6/2/2020: I like Nell. I want more characters like Nell. This book has pacing issues and an answer that is too easy in the end. More later.
1/1/2025: Damn it I don’t remember enough to review. May have to re-listen.
1/6/2025: Have re-listened.
Synopsis: Nell Flynn has returned home after her dad’s death from a motorcycle accident. Nell is an FBI agent and hasn’t been home in 10 years. Her father and her had a falling out before she left and while they’ve spoken occasionally over the last few years, she hadn’t wanted to return to Suffolk County on Long Island. His death, initially thought to be due to drunk driving, forces her to confront past demons. Nell’s mother had been murdered when she was very young and while a man was arrested and convicted, there was definitely some suspicion of her father.
The day after scattering his remains with his small cohort of old-timer cop buddies, her dad’s most recent partner, Lee, asks for her help with a homicide scene that looks to be part of a serial case. Nell is supposed to be on leave due to a shoulder injury in a shooting involving a very bad Russian dude. But she ends up going with Lee anyhow. They find the body of a Latina girl, dismembered, wrapped in burlap. Lee and Dorsey (Nell’s dad’s best friend and head of the department) are both convinced another Latino (undocumented) named Morales did it. But Nell quickly realizes the profile doesn’t fit… and worse, it fits her father more.
Nell meets with a lawyer about her father’s estate. She learns he was keeping an apartment for a woman named Maria and that he had an off-shore account. Determined once and for all to figure out if her father is the man behind these murders (as well as possibly her mother’s), Nell starts investigating. She learns that a rich, powerful man named Meechum (sp?) has parties with escorts for other rich and powerful men. Both girls that have been found dead worked those parties. Nell eventually learns that the department her dad worked for his rife with corruption and they are getting kickbacks from the pimp and Meechum. She later uncovers that her dad was not part of it, but rather investigating to try to take down the whole ring and had collected a bunch of evidence. Before they are able to take down the ring with Nell’s FBI buddies (Sarah- head of a human trafficking task force- and Lightman- her boss), Lee is killed with a car bomb. (He had actually been DEA undercover as they were also trafficking drugs.) They take down the department but Meechum gets off with just a year.
Nell figures out that the actual murder is a socialite named Grace (who found the second body) who killed the girls because her husband was having affairs with them. Grace attacks Nell and is killed. Nell meets Maria and learns that she is her half-sister, the product of a fling her father had several years prior. He had not known about her until her mother got very sick and died, sending him word just before her passing. Nell and Maria make plans to move together to Florida so they can have a fresh start away from Suffolk County.
Thoughts: After listening to this a second time, I think this book is solid but not amazing. The characters are great- some of the best character writing I’ve seen honestly. Nell feels very real- tough but also caring- I want more characters like her. Sarah is similar, with just enough rebel streak. Lee has boy scout feel without being flat. This was all good. The plot… it started off good but it feels like there either wasn’t a planned end game OR the author was told to jazz it up. I’m not anti killing off Lee- sad as it was, it was an excellent twist. But the part with Grace felt like an afterthought. It felt like we just kept closing old tabs at the end. Also, the idea that Sarah would have let Nell talk to Grace alone is ludicrous given her recent physical trauma especially. I know what they were going for but there was a better way to do it. I think this is a book where theme was so prevalent that it got in the way of plot, which is better than the reverse but can still hurt overall flow. Still, a good and meaningful thrilled with an excellent lead character. It is in present tense- which sometimes drives me batty but worked okay here.