The
Second Savior
An
LAPD Mystery
Mark
Bouton
Five
Star (Hardcover)
ISBN-10: 1-59414-766-3 (1594147663)
ISBN-13: 978-1-59414-766-1 (9781594147661)
Publication Date: July 2009
List Price: $25.95
Synopsis (from
the publisher): Homicide detectives Rick Dover and Falcon seek to stem
the flow of drugs in South-Central and stop a bloody war between Crips
and Bloods. In approaching Kinks, a Crip kingpin, they get caught in a
drive-by shooting by rival Bloods. A workman bulldogs Dover, saving
him, but catching three slugs in the back. Kinks is only wounded, but
his girlfriend is killed. The persistent Bloods later kill a police
guard and Kinks in the hospital. Meanwhile, the workman, Jake Carroll,
has miraculously skipped out of the ICU and his apartment.
Now Dover and Falcon must solve multiple murders, threats to other
witnesses, and find Jake Carroll, the main witness who seems strangely
elusive, a man with no past and no ties in the present. They eventually
find him, but must protect him until trial. The top Blood, Stagger,
eliminates weak members of his group, then seeks to kill other
witnesses. In a dramatic confrontation, flying lead strikes both saints
and sinners, and Carroll manages to slip away again under mystical
circumstances.
Review:
Mark Bouton's second LAPD mystery to feature detectives Rick Dover and
his partner Falcon, The Second Savior,
combines disparate, and seemingly incompatible, elements of
inspirational and crime fiction in a single remarkable novel.
Dover and Falcon have decided to confront a Crip leader known as Kinks
in an effort to scale back the gang violence in the community. As they
walk up to him exiting a liquor store, the area is suddenly sprayed
with bullets from a passing car. Kinks is badly hurt, his girlfriend
dead. Falcon isn't hurt and Dover escapes serious injury when a
carpenter working on the building's facade elbows him aside, taking
three slugs himself. The detectives think members of a rival gang, the
Bloods, are responsible and will try again once they learn Kinks isn't
dead. And try they do, this time successfully, but in the process also
killing the cop guarding Kinks in the hospital. Falcon and Dover need
eyewitnesses to help put the killers away but the most important one,
the carpenter at the scene of the shooting, one Jake Carroll, is
missing, having left the hospital of his own accord soon after surgery
to remove two of the bullets that hit him, the third being too risky to
remove as it was lodged near his spine. Dover and Falcon believe they
can put the killers away for good, but their case would be a lot
stronger with the testimony of Jake Carroll.
The
Second Savior is a most
unusual police procedural. The characters are particularly well
developed, from the two detectives Dover and Falcon, who couldn't be
more different yet work together seamlessly as a team, to Stagger, the
leader of the Bloods faction responsible for the shootings, a 'banger
with short term goals but no long term objective. But little is known
about the enigmatic Jake Carroll (though take note of his initials and
his profession). Jake risks his own life to save Dover's, then
disappears after making what seems to be a miraculous recovery after
being severely injured. Though the story is replete with symbolism, it
doesn't weigh down the brisk pacing, with Dover and Falcon methodically
and relentlessly buttoning down their case against Stagger.
Dover and Falcon are also working on a second murder investigation,
which seems an unnecessary diversion from the primary plot, but it does
allow them to show off other facets of their considerable skills as
detectives.
A slight disappointment is the ending, which is a little too mystical
for a book that is otherwise set in rock solid reality. Still, The Second Savior
is an impressive, in many ways quite singular, novel that will appeal
to a wide cross-section of mystery readers. (For readers who may be
concerned about the language used in the book: the cops and gangs
frequently use street language, which at times can be course. But it
rarely seems inappropriate or offensive, nor is it used to excess.)
Special thanks to Mark Bouton for providing an ARC of The Second Savior for this review.
Review Copyright © 2009 — Hidden Staircase Mystery Books — All Rights Reserved
Have you read The Second Savior? How would you rate it?
Mysteries in this series ...
Cracks
in the Rainbow
Five Star (Hardcover), August 2005
ISBN-10: 1-59414-349-8 (1594143498)
ISBN-13: 978-1-59414-349-6 (9781594143496)
The Second Savior
Five Star (Hardcover), July 2009
ISBN-10: 1-59414-766-3 (1594147663)
ISBN-13: 978-1-59414-766-1 (9781594147661)
Omnimystery
keywords for The Second Savior
...
Location(s) referenced: Los Angeles, California.
