****** - Verified Buyer
4.5
This has got to be the grittiest novel with a female protagonist I have ever read.First, a warning to those unfamiliar with this series of four books. The language is raw and realistic. The violence is graphic, as it usually is in this type of fiction. There is one sex scene and it is not tame either.I was attracted to this book by a few things. The main character is a woman. She is a railroad K-9 cop. I am familiar with K-9 officers and their partners but the railroad aspect is new to me. There was also a mention of hobos, another subject about which I am curious.Although this novel may have disappointed some, I found it very entertaining. One, I am not a veteran, so my military knowledge is limited. Two, the gun issues occur so far into the story and during such an exciting passage that I pretty much ignored them.Sidney Rose Parnell and her partner Clyde are an intriguing team. I love their realistic, intuitive relationship that most times requires only body language and facial expressions to communicate. They were a team in Iraq and, luckily, they remain one in this series, since both left military service eighteen months prior to this story.Sidney's life, both civilian and military, has more than its share of tragedy. She has PTSD, takes medication and is trying to find stability and peace. The events in this novel, including murder, kidnapping, skinheads, etc. provide neither. A woman trying to aid the hobos is brutally murdered and her boyfriend, another Iraq veteran and hobo, is blamed. This murder, and the information gleaned from investigating it, gradually ties Sidney into the case and how it relates to her time in Mortuary Affairs overseas. Her current railroad job and past time in the Middle East make her the nexus for what appear to be unrelated events. I will leave specifics of the story alone at this point.One element of this novel gave me pause but ultimately I approve of the way it was handled. Sidney, much like Haley Joel Osment, sees dead people from her past, long or recent. In this novel they appear to her, moving or not, gesticulating or not, but they appear. Sometimes they appear regularly, depending on the deceased. Unlike in Six Feet Under, they do not talk to her. And, thankfully, this device, while effective, is not overused to the point of absurdity. I worried about that when I started reading.The other element that gave me pleasure was the fact that, because this is book one of a four-book series, the sub-plot, which gradually wriggles from its dark, sinister hole during this story, is by no means resolved at the novel's end. In fact it promises to become more apparent and integral to the rest of the series, as far as I can tell.Despite its flaws exposed by other reviewers, I found this thriller (?) to be quite entertaining. From the beginning the story takes off and quickly moves from event to event with almost no break in momentum. By the end you are waiting for the dust to settle. Enjoy.
