On the streets of Minneapolis, Sarah has worked everything from vice to missing persons. But six months after the death of a small-town criminal in rural Minnesota, Sarah is still protecting the identity of a killer. And now a zealous D.A.’s investigator has come to town, determined to make an arrest. With her ex-partner half a world away and her husband in prison, only Sarah remains to face the consequences of last fall. Surrounded by colleagues who know her to be the suspect in a murder, Sarah keeps her demons at bay by involving herself in the troubles of strangers. Seventeen-year-old Aidan Hennessy was banished from his family by his father. Now Aidan’s twin sister is desperately searching for the brother she hasn’t seen in years. Although the case is out of Sarah’s jurisdiction, she sees a reflection of herself in the troubled, damaged family, and agrees to investigate. As she probes into their tangled history, Sarah begins to realize that the mystery of the Hennessys runs deeper than it appears. Then Sarah’s lieutenant gives her a simpler assignment: Track down a doctor rumored to be practicing medicine without a license in a housing project. But in Cicero Ruiz, Sarah finds a tough, wounded survivor whose moral code challenges her own ideas about justice…and whose hard-won life would be destroyed by an arrest. Now juggling two very different cases, both requiring a delicate balancing act between professional honor and personal feelings, Sarah soon has even more at stake. Caught up in a cat-and-mouse game with the investigator who wants to end her career, crossing one ethical line after another, Sarah increasingly fears that a misstep on her part will end not only in her disgrace, but in the death of one of those she has promised herself to protect.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com Review
Sarah Pribek, a Minneapolis missing persons detective, is under suspicion. Investigated but not yet charged in the arson murder of the man who raped and killed her best friend's daughter, she's protecting the identity of the real perpetrator, even though a zealous prosecutor is closing in and threatening to indict her. With her husband in jail in Wisconsin for a crime related to the same case (only alluded to briefly here, but fully explicated in The 37th Hour, the first in the series featuring Pribek), the detective finds herself involved in two other assignments where the line between justice and the law is also murky. When the eldest daughter of reclusive novelist Hugh Hennessy enlists her aid in finding the twin brother mysteriously sent away by her father several years earlier, Sarah agrees to investigate, even though there's no indication that Aidan Hennessy left his last foster home except of his own volition, and as far as Sarah can detrermine, the 17-year-old has committed no crimes. When the elder Hennessy is felled by a stroke, Sarah finds herself appointed as temporary guardian of his children, at least until Marlinchen, the daughter, comes of age and can be appoointed their guardian and Hugh's conservator. And the more time Sarah spends with the family, the more certain she is that Aidan isn't who he and his siblings think he is, although she's reluctant to add to the family's travails by seeking the evidence to support her hunch.
She's just as hesitant to make an arrest in her other case--that of a charismatic quadriplegic suspected of practicing medicine illegally. Sarah's relationship with Cisco Ruiz is a complex one, and in the telling of it, Compton brings into sharp relief the moral quandaries that challenge her protagonist. This is a well-plotted mystery with characters who resonate in the reader's consciousness long after the last page is turned, intelligently plotted and deftly crfafted. --Jane Adams --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Publishers Weekly
As Compton's first-rate sequel to her impressive debut (The 37th Hour) begins, Minneapolis detective Sarah Pribek of the Hennepin County Sheriff's Department struggles to forget the incident that left her ex-partner in exile in Europe and her husband in prison. Unsentimental, often unyielding, Pribek works her cases: playing decoy for vice, saving the life of a drowning immigrant boy, tracking down a doctor practicing without a license and making inquiries about a teenage girl's runaway twin brother, all while an ambitious district attorney, among others, believes that Pribek, not her husband, killed rapist-murderer Royce Stewart. Like the first Pribek novel, this is more than a simple police procedural, despite its "just the facts" narrative. Parallels between the life of the missing boy and the detective's own adolescence prompt painful memories, while Pribek's evolving relationship with the unlicensed doctor, a wheelchair-bound tenement hero far more attractive and complicated than her informant suggested, prompts her to re-examine the limitations of the law. This multilayered, touching tale of crimes and misdemeanors prompts reader and detective alike to calculate "the mathematics of the human psyche." If it only occasionally achieves the emotional impact of its predecessor, it confirms without a doubt that Compton is a gifted creator of flawed, believable characters—foremost among them her hard-nosed, warmhearted detective.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Sarah Pribek Gives Her All,
By Untouchable (Sydney, NSW Australia) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Sympathy Between Humans (Hardcover)
Sympathy Between Humans is Jodi Compton's second novel and is the sequel to The 37th Hour, reintroducing us to Hennepin County Sheriff's