NYPD RED 8
The 11:59 Bomber
By Marshall Karp
Black Stone Publishing
335 pgs
We always had a fondness for solid police procedural thrillers. One of our favorite writers of all time was the late Ed McBain, whose 87th Precinct novels entertained us for decades. Thus, it was with some anxious expectations that we picked up this book, hoping for the best. Happily, we were not disappointed in the slightest, as Karp delivers a solid, wonderfully paced tale with truly memorable characters, both good and bad.
The two principal detectives are Kylie McDonald and Zach Jordan. There are also two really well-defined plots. The primary concerns an obsessed bomber whose only wish is to bring the great city of New York to its knees, and he doesn’t care how many people he has to kill to achieve his goal. The secondary plot involves Kylie’s husband, Spence. He had been missing for many months, and upon his return attacks a popular new filmmaker, claiming the fellow stole his story. Later that same night, the director is murdered, and Spence is found standing over his body with a bloody knife in his hands. It seems an open-and-shut case, but Kylie refuses to accept the damning facts. She convinces both Zach and her captain that they should investigate further.
We are generally not fans of writers who switch from narrative viewpoints, ala going from third person to first back and forth. Most of the time, that ploy is applied crudely and results in our losing interest immediately. Not so with this particular book, and that’s due to Karp’s intuitive sense of solid storytelling regardless of the perspective. Once caught up in the tale, we found it impossible to put it down and in the end were rewarded with a truly powerful, well-told crime drama. We think McBain would have given it thumbs up. We certainly do.
