Synopsis
from back cover: Bike
messenger Jace Damon is on his last delivery of a long day – a
package from one of L.A.'s sleaziest defense attorneys, Lenny Lowell.
But when Jace tries to make the drop, he is chased, shot at, and
barely escapes with the package – and his life. Meanwhile, Lowell
has been murdered and Jace finds himself suspect number one.
In
a city fueled by money, celebrity, and sensationalism, the slaying of
a bottom-feeder like Lowell won't make headlines. So when LAPD's
elite show up, homicide detective Kev Parker wants to know why.
Parker begins a search for answers that will lead him to a killer –
or to the end of his career. Because if there's one lesson Parker has
learned over the years, it's that in a town built on fame and
fantasy, delivering the truth can be murder.
Stats
for my copy: Mass market paperback, Bantam Dell, 2006.
How
acquired: From my mom.
My
thoughts: My mom gave me three
or four Tami Hoag books when she was culling books from her
collection. This is the first one I've read, and it certainly won't
be the last.
From
page one we are immediately plunged into the world of bike
messengers, as we ride along with Jace through L.A. traffic. I'd not
realized what a dangerous and perilous occupation it was, with the
messengers putting their lives at risk every day just to deliver
documents from one place to another. It was a tense and gripping
opening for a book that stayed pretty tense and gripping all the way
to the end.
There
are lots of characters, and the narrative jumps around at times from
one character's POV to another's. We first meet Jace, and stay with
him for awhile as he goes on that last ill-fated ride, where the
danger he faces is more than the ordinary traffic hazards. He finds
himself being chased by a man in a long black car, and while he
manages to get away, it's not without injury to himself and
destruction to his bike. The attorney he made the pick up from is
killed shortly after Jace leaves his office, and whoever killed him
is now after Jace and whatever is in the package he carries.
Kev
Parker is the lead detective investigating the attorney's murder. He
used to be an arrogant hot shot whose career bit the dust after he
scuttled a prior investigation. The more involved he becomes in this
case, and the more he learns, the more it looks like it could be the
case that brings him back. Or the one that ends his career
altogether.
There
are many other characters seamlessly woven into the plot, and the
author does a wonderful job with developing each one, but most
particularly (besides Jace and Parker) Jace's younger brother, Tyler.
He's a wise beyond his years ten year old who never hesitates to tell
an adult he's smarter than they are (with a high IQ to back up that
claim), but the author manages to stay away from the dreaded
precocious plot moppet trope and make Tyler a realistic little boy.
Even when we don't really learn much about a character, he or she is
still vivid and individual. And with the detailed descriptions of the
city and the characters' surroundings at any given time, L.A. is as
much a character as any of the hapless humans roaming it's streets.
The good guys are good and the bad guys are bad, and there's not a
lot of deviation or surprise in that particular characterization,
until suddenly there is.
The
action zips along at a quick pace, and without being predictable.
KILL THE MESSENGER is an absorbing read with a satisfying conclusion
and, for me anyway, a perfect introduction to Tami Hoag's work.
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