A Mourning in Autumn

by Harker Moore

Overview

NYPD homicide detective Lieutenant Jimmy Sakura is back as he faces a series of gruesome murders.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780446615891
Publisher:	Grand Central Publishing
Publication date:	05/01/2005
Pages:	496
Product dimensions:	5.00(w) x 8.00(h) x 1.00(d)

Editorial Reviews

In Moore's second gruesome outing for NYPD homicide detective James Sakura (after 2003's A Cruel Season for Dying), a serial killer is preying on young Manhattan women. He suffocates them, surgically rearranges their internal organs to form a kind of mirror image, then dumps their bodies in the trash. But as Sakura, partner Michael Darius and forensic psychiatrist Wilhelmina French try to untangle the meaning of this ritualistic violence, the killer shifts gears, murdering Darius's ex-wife and kidnapping their twin toddlers. Readers looking for a motive for the killer's psychopathology may be disappointed, as throughout the novel he remains an unfathomable monster. Both detectives are interesting, especially Sakura with his Zen-like detachment and dogged determination. Another clever conceit is his Japanese wife Hanae-blind but gifted with a kind of New Age vision-but she functions too much as part of Sakura's backstory (she played a larger role in A Cruel Season for Dying). The other characters are essentially stock-the acerbic coroner, the ambitious TV crime reporter, a few potential suspects. The pieces of the genre puzzle are all here, but the whole is less than the sum of the parts. Agent, Mel Berger at William Morris. (July 27) Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

Publishers Weekly

Taking charge of another serial murder investigation, NYPD's Lt. James Sakura (A Cruel Season for Dying) focuses on a perpetrator whose victims, snatched at raves or underground clubs, wind up as bizarre amateur-autopsy experiments. Three more cases increase pressure on Sakura, who must also handle the return of his blind wife from Japan, where she's been trying to recover from trauma involved in Sakura's first venture. Detailed police procedure alternates with glimpses of killer psychology-even childhood violence and cannibalism. A well-crafted second effort and essential for most collections. Moore lives in Louisiana. Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal

A modern-day Ripper targets pretty young women from Manhattan's downtown club scene. Japanese-American homicide detective James Sakura and his wife Hanae are still mending their relationship from the damage inflicted by Sakura's last big case (A Cruel Season for Dying, 2003), when Sakura had an affair with a coworker and Hanae, who is blind, was kidnapped and nearly killed by a multiple murderer. Now Sakura's leading the investigation into what the tabloids are calling "The Visqueen Killer," a serial sadist who brutalizes his female victims and rearranges their internal organs before tightly wrapping them in plastic. As creepy cuts from the killer's perspective, supplemented by the insights of Sakura's consultant, Dr. Wilhelmina "Willie" French, provide the reader some insight into the twisted pathology of his m.o., sexy, ambitious TV journalist Zoe Kahn again proves a thorn in Sakura's side by leaking some of the case's new developments via her ongoing relationship with police detective Johnny Rozelli. As the death toll mounts, the killer inexplicably drifts away from his profile and progressively closer to Sakura. Unbeknownst to everyone but the reader, Zoe is on the killer's radar screen. So too are the children of Margot Redmond, ex-wife of Michael Darius, one of Sakura's top detectives and his best friend. Moore creates a world of danger and paranoia that gets under the skin, but mystery fans may be disappointed by the fuzzy puzzle.

Kirkus Reviews