Customer Reviews

The Black Minute

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

St. Paul, Minnesota Homicide Detective John Santana leads the investigation into the murder of a twenty something Asian woman on Harriet Island. He learns that her name was Mai Yang, a Hmong, whose father was a general who fought on the American side during the Viet Nam war. She was also an Internet prostitute whose partner Jenna Jones is shocked.

John and his partner Kacie Hawkins interview Grace Chandler who found the body; to his shock he is attracted to her as he avoids personal entanglements since his Columbia childhood. They next visit the father who is icy cold and the brother Kou who is shocked. He heads to the Myth Club where Mai was on Saturday night to see if anyone can verify she was there and with whom. There John is further stunned by a woman who looks like his sister, whom he has not seen in two decades. When Jenna and Hmong gang members are killed, John and Kacie know they must solve the cases before a blood bath between clans and gangs occur; increasingly Kou looks guilty in what may be a vendetta in honor of his sister, but the murders have the precision of a military leader.

The second John Santana St. Paul police procedural (see White Tombs) is a terrific thriller that contains a strong investigation, insight into the hero's past in Columbia and fascinating look at immigrants. The case engages the reader as John and Kacie follow the clues. The story line includes a special freshness interwoven within the inquiry that enables the audience to obtain an interesting perspective on the similar issues confronting first generation immigrants from diverse countries with specificity on the Hmong culture in Minnesota. Christopher Valen provides the audience with his second straight winning whodunit.

Harriet Klausner

I read "White Tombs" as a paperback but purchased "The Black Minute" as a Kindle book. I was very disappointed in the poor formatting of this Kindle book and contacted Amazon and was advised the poor formatting was due to the publisher. Amazon offered me a refund but I was 30% thru the book and wanted to finish it and didn't want to wait for them to ship me a paperback. While the formatting was of poor quality, the novel was excellent and I went ahead and ordered the 3rd book of this series in the Kindle format. The next book, "Bad Weeds Never Die" was published by a different publisher and the formatting was excellent. I am, as I write, about 1/2 thru the 3rd John Santana novel.

I am hoping there is a 4th John Santana novel in the works. It is an excellent series. "The Black Minute" further develops the John Santana character. He is a man who has lost really everything. He has lost his family, his faith and his country and lives under a death sentence but somehow manages to move on and live his life.

Since we live close to St Paul, a story set in this city is very interesting. I went ahead and checked out some of the interesting details, in the book, regarding the city and found them quite accurate.

I am not going to go thru the details of this work of fiction as the former reviewer did this quite well. Suffice it to say that this series is worth the read if you like this genre in books that are well written, detailed with excellent character development that engages the reader in the developing plot.