South Florida Sun-Sentinel Palm Beach (Sunday)
‘The Hunter’ a welcome debut series; Miami lawyer returns in ‘Early Grave’
The idyllic small town is a misnomer, at least in mystery fiction, a fact that NYPD homicide detective Leigh O’Donnell continues to wrestle with in Jennifer Herrera’s superior debut “The Hunter.”
Leigh left her hometown of Copper Falls, Ohio, about 14 years ago, refusing to return even for weddings or hospitalizations. New York offered what she needed in her life, including her husband, Eric, her 4-year-old daughter, Simone, and a police career.
She’s returned after being suspended from the force for aiming her Glock at her police partner — an action she can’t explain, even to herself.
Her brother, Ronan, now a Copper Falls cop, offers her a job and a refuge: Find out if three healthy 25-year-old men committed suicide or were murdered. Their bodies were found in the nearby waterfalls, mirroring other years-old deaths.
To understand her hometown, Leigh burrows into its history, which many want to keep solidly in the past.
Literary agent Herrera delves deep to sculpt believable, multi-layered characters in “The Hunter.” The complex Leigh exudes contradictions, avoiding her home yet loving her family; worried that her biracial daughter will be the only Black child in the area, but believing Simone will be safe. Her husband, who is Black and from whom she is separated, calls her “reckless;” which she resents but knows is accurate.
Likewise, Copper Falls is at odds with itself with myriad decades-old secrets bubbling up, from the police department policies to the residents’ attitudes toward those who live out of town, or “the Sticks.”
“The Hunter” launches a new, most-welcomed series.
Lassiter returns
Back in 1990, Paul Levine, then a Miami attorney, launched his Jake Lassiter series with “To Speak for the Dead,” helping to start the new wave of Florida mysteries. “To Speak for the Dead” was named one of the 10 best mysteries of the year by the Los Angeles Times and earned Levine the John D. MacDonald Florida Fiction Award.
Jake, a former linebacker-turned-lawyer, was known for his wry wit — actually more of a smart-aleck mouth that often got him in trouble, including being held in contempt numerous times. Jake also had a sarcastic view of the law, having once stated in Levine’s novel “Bum Luck” that “the relationship of ‘law’ to ‘justice’ is roughly that of roadkill possum to filet mignon.” Levine’s knowledge of all things Florida punctuated the novels that also zeroed in on current events.
Levine often put Jake on hiatus while he worked on other novels and also as a scriptwriter, including writing 20 episodes of the CBS military drama “JAG.”
“Early Grave” again has Jake contemplating his mortality as his symptoms of CTE have worsened, a neurodegenerative disease often associated with people who have had multiple head injuries. But Jake is stubborn — what a surprise! — and has tried to be quiet about his symptoms, though Melissa Gold, the neuropathologist who’s been treating him and also is his fiancée, knows how bad his health is. Despite his jaundiced view of the law, he still believes in the difference he can make through his profession.
The effects of CTE are further brought home when his teenage godson, Rodrigo Pittman, suffers serious neck injuries during a game. Jake feels guilty because he has been encouraging Rodrigo to play football. Jake’s weapon is the law, first targeting Rodrigo’s coach, and then he files an injunction against high school tackle football in general, hoping to stop the games until it can be proven the players will be safe. Now a cabal that secretly provides money to get NFL players out of trouble wants to tackle Jake.
Levine doesn’t miss a step in “Early Grave,” his 15th outing with Jake, whose humor is as sharp as ever. An affinity for plotting coupled with Jake’s personality, relationships and health struggles add depth to “Early Grave.”
Oline H. Cogdill can be reached at olinecog@aol. com.