Customer Reviews

Bleeding Out: A Mystery

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

How did L. A. Franco ever get her job? She hates her boss and distrusts the whole LA Police Department that she works for in Baxter Clare's good, new book "Bleeding Out". She's tough and competent. I got the book for a birthday present, and I wasn't sure I'd finish it. The back cover blurb says "Mystery/Lesbian Fiction", and that isn't anything I'd pick up for myself. But after a few pages, just a sample, I couldn't leave the book alone. Baxter Clare's first novel is a hell of a story. It's very graphic, but that goes with the territory, Southeast Los Angeles. Frank, that's what everybody calls Franco, drags you along with her single-minded determination to get the villain. She's real and her friends and coworkers are real. And the bad guy is really BAD. "Bleeding Out" is what a thriller should be. It will have broad appeal among all us mystery fans.

I found drops of brillance in Bleeding Out. As with any debut novel, I give the authoress her due. Baxter Clare introduces us to the world of Lt. Franko and all that is entailed in her inner city struggle between criminals and police politics in solving a serial rapist case. We are also privy to inner demons of a violently lost lesbian love, a rebirth into a non-conforming society, and an isolation finally thrown off. Almost as if cloaks of darkness removed will allow voids to be filled--like buttery warmed pastries & the playing of "These Foolish Things" ( I prefer Etta James' version ) can fulfill a Sunday morn.

An intriguing criminal read with inner glimpses into important issues of lesbianism.

Clare's first novel, Bleeding Out, is a taut, gritty, psychological thriller set in contemporary South Los Angeles. Police Lt. L.A. Franco is a tough, tall, handsome, intelligent, dyke investigator. Years ago, the traumatic loss of her lover prompted Franco to shut down much of her personal life and focus on work. Years in one of the city's toughest districts have built an armor around Franco.

Franco cares about the people in her district and is alarmed when the first victim of a serial murderer appears. Franco sees the pattern in these murders as an extension of earlier, increasingly brutal, rapes and walks a razor's edge as she allows herself to sink deeper into the killer's mind in order to track him down.

Clare provides remarkable insight into the "rearing" of a serial killer in a series of short, often horrific vignettes at the beginning of each chapter. These hauntingly powerful depictions stay with the reader.

Allison Kennedy, a young, smart mouthed, narcotics officer is brought in to act as bait for the killer. Displeased with the stake out plan, Franco is annoyed, worried and just a little attracted to Kennedy. --Feelings that Franco does not welcome, yet may be important for her salvation. Not because their relationship is necessarily destined to be a success, this is not a "happily ever after" love story. -- Because for the first time in years Franco feels more than simple lust for another woman and is willing to risk the relationship.

Some of Clare's secondary characters are difficult to differentiate, particularly in the macho police world. Yet other characters are complex, compassionately drawn and touchingly real. Not a thoughtless, pleasant armchair mystery; Bleeding Out is a well written, engrossing thriller of police investigation and politics.

Los Angeles Police Lt. L. A. "Frank" Franco is introduced here as she seeks the killer of a young girl. She eventually ties in nine rapes and four murders to the perpetrator. Franco is meticulous and thorough as she shifts through the few clues she has. The author painstakingly puts us into the mind of both the perpetrator and Franco. This is police procedural at its best. The characterizations are such that the reader cares about the main characters even the closed-off Franco. There are several minor characters that the author manages to fully flesh out as well although Franco's squad members are, at times, hard to identify because of her use of their nicknames - a minor flaw at best. This author deserves a wide audience. Let's hope the author and her publisher gives us more of Baxter Clare and Lt. Franco.

Frank, LA Freek, or as I preferred to think of her, Franco, is a gay policewoman in the sinister world of South L.A. Here, day to day life is not just a jungle, it is a survivor's path of dirt, grafitti, wretched poverty, petty crime, and the force 's obstacle course of keeping some modecum of decorum in their lives, as well as in their assigned neighborhood.

Franco is mourning her violently lost lover Maggie. Almost as a turtle wears it's shell, Franco's tough exterior is a protective armour of grueling workouts, alcohol sprints, workaholic tendencies, and self -imposed isolation. Strangely, the tracking of a serial rapist and murderer brings her back to life.

