Thanks to Susan Fleet for offering her book free to my group " A Good Thriller".
Also a great thanks Susan for doing our popular "Read a Long" for the month of May, what a great success, and what a great book.
Set in one of the most provocative cities in America, New Orleans, Susan has created a nasty killer of similar proportions. The Sinner stalks his victims with a relentless attention to detail that one begins to wonder if he’ll get away with his crimes.
In spite of his checkered past, Frank Renzi is a good cop. He’s hardworking, conscientious, dedicated, honorable–just the sort of person any city would want out on the streets hunting criminals. But this time Renzi may have met his match in the" sinner.” The serial killer is a Catholic priest, warped by a dark childhood of torture and humiliation at the hands of a cruel nanny, unable to resist a compulsion to inflict his inner pain on innocent women. The sinner commits a series of ritualistic murders he refers to as absolutions,” which always end with the post-mortem removal of his victim’s tongue. But he covers his tracks thoroughly, leaving the police with very few clues., a cunning and clever nasty serial killer.
That doesn’t stop Burke Norris, a rather nasty character, the overbearing and publicity-hungry FBI agent in charge of the investigation, from looking for an African-American suspect. The city’s seething divisions rise to the surface when reporter Rona Jefferson insists the search for a black suspect is racially motivated. For reasons of her own, she repeatedly and confrontationally uses her column to urge the police to look for a white priest, putting the Catholic community on edge. Into these treacherous waters steps Renzi, a dedicated cop with dark secrets in his past.
The book shows to me Susan Fleet's love of Noir Crime films, as I could see Frank Renzi, as the 1940's black and white crime thriller film noir detective, and would make a great film.
Some very well crafted characters, from Miller, Renzi's partner to Rona Jefferson to our nasty sinner and also Dana.
A taut, gripping, well paced and well written crime thriller, and a great start to this series of books.
Thanks again Susan