Protector
A Jane Perry Mystery
Laurel Dewey
ATN Group Publishing (Trade Paperback)
ISBN-10: 1-884820-85-9 (1884820859)
ISBN-13: 978-1-884820-85-4 (9781884820854)
Publication Date: February 2007
List Price: $19.95
Synopsis (from
the publisher): Denver homicide detective Jane Perry, a hard-drinking,
street savvy investigator, possesses an almost psychic instinct for
solving the most jarring homicides. But now, that intuitive insight has
taken on an eerie twist. Ever since the murder of a family Jane and her
partner were protecting, she has been plagued with disconnected images
that predict events yet to happen.
One of Jane’s disturbing visions leads to nine-year-old Emily
Lawrence, a child thought to have witnessed the brutal stabbing death
of her parents but unable to remember anything about that horrific
moment. The two characters fatefully come together, unaware that they
share a mystical connection.
Review: Laurel Dewey's debut mystery novel, Protector, is an exciting, intriguing, and sometimes frightening thriller.
Chris Crawley and Jane Perry, partners in the Denver Police Department,
are hardened, leathery, obscene talking detectives who have worked
together for years. Off duty Jane drinks entirely too much whiskey and
is a chain smoker. Their current case is an unsolved murder of a
protected informant facing trial, plus his wife and ten-year-old
daughter. The clues for discovering who the culprits are in this case
just do not fit together. Before they can even begin to nail down a
suspect, another seemingly innocent husband and wife are killed. Their
nine and one half-year-old daughter, Emily, hid in an upstairs closet
under blankets surviving the attack. Dewey steers the reader through
the trauma and heartbreak of Emily’s experience. Even before Jane
and Emily know each other they appear to have a psychic connection.
Jane, who at the age of ten began having an extremely unhappy and
troublesome childhood, can understand Emily’s dilemma. Emily is
then placed in Jane’s protective custody. It is a fascinating
story to see how Jane and Emily realize there is a connection and how
they act upon it.
Though the mystery in Protector
is about the investigation of the gruesome murders of five people who
appear to be innocent victims and the intense search for the criminals
responsible, the heart of the novel concerns Jane and Emily. The young
girl is a witness to one of the crimes, but this tableau is locked deep
in her subconscious. Jane is ordered by her superiors to take Emily to
a safe-house away from Denver where she is to care for her, watch her,
and above all try to help her remember what happened the night her
parents were killed.
Jane, a single woman, is hardly the motherly type. Her home looks like
a disaster hit it. Empty beer bottles, whiskey bottles, overloaded
ashtrays, empty pizza boxes, and more fill every open space. She
can’t cook so orders in pizza, buys frozen entrees to microwave,
and burns toast. In contrast, Emily grew up with a mother who would put
Martha Stewart to shame. This contrast is just one of the situations in
which Jane and Emily have to face when they move to a safe house in a
small town in Colorado. They have to change their names so Jane becomes
Anne, mother to Emily now Patty. Jane trusts no one in this small city,
not even the sheriff, but Emily embraces folks as old friends. What
happens in the weeks following their arrival was sometime humorous,
sometimes childish, and sometimes downright scary. Somewhere along the
way, Jane’s and Emily’s minds miraculously began to
connect. They were able to understand each other without words or
signs. Because of the connection, Emily was able to recall the night
her parents were killed and she could finally identify the killer. In
an awesome scene at the town’s water tower, Jane truly became
Emily’s protector.
Dewey has included other important and worthwhile characters in the
story, but in the end it is the relationship between Jane and Emily
that makes Protector a great novel and a fabulous mystery.
Special thanks to guest reviewer Betty of The Betz Review for contributing her review of Protector and to Maryglenn McCombs Book Publicity for providing a copy of the book for this review.
Review Copyright © 2007 — Hidden Staircase Mystery Books — All Rights Reserved.
Omnimystery keywords for Protector ...
Location(s) referenced: Denver.