I did enjoy this criminal read. There were a few too many characters for my tastes. And at times the writing was trite. Also on the negative side, I wanted to visualize through the author's words the take down of the rapist. That is like the pay-off in a crime story. Like pulling on a one-armed bandit till it spews the action for you. Well, no whistles and bells here--just played off with a newspaper story. I'm not sure if Ms. Clare had a reason for that or if she just ran out of ideas.

In fact, I am wondering if someone else wrote the spicy narratives found before most chapters. Now, those were tightly woven glimpses into the rapists life as the story progressed. I anticipated them and found them original, not so forced as some of the book seemed.

"Bleeding Out" is an easy to read criminal novel needing a few more twists than lesbianism. Still a good debut novel through Firebrand Books and Baxter Clare.

other reading suggestions: "The Woman Who Rode To The Moon" by Bett Reece Johnson and "The Bone Collector" by Jeffrey Deaver

Your interest & comment votes are appreciated--CDS

Baxter Clare has written a novel that is impossible to put down. The writing is crisp, very detailed and moves amazingly well. The case itself is disturbing, centering around the brutal rapes and murders of teenage girls in south central Los Angeles. Clare does a wonderful job of illustrating the urgency Lt. Franco and her colleagues feel as they try to solve this case before someone else is killed.

The lesser characters are very well defined and the reader can't help but empathize with each one in turn as they deal with varying aspects of their jobs and the unrelenting stress that takes them ever closer to burning out. But what makes this book work is the portrait the reader is given of the main character Lt. L.A. Franco. Here is a woman who willingly tortures herself with a past that she refuses to forget, preferring, instead, to inundate herself with work, alcohol and exercise.

The only drawbacks to this otherwise fantastic novel, are Clare's over reliance on nicknames and her portrait of Kennedy, a detective from another unit who is recruited as a decoy to try and trap the killer. After wading through more nicknames then I could count, I completely gave up trying to fit them with corresponding characters. As well, Clare's portrait of Kennedy as a drawling, gum cracking, pseudo surfer chick strains credibility. However, these are very minor flaws in an otherwise great book. This is one novel that will keep readers in its grasp long after the last page has been read.

This is a very well written book, but the subject matter is quite disturbing. There were a couple of times that I had to lay the book down, the story was that intense. Probably not for the real squeamish, but definitely a "keeper".

Police lieutenant L.A. Franco commands Homicide Squad #93 in the gang-ravaged heart of south-central Los Angeles. A workaholic, she allows nothing into her bruised private life but booze and exercise, football and music. But when one, then another brutally murdered girl turns up within Frank's jurisdiction, the pressures of running one of the country's busiest homicide units increases when Frank and her squad find themselves dealing with a serial rapist turned murderer. As investigative leads go nowhere, a trap is laid for the unknown assailant. The bait is Allison Kennedy, a playful young narcotics detective who seems to delight in irritating Frank. The two women face are compelled to forge an alliance in order to survive as their hunt for the killer brings Frank painfully close to her own demons and she must choose between freeing herself from the bonds of a turbulent past, or remain fatally shackled by them. Bleeding Out is a superb police thriller, and justly documents Baxter Clare as one of the best.

A wonderful first mystery where the main character, Lt. "Frank" Franco, is on the trail of a brutal serial killer, and is also running on an emotional empty. Since the death of her lover, Frank has lived her life on long hours at work and endless alcohol, but this begins crumbling. The pacing of the story is superb, but what saves this simple mystery is the characterizations. It's reminiscent of Emma Donoghue's "Hood" where the main character must come to grips with the loss of a loved one to move toward hope. And this is Baxter Clare's first book! I hope the next is as compelling.

I wouldn't have given it too many stars anyway. It was boring to me..too much police interaction and the subject was a little too weird but I somehow missed that it was also about lesbianism. I thought Baxter Clare was a man! That a lesbian wrote it doesn't matter to me..just the lesbian parts didn't interest me.