Publishers Weekly
07/12/2021
Det. Susan Ford of the Monticello, N.Y., PD, the 53-year-old narrator of this enticing series launch from McCreary (The Deeper You Dig), is assigned to a cold case involving the recently discovered skeletal remains of a gunshot victim as a way for her superiors to keep her out of the public eye while a civil suit is pending against her for shooting an unarmed teenager. The skeleton may be that of Trudy Solomon, a waitress at a popular Catskills hotel, who disappeared 40 years earlier in the summer of 1978. Susan’s happily retired detective father, who worked the case originally, serves as a consultant. The simple goal of finding out what happened to Trudy expands into the investigation of multiple murders, possible child abduction, and an extortion scheme. Meanwhile, Susan’s inquiries take a personal turn, bringing her face to face with uncomfortable childhood memories. Flashbacks to Trudy’s experiences help build the suspense, and more than one twist will catch the reader by surprise. Susan is a strong protagonist who can easily carry a series. (Sept.)
From the Publisher
"[In this] enticing series launch . . . more than one twist will catch the reader by surprise.” —Publishers Weekly “Readers looking for an up-to-date police procedural will be satisfied with Susan Ford’s investigations.” —Library Journal
Library Journal
07/01/2021
DEBUT Detective Susan Ford is on modified duty while Internal Affairs reviews her actions in a recent case, in which she shot and killed Calvin Barnes, a young Black man. The fallout reverberates: Calvin's family wants answers about his death, and his father confronts Susan late in the book; she second-guesses herself: did she see what she thought she saw? McCreary's mystery debut deals with one of the biggest questions in genre: how to handle a police procedural in the era of Black Lives Matter. (Susan is herself a supporter of the town's BLM movement.) At the same time, Susan works with her retired father on a cold case. Forty years earlier, waitress Trudy Solomon went missing; Susan's father had been the lead detective on the case. He always thought that a powerful local family, the owners of a Catskills resort, knew more than they revealed. When skeletal remains are discovered in New York, and Trudy is found alive, with Alzheimer's, in a retirement home, new questions arise. VERDICT This debut forces a police detective to question her own actions in a situation ripped from the headlines, while also juggling a cold case. Readers looking for an up-to-date police procedural will be satisfied with Susan Ford's investigations, which use current forensic evidence, including DNA and security cameras.—Lesa Holstine, Evansville Vanderburgh P.L., IN
