With a masterful plot, unique characters and a pitch-perfect rural setting, there is nothing in The Boy that I didn’t love.
A woman awakens to a ghastly sound coming from 7-year-old son’s room. Racing to his room, she finds him stabbed multiple time and the killer next turns the knife on her. Fearing for her safety, she runs bloody and wounded to her neighbors for help.
Annie and Nick, married detectives in rural Partout Parish Louisiana, are assigned the case. If only they could stop the new grandstanding Sheriff, Kelvin Dutrow, from trying to “modernize” the detectives’ methods. When a second child disappears, panic runs high as the detectives race to see if the two cases are connected.
The plotting is done with such precision that the reader sees none of the machinery and can sit back and enjoy the twist-filled ride. The rural Louisiana setting seems like a character all by itself and the characters in The Boy are one of its greatest charms. There is hot-headed Cajun Nick’s frequent switches into French patois. There is level-headed Annie who tries to reel her husband in.
You rarely find a book with both good characters and fine plotting. I loved The Boy. 5 stars!
Thanks to Dutton Books for an advance copy in exchange for an honest review.
Posted in Diane's Favorites, Mystery & Thrillers, New Books Tagged with: Dec 31 2018, Police procedural