a near coma, which is why we rarely stray into this genre. But Hoag's detective duo, Sam Kovac and Nikki Liska are well drawn characters who've got both crackling chemistry with one another and their own set of personal woes......(particularly Liska, whose troubled teen son becomes a major part of their murder case)
Structurally, it's clever enough.......the serial killer seems to show up late in the game, almost as an afterthought......and when the crime is fully uncovered, the details of it turn out far more disturbing and heartbreaking than you could ever imagine.
So bravo to author Hoag for providing us with a fair amount of chills and suspense for a couple of chilly Autumn nights. (But sorry, we're not going to resort to that standard line of Goodreads reviewers...."this is the first book I've read by..........and it won't be the last!!".......we truly can't say when we'll ever sample another Hoag book....police procedurals always remain low on our radar)
But if this type of mystery appeals to any of our site visitors......dive into this one by all means....3 & 1/2 stars (***1/2)......now pardon us while we dig further into the bag......holy crap, what the hell is this one?......(we'll get back to you on it as soon as we read it....)
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