Customer Reviews

Slow Kill (Kevin Kerney Novels)

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

 

 

I got my copy of this one autographed at the Texas Book Festival in October 2004. We are lucky to have authors of this caliber come here. McGarrity is one of those authors whom I'll buy in hardcover, rather than waiting for the paperback.

As other reviews have mentioned the plot summary already, I'll bypass most of that, and instead mention some of the specific details I found particularly interesting in this book of the series.

First, we don't see any of Kearney's older son, also a policeman, whom we have met in several previous books. In this one, Kearney's younger son - the 10-month old one living near the Pentagon, along with Kearney's career army wife, Sara - gets a bit of the spotlight. The unusual marriage between Kevin and Sara gets strained some, but also becomes solider as a result of the strains - Kevin resists some flirtation by some of the women he meets in the course of the book.

Several seemingly unrelated plot threads come together, as parts of Kearney's investigation turn out to be things that Sara is professionally interested in. She is doing an interesting report on some sexual harassment cases that the army is trying to sweep under the rug. Sara's anger at the attempt to ignore the problem is balanced by her later glee at the opportunity to call attention to it from another direction entirely.

The main plot thread revolves around a young man who supposedly died in a helicopter crash in Vietnam 30 years before. Or did he? Right now, anything that recalls Vietnam has some resonance for many of us, and the characters involved in this part of the plot include everything from hippies on communes to rich men who buy their kids' way out of the war. The book doesn't take a current political stance - thank goodness - but it does give a reader a chance to think about issues that are still important today.

You can tell, pretty much as soon as we meet the crazy old lady, that she is not, in fact, crazy - it's not a spoiler to tell you that much. The dead man's current wife, on the other hand, is a little more psychopathic than she seems at first.

And when we meet the people to whom the pharmacist has been selling drugs, it's a nice contrast between the old hippies, supposedly all stoned, and the rich people who are currently stoned. I like the irony here.

That should be enough teasers to make you want to read the book fairly soon. Let me say, though, that if you haven't read ANY of the previous books in the series, you will be best off if you find copies and read them, before starting this book. A full appreciation of what's going on in the plot depends, in part, on knowing our characters' backgrounds.

Santa Fe Police Chief Kevin Kerney flies to Bakersfield, California so that he can buy quarter horse breeding stock at the Double J Ranch near Paso Robles. When fellow guest septuagenarian Clifford Spalding is found dead, San Luis Opiso Sheriff's Department Sergeant Elena Lowery finds it interesting that the victim and the visiting cop have ranches in the Santa Fe area. She believes this is an unlikely coincidence especially when one considers that Clifford's much younger spouse Claudia, could easily know and ride horses on a New Mexico range with Kevin. Other questionable items also surface.

Knowing he is a person of interest and seeing the path the official investigation is going, Kevin makes inquiries into the history of the victim and learns that Clifford's first wife Alice believes that their son did not die in Vietnam three decades ago. Kevin believes her and wonders why the son was hidden from his mother. He seeks a link between then and now. Elena concludes Kevin is innocent; they join ranks as both suspect the current wife and someone else, a local cop most likely, tampered with the victim's medicine, but to prove homicide will be difficult.

The latest Kerney police procedural refreshingly takes him out of New Mexico (and not just California as he also goes east on this investigation), makes Kevin a suspect, and has the less experienced Lowery lead the inquiries. The story line is fast-paced as the current case points towards murder and a tie in to events from thirty years ago. Fans also see Kerney prepare for retirement (hopefully not for a dozen or so more books) as he buys his first breeding stock. Michael McGarrity will receive accolades for this brisk investigative tale.

Harriet Klausner

In the 9th book in the series, the tables are turned on Santa Fe police chief, Kevin Kearney when he becomes a suspect in a possible murder investigation. He is cleared fairly early in the game, but not before he becomes immersed in the investigation himself.

Overall, the Kevein Kearney series is a good one. The primary cast of characters is fully realized, likeable, and sympathetic. The problem in this book is that the plot and characters contained within are not exciting or interesting to keep your attention. I found myself often putting the book down. Michael McGarritty is a good writer, but all good writers can have a misstep.

Michael McGarrity has continued his excellent series with Slow Kill. We get a change of scenery when Chief Kearney gets involved in a murder that takes place while he is in California. There are ties to Santa Fe that at first make him a suspect, but once cleared he gets involved in solving the case with the help of several other police offices in both California and Santa Fe. These characters each have a share of the action in this book while Kearney takes more of a background role. As part of the story he investigates the possiblity that the son of the murdered man wasn't killed in Vietnam as has been believed for thirty years.

