Customer Reviews

Heroes Often Fail

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This whole series is very good at showing the detailed workings of a small police department. It is not very high-paced but it fits the small town scenario and gives us a good insight into Law and Order problems outs the big cities. I read more action-packed crime stories and then slow down to the realistic pace of a small city. This story fills in many relations between characters referenced in other River City stories.

In most police procedurals, the protagonist (hero) may stumble, but in the end he or she prevails. Frank Zafiro's world is a more realistic one. His characters are heroic - they put themselves on the line every day on the streets of River City. But like everyone else who does a job day after day, they don't always succeed in what they try to do, either because of their own mistakes or because success simply isn't possible. Zafiro's characters must try to survive their failures in a job where the line between success and failure may also be the line between life and death.

In Heroes Often Fail, the suspense builds as the police search for an abducted child. Zafiro kept me turning the pages without resorting to obvious plot devices - suspending my disbelief was never an effort. I cared about the characters throughout. And in the end, few things turned out as I had expected.

I can't wait for the next in the series.

The parental nightmares begin, as the often do, under clear skies and the promise of a new day early in the morning. It is March 15, 1995 as six year old girls Kendra and Amy walk to school like they have before and will walk home that afternoon like they have countless times before. That is until the van comes and slides to a stop next to them. They both freeze as a man leaps out of the van. He grabs Amy and Kendra runs knows the man could get her next. Instead, she gets away. The man in black didn't get her but as the hunt begins for Amy, Kendra is filled with guilt.

At the River City Police shooting range, Stefan Kopriva is filled with pain as well as guilt. Having barely survived a shootout at the Circle K six months ago, Kopriva remains on light desk duty. Despite being shot three times he survived and now wonders what more he could have done then and when his reputation will return to what it was before the robber known as Scarface rocked River City, Washington. The six months since have been painful. Not only as his body struggles to heal but in the misplaced admiration by some and the misplaced hostility from other members of the small police force who feel he, at best, failed them. Powerful pain medications and a growing romance are the only things keeping him going as he hates the mind numbing routine of desk duty. He wants his old life back and a symbol of that is getting off the restrictions and back on the streets.

He gets it but not the way he wants. As news of the possible kidnapping spreads through the department, it becomes a classic all hands on deck situation with every person pressed into service. Kopriva, as well as the other men and women of the River City police force desperately try to find Amy knowing that as the hours and days pass the idea that it is a simple kidnapping for ransom is more and more unlikely. For little Amy, kidnapping is quickly the least of Amy's worries.

Much of what happens regarding the child molestation in this well written but disturbing novel happens offstage. As such, scenes and images are created initially with a heavy emphasis on implied actions that are never described to the reader. As such, while not graphic or detailed, the implications and meanings of what is happening to Amy as well as what happens to another child in one of several secondary storylines are very clear and that material may disturb some readers.

With that being said, it should also be noted that this is a very good novel. Building on characters and events from the preceding novel "Under A Raging Moon" author Frank Zafiro has created a substantially more complex police procedural with multi layered characters, a rich setting, and plenty of action. It is clear that from a technical aspect this novel is superior in all aspects to his first novel which was very good in its own right. This novel is a step upwards and it is clear that Frank Zafiro is steadily improving his fictional game.

It is often said and assumed by many that an author's second book will be weaker than the first. While that often is true, it certainly is not the case here. What is also true is the fact that we have to wait far too long till the fall of 2008 for the third River City novel "Beneath A Weeping Sky."

Kevin R. Tipple (copyright)2007

Wish there was something I could add that was new to the other comments on

Franks' books. I can't put them down after reading the first sentence. His writing

grips me from that point til the end. His passion for what the police have to go

through; and filtering through different personalities stands above what ANY other

writer has done with a police procedural. Just can't wait for what I hope will be

many other's to follow.

"Heroes often Fail" is the second book in the River City Crime Novel series. Where "Under a Raging Moon" left off, we enter every parent's nightmare, an abducted child. As is often the case, this tragic story has a family connection. Zafiro brings back Officer Stefan Kopriva who carries the unhealed wounds of the previous book's life and death encounter and Officer Katie MacLeod, a female cop, who daily overcomes the challenge of being a female in a male dominated police setting. Despite their best efforts, our heroes occasionally fail. Unlike Superman and Wonder Woman that always resolve situations with a happy ending, police officers are human beings who use their best judgment and at times, just like the rest of us, their best is not enough. Zafiro has penned another winner.

A conversation between two little girls walking home from school turns from innocent to terrifying within the first several pages of "Heroes Often Fail" and the reader is dumped into the cruel and often times frustrating world of the River City police department as the officers assigned to the case struggle with rules versus reason in the desperate search of a kidnapped girl.

Author Frank Zafiro brings back Officer Stefan Kopriva in this, the second book of the River City series (the first book entitled "Under A Raging Moon"). Unlike many police procedural books, "Heroes Often Fail" delves into the main character's head as he struggles to fight off the scars (physical and emotional) caused by a no-win shoot out at the end of the first book. The reader follows Kopriva down cold trails and blind alleys while those around him take sides with his fellow officers.

My Kindle version of "Heroes Often Fail" made it tricky to flip back a few pages whenever I missed a key bit of action but the story read tight and fast. I highly recommend this and the rest of Zafiro's series - warning, though, not to read it as a bedtime story to yourself unless you want to scare up some nasty dreams.

Heroes Often Fail: A River City Crime Novel

This is another great work by Frank, who brings his experience as a career police officer to the pages. It's gritty and the characters are real - and the title appropriately reminds us that they are human. Frank aptly describes the lingering impact law enforcement has on the men and women who wear the badge through the characters - you hear what they hear, feel the emotional response and watch as they suppress that desired response in favor of the professional response...and completely understand why when they don't. Frank gives you a behind the scenes look at the interactions between officers - both humorous and cruel - that only the trusted usually get to experience. But as the reader, you experience the emotional roller coaster of abuses and triumphs that change men and women in law enforcement. A great book that you will not want to put down.

HEROES often FAIL

by FRANK ZAFIRO

Depending on who you talked to, Officer Stefan Kopriva was a hero. Webster's defines a hero as:

a: a mythological or legendary figure often of divine descent endowed with great strength or ability b: an illustrious warrior c: a man admired for his achievements and noble qualities d: one that shows great courage.

Jack Stone thinks he's a `code-four cowboy'--a despised member of the force. What is Officer Kopriva? In FRANK ZAFIRO'S latest thriller from River City, we are faced with the premise that heroes seldom fail? Not at all... HEROES often FAIL.

The most heinous of crimes is committed. A six year-old girl is kidnapped--and molested. Can she have be rescued in time? Taut and suspenseful, this haunting tale of police procedural accents the critical time-line that police face when frantically searching for an abducted youngster.

The failings of police, the wrongful information from witnesses, make HEROES a page-turner that takes you long into the night. The race against time heightens with each new development.

HEROES often FAIL will make you a FRANK ZAFIRO fan and send you searching for UNDER A RAGING MOON, the first in the River City series.

Awaiting the next surprise this fall is BENEATH A WEEPING SKY--I can hardly wait.

Dennis Leppanen

Free-lance writer & Reviewer

Author of: WHOO??

First Sentence: It was a secret place.

The members of the River City Police Department desperately search for a six-year-old girl who has been kidnapped in broad daylight.

Zafiro has been compared, including by me, to McBain in his writing about an ensemble group of police. However, his books are darker and more realistic than McBain, but with somewhat less individual character development. Because of that, I should recommend reading "Under a Raging Moon" first. Even so, I did get to care about the characters; becoming angry for those whom I felt were treated unfairly by their fellow officers.

The story is very well written and very painful to read as it deals with child kidnapping and molestation, yet it makes its point.

There is a wonderful interview of the author at the end of the book that is well worth reading.

Heroes Often Fail could be one of the most authentic police procedurals I've read. The story appears deceptively simple--a six-year old girl snatched from the streets, but as it jumps around between the lives of the detectives and uniformed officers trying to find her, it adds a more layered, sophisticated texture. Written in short chapters and lean, muscular prose, this is an exceptionally satisfying and engrossing read, and a book that would've made Ed McBain proud.

--Dave Zeltserman