Darker Than Any Shadow
By Tina Whittle
ISBN: 9781590585467
2011 release from Poisoned
Pen Press. HC, 291 pages
The second entry in the author’s intriguing series featuring a
gun shop owner and a corporate security officer is a winner. Heavily populated
with interesting characters, the turbulent love affair between the protagonist
informs and leavens what could otherwise have been a run-of-the-mill mystery.
Indeed, the identity of the killer, while important to the story, was, to this
reader, not as compelling as the characters, and the milieu.
The setting is Atlanta, Georgia, during the run-up to a major
poetry slam competition. Some of the characters have known each other from
childhood and others seem to have uncertain, even mysterious
backgrounds. It’s hot in Atlanta, and gun shop owner Tai Randolph is mentoring
her long-time friend, rising poet, Rico. There are teams of competing poets as
well as individual efforts and a surplus of egos swirling around as participants
prepare. Then murder intrudes.
The relationship developing between our principal
“investigator,” amateur tho she is, Tai Randolph and her lover, Trey Seaver, is
much more than casually interesting to observe. Seaver is a former cop with a
high level of crisis and SWAT training, excellent skills and more than a little
rigidity as regards the rules of life and the law. The almost constant battles
between the lovers as they try to accommodate each other is a fascinating piece
of this very entertaining novel. I recommend it strongly.
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Carl Brookins www.carlbrookins.com http://agora2.blogspot.com, Case of the Great Train Robbery, Reunion, Red Sky
Carl Brookins www.carlbrookins.com http://agora2.blogspot.com, Case of the Great Train Robbery, Reunion, Red Sky
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