Kearney's life outside of his job includes starting a horse breeding business and trying to deal with the long distance relationship with his wife and young son. As always, McGarrity keeps us captivated as he leads us through the evidence and the search for the killer. You can't go wrong by spending a few enjoyable hours reading this latest entry in one of my favorite series.

Seattle has J.P. Beaumont, Boston has Spenser, and Santa Fe has Kevin Kerney. SLOW KILL by Michael McGarrity is the latest in this excellent series and is sure to attract new readers who appreciate a story's ambiance as well as its characters and plot. New Mexico, Land of Enchantment, plays an important role without ever crowding the pages of this fast-paced novel.

SLOW KILL begins with Kerney, Santa Fe Police Chief, making a trip to California to buy quarter horses. He finds some prime stock at the posh horse ranch, but before he can close the deal he finds himself a suspect in the death of a wealthy rancher. While the aging Clifford Spalding had some medical problems, his sudden death was both unexpected and suspicious. Before learning that Kerney is a cop, San Luis Obispo Sheriff's Department Sergeant Lowrey makes some giant leaps to connect Kerney to the dead man but soon gains respect and admiration for our hero.

In the process of seeking to prove his innocence, Kerney uncovers a parallel mystery that eventually ties into the original homicide. There's a lot cooking here with more ingredients than a French recipe, but McGarrity's no-nonsense style makes it easy to follow and hard to put down.

In addition to the murder mystery, Kerney keeps gnawing away at the mystery surrounding the death of the victim's son that occurred thirty years ago in Vietnam. Spalding's first wife, now known as Crazy Alice, has refused to accept her son's death, claiming to have seen him at various times through the years. Is there a connection between the death of the father and that of the son? Could the son still be alive? With the help of his own expert team, Chief Kerney follows the clues to several exciting conclusions --- some suspected, others totally unexpected.

McGarrity writes with the insight and understanding of an ex-cop; he has witnessed crimes, taken endless notes and written thorough reports. While lacking none of the familiarity with police procedures found in works by Joseph Waumbaugh, McGarrity thankfully leaves out much of the more graphic and profane elements that are often gratuitous and distracting. SLOW KILL is the ninth book in his Kevin Kerney series and is sure to inspire new readers to go back and enjoy the others, beginning with TULAROSA.

--- Reviewed by Maggie Harding, a substance abuse counselor in Phoenix, AZ who wanted to be Brenda Starr before life intervened. She also reviews for www.womenonwriting.com. To contact Maggie, e-mail Magster2@cox.net.

Michael McGarrity is a retired policeman, like his alter ego, Kevin Kerney. You get the idea that the character is closely based on the writer, right down to the double initials in their names (M.M. and K.K.). Kerney has graduated in the series to the point that he's the police chief of Santa Fe, New Mexico, but since there are so few murders there, for this to be a murder mystery, McGarrity has to have Kerney go to California, shopping for horses, and stumble on a dead body.

The victim turns out to be a wealthy socialite, and at first the local authorities suspect Kerney of being involved, and investigate him. Once that dries up, the investigation turns towards the guys wife, an attractive younger woman who has a wandering eye. As the book moves slowly along, the killer becomes apparent rather early and easily.

There's a second plot in the later part of the book, involving Kerney's wife (an Army officer) and her investigation of alleged cover-ups involving Army personnel involved in sexual assault cases, some including actual rapes. This plot thread doesn't finish at the end of the book, leaving us to wonder if he's going to continue it in the next entry in the series.

I enjoyed this book, but only to a certain extent. This is by far the slowest of the Kevin Kerney novels, with virtually no suspense and no real mystery. The author has a good command of characters and dialog, and some of the interchanges between Kerney and the other characters were fun, but the plot is very slow and predictable. I definitely think that you'd be better off starting this series out with one of his other books.

With his military wife and their new baby off at her duty station at the Pentagon, Santa Fe Police Chief Kevin Kerney takes some time off and goes to California to look at some horses. A friend and Kerney are going into business together and they need several quarter horses to serve as breeding stock. Kerney on arrival in California checks out the situation and goes to bed. The next morning he quickly becomes the number one suspect.

Kerney, by luck of the draw, is the first one to find the recently deceased Clifford Spalding. His wife, now a widow, happens to live in Santa Fe and is about Kerney's age. Like Kerney and his wife, Spaulding and his spent a lot of time apart. Those facts, as well as several other coincidences make Kerney a suspect as far as local law enforcement is concerned and Kerney has no choice but to investigate to clear his name.

In so doing, he uncovers clues to a separate case stretching back thirty years to the last days of the Vietnam War. As always, Kerney is a hands on investigator set in his ways and he manages to annoy quite a few folks in his search for the truth. But he knows only one way to do things and as such, this latest novel in the series, is another riveting read.

This series features complex real characters that the reader quickly comes to care about. That fact, the obvious appreciation for the beauty of New Mexico and other parts, along with the complex mysteries and plenty of action, make every novel in this series just a bit better than the last. This latest effort is no exception and well worth your time.


Book Facts:

Slow Kill: A Kevin Kerney Novel
By Michael McGarrity
www.michaelmcgarrity.net
Dutton
www.penguin.com
2004
ISBN # 0-525-94799-X
Hardback
278 Pages
$23.95 US
$35.00 Canada

This review previously appeared online at The Blue Iris Journal Blog.


Kevin R. Tipple © 2005

McGarrity is one of my favorite mystery writers. His stories are atmospheric, the characters human in their own intriguing lives, and the hunt devious. Slow Kill begins with Santa Fe Police Chief Kevin Kerney on vacation and, I'm afraid, rather continues in that vein throughout the pursuit of a murderer. McGarrity is more relaxed than usual and it shows. Other investigators besides Kearny are off the patch, almost moonlighting, going different directions, and turning over one seemingly incidental rock after another. They find remarkable traces of perfidy, like tendrils of a large web seen from the vantge point of a small fly. Irregular police work, baseless suspicions, chance, convenient connections, happenstance, and serendipity: they play a too-large role in exposing the strands that eventually come together with, yes, a case. The only death is on p. 7 and its true nature is only slowly exposed, perhaps thus accounting for the title. McGarrity doesn't drop clues as Agatha Christie did; these are more suspense and police procedural stories than mysteries or thrillers.

McGarrity clearly likes his characters, rounds out their on-the-job personalities, develops Kerney's stressful marriage, and doesn't do too badly by the villains. Writers of series eventually face the problem of marriage: a hero without a wife soon loses his moral authority through the Scylla of inconstancy or Charybdis of a debilitating fear of commitment, while his family can become a target only once without becoming a cheap plot device for a tired writer. Fortunately, McGarrity solves this quandry by writing Kerney's wife, Sara, as a career Army officer who is frequently called away, thus allowing Kerney to remain an honorable man yet unencumbered when necessary.

McGarrity's switch of publishers from Scribner to Dutton has done him poorly. I really dislike the cover art they've given McGarrity in his last two books. Generic urban scenes have no place for an author with such a powerful sense of place. The tension in these Big Sky books is well below the usual frenetic urban Sandford or the hysteria of Cornwall. Contributing to the lessened suspense of Slow Kill is splitting the action between New Mexico, California, and Virginia; introducing parallel investigations, two lead investigators, two strong suspects, and diffuse story lines; and leaving actual forensics to outsiders' reports. As in the previous novel, EVERYONE DIES, the conclusion is also a bit rushed, loose, and perfunctory. I now like the beginnings when all is fresh and tantalizing, better than I do the endings, when McGarrity is just wrapping up the obvious threads in a workmanlike fashion. I don't think these are his two best stories, in a very good body of work. If you haven't read McGarrity before I suggest you start with TULAROSA, because Kerney's career and family developments are a huge dimension, and play a role in this series.

This book is very densely plotted...too much so. There are too many characters and details, making it a tough slog.

But the real reason I feel compelled to share my experience (and, as a writer, I shy away from criticizing others' efforts) is that the ending is so incredibly abrupt, making me wonder if they edited it down for the paperback version. We join the climactic scene after it is already well in progress...I thought I was missing some pages but I wasn't. And everything is suddenly wrapped up in a page and a half. Given where the story stood, I thought another 50 pages remained and were needed. Turns out those pages were a preview of his next book.

As it was, it was all work and little payoff. And the main characters didn't really draw me in like Laura Lippman's Tess or Larry Block's Matt Scudder.

I admire the author's plotting skills and knowledge, but there's an editor who did him a real disservice.

I love most of McGarrity's books, but can't help but wonder if he's running out of steam - or maybe turning out too many books, too often.