By: Patricia Cornwell
Synopsis
At Risk
A Massachusetts state investigator is called home from Knoxville, Tennessee, where he is completing a course at the National Forensic Academy. His boss, the district attorney, an attractive but hard-charging woman, is planning to run for governor, and as a showcase she’s planning to use a new crime initiative called At Risk, it’s motto “Any crime, any time.” In particular, she’s been looking for a way to employ some cutting-edge DNA technology, and she thinks she’s found it in a twenty-year-old murder – in Tennessee. If her office solves the case, they’ll all end up looking pretty good, right?
Her investigator is not so sure – not sure about anything to do with this woman, really – but before he can open his mouth, a shocking piece of violence intervenes, an act that shakes up not only their lives but the lives of everyone around them as well. It is not a random event. Is it personal? Is it professional? Whatever it is, the implications are very, very bad indeed…and they’re about to get much worse.
The Front
At Risk featured Massachusetts state investigator Win Garano, a shrewd man of mixed-race background and a not inconsiderable chip on his shoulder; D.A. Monique Lamont, a hard-charging woman with powerful ambitions and a troubling willingness to cut corners; and Garano’s grandmother, who has certain unpredictable talents that you ignore at your peril.
And in The Front, peril is what comes to them all. D.A. Lamont has a special job for Garano. As part of a new public relations campaign concerning the dangers of declining neighborhoods, she’s sending him to Watertown to come up with a “drama,” and she thinks she knows just the case that will serve. Garano is very skeptical, because he knows that Watertown is also the home base for a loose association of municipal police departments called the FRONT, set up so that they don’t have to be so dependent on the state – much to Lamont’s anger. He senses a much deeper agenda here – but he has no idea just how deep it goes. In the days that follow, he’ll find that Lamont’s task, and the places it leads him, will resemble a house of mirrors – everywhere he turns, he’s not quite sure if what he’s seeing is true.
“Falsehoods rule,” warns his grandmother. And they can also kill.
My Thoughts
I haven’t read much by Patricia Cornwell. I read these (and Quantum & Spin) while waiting for “Post Mortem” to become available at my local library where I work. These two books were decent. They are both quick reads, and give the impression of being the beginning of an ongoing series. However, I don’t think any other books have been written. I enjoyed them well enough. I liked the main character Win Garano and his grandmother. They were quite interesting. The plot was decent, but felt a little like the parts were not connected properly. I wish Sykes had been a stronger female character who wasn’t so smitten with Win. I did not like Monique at all and could do without her if more books in this series were written, unless she is the antagonist as she would make a great villain. All in all, I think the potential is there for a good series. These are just my thoughts. What are yours?