Title: Shooters and Chasers
Author: Lenny Kleinfeld
Genre: Mystery Category: Police procedural
ISBN-10: 1594147396 ISBN-13:978-1594147395
Reviewed bt Beth Crowley for MurderByType.wordpress.com and Amazon
Publisher's rating: 5 stars
Reviewer's rating:5 stars
SHOOTERS & CHASERS has everything one would want in a thriller. The shooters are (sort of) identified right at the beginning. The chasers, Chicago Homicide detectives Mark Bergman and John Dunegan, enter the scene soon after. The shooters are sociopaths and the chasers are the kind of characters that I want to meet again. I do hope there is another book on the way.
The book opens in August, 2002 with Meelo Garcia prowling restlessly in a motel room. He can't leave because Oscar told him he can't.
In the second chapter, Naguib Darwahab, a Chicago cabbie originally from Cairo, picks up famed architect Wilson Willets. As Willets is walking toward his house, he is killed by a mugger. Darwahab risks his life by scratching the mugger down his left arm but the murderer runs off and there is nothing that can be done to help Willets.
From that point the books takes off, introducing a cast of characters that is large but who are so distinct that the reader has no problem keeping everyone straight. The plot moves from street crime to the very richest of the rich in Los Angeles and a contest sponsored by the Los Angeles Fine Arts Museum. Along the way there are other murders, a mysterious Englishman, assassins, a public defender who suggests that the murder has elements of the Kennedy assassination, and two police forces, Chicago and Los Angeles, that are not made to look crooked or inept. And...the book is funny. Kleinfeld writes wonderful dialogue even when the dialogue is interior. I don't know how many times I had to stop reading, laugh, catch my breath, and start the process all over again before I could continue reading.
This is a book that will appeal to just about anyone who likes mysteries and thrillers. This is an author who deserves a wide readership. SHOOTER & CHASERS is a wonderful way to spend a day.
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