21 of 25 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Terrific Sequel, August 9, 2010
I loved KILLING RED, the first Alex Chapa thriller. It was the best debut I'd ever read.
MOURN THE LIVING lives up to its predecessor.
Part carefully constructed mystery, part nail-biting suspense, this follow-up is the perfect summer beach read. Fast paced, sometimes funny, often touching, without sacrificing any thrills.
Chapa is the best reporter hero since Fletch.
A word of warning, though: Don't read this on an airplane. One of the chapters will freak you out if you do.
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17 of 21 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
There is a puzzling and perplexing mystery at the core of this story, August 9, 2010
Private investigators are almost naturally a staple of mystery and thriller fiction. Newspaper reporters are as well, given their similarities to PIs. Individuals in both occupations ask questions, kick rocks over, draw conclusions, and report what they find. And the more that you act like you have something to hide, the more likely it is that you will attract their attention.
Henry Perez has worked as a newspaper reporter and thus knows well the territory that his novels explore. In MOURN THE LIVING, he brings back Alex Chapa (introduced in his debut, KILLING RED), who must balance real-world personal concerns with his professional duties. Perez does not sugarcoat the current state of affairs in the newspaper industry. Indeed, the declining fortunes of newspapers, coupled with the quiet threat to Chapa's reporting job at the Chicago Record, constitute a quietly menacing element throughout the novel. At the same time, Chapa is on the horns of a personal dilemma, one that is exacerbated by his professional circumstances.
As MOURN THE LIVING commences, Chapa is just beginning a week-long visit with his young daughter Nikki when he is called off of his scheduled vacation time. Jim Chakowski, the star investigative reporter for the Chicago Record, has been killed in an apparent accident, and Chapa is called back to fill in the gap. Erin Sinclair, Chapa's love interest, is more than willing to pick up the slack and entertain Nikki during the day while Chapa is working. But he finds himself confronted with the possibility that Chakowski's death was not accidental. Chakowski, in fact, was working on a story that involved a series of apparently unrelated murders in the area that may have involved a number of other killings spread out over time and distance.
Picking up the thread of Chakowski's investigation makes Chapa unpopular with the powers-that-be at the Record, which is published in Oakton, a clannish Chicago suburb. The publisher has ties with the local business community, which in turn controls what happens and what doesn't by a heavy-handed administrative fiat. The members of the Oakton police department have little love for Chapa as well, given that his nosing around inevitably makes them look bad. There is, of course, a real killer out there, and as Chapa's investigation gets closer to the truth, the killer also gets closer to Chapa, putting him and those he loves in terrible danger. This set of circumstances raises the issue as to why Chapa is doing what he's doing when his job probably will not even exist sooner rather than later. Sinclair genuinely loves him, yet is understandably concerned about his commitment to his job, particularly when it puts him and those he loves in jeopardy. As a result, the book presents an interesting and prickly situation that, as we ultimately see, has no easy or settled answers.
There is a puzzling and perplexing mystery at the core of this story, one that Chapa may not walk away from intact. And there are some great action scenes as well. One in particular, which takes place in the last quarter of the book, involves a cornfield, among other things. Perez includes some passages there that are not only edge-of- your-seat but also heart-in-your-mouth descriptions that will leave you dizzy. Chapa is building a great series the old-fashioned way, and it's one that you should start reading now.
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13 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Mediocre Mystery, August 17, 2010
This review is from: Mourn The Living (Alexa Chapa) (Kindle Edition)
A serial killer is on the prowl and only suburban Chicago newspaper reporter Alex Chapa seems to be taking the matter seriously. As he investigates, he is drawn further into the terrifying world of the killer. At the same time he is balancing the pull of his personal life, a loving girlfriend and the attention required by his ten-year-old daughter visiting from Boston.
The premise is great. I liked the development of the Alex Chapa character. His girlfriend, Erin, never grew beyond cardboard. However, the serial killer character was truly chilling. Unfortunately, the book has its problems. It is a sequel and that may create some of the issues. For example, apparently the police do not like Alex Chapa due to some past interactions, but what happened? There is no explanation.
The biggest problem is that the story just does not hang together. Overall it is a let down. There are too many suspects and not enough details about any one of them or memorable interactions with any one of them to make the ultimate revelation of the killer's identity particularly credible.
Although there are many positives to this book, overall I cannot recommend it.
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