Dark Horse by Rory Flynn, a Mysterious Review.

Review: Boston narcotics detective Eddy Harkness together with Patrick Fitzgerald and Esther Viermenos make up the Narco-Intel group that investigates drugs coming into the city and its surrounding areas. The latest drug spreading into the area is an especially pure and deadly brand of heroin, known as Dark Horse. This drug, which has killed at least six people since its infiltration, had been found especially in the Lower South End Suburb but has moved from the dive bars there to the Harvard dorm rooms and on into the elite social clubs in city. Harkness also finds out that Boston's corrupt mayor is involved in the distribution of this lethal drug. Complicating matters is a late-summer hurricane that is heading their way, in Dark Horse, the second mystery in this series by Rory Flynn.

The city plans on opening a dam that holds back the waters of Boston Harbor to relieve the pressure on it, which will spill into the Lower South End where many lower-class citizens live. The mayor has ordered the airport and public transportation shut down, and instructed all person to shelter in place. Except for those in the Lower South End, which will be flooded. There would be extensive power outages leaving them with no gas, electricity or clean water. Those residents, using a little known law, are led to Nagog — Eddy's hometown — where they can legally enter any building that is vacant and unlocked. This included people's empty garages. They could live there until their power outages were restored and their already run-down homes repaired and livable again. Those who lived in Nagog were not happy about these people moving into their town and taking over their tree-lined streets. The mayor, however, had secret plans for the Lower South End and was in no hurry to rebuild the area. When Harkness pushed for restoration of the area, the mayor said he would see to it that Harkness would lose his job as well as close down as well as the Narco-Intel group. Did the mayor's plans have anything to do with the introduction of the Dark Horse heroin? If so, what was the connection? Harkness and the Narco-Intel group have their hands full trying to keep people alive from both devastations. Daring people can make a lot of money from either catastrophe — more so from both. But there is a devious conspiracy going on in the mayor's office limiting Harkness's investigation from finding the origin of Dark Horse and eliminating it before more young people die and finding the reason a portion of the city is not being restored after the hurricane. Lives are being lost. Will Harkness lose his life, too?

Dark Horse is an intriguing and suspenseful mystery. Hurricanes approaching a city putting lives in danger may seem like a cliché, but it really works here as a backdrop to the story. So, too, does Harkness's frustration in trying to do his job, kept from protecting the very people he is supposed to be serving by roadblocks put up by a powerful mayor. Overall, a solid, strong entry in this promising series.

Special thanks to guest reviewer Betty of The Betz Review for contributing her review of Dark Horse.

Acknowledgment: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt provided an ARC of Dark Horse for this review.

Third Rail
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (Hardcover), June 2014
ISBN-13: 9780544226272; ISBN-10: 0544226275

Dark Horse

An Eddie Harkness Mystery by Rory Flynn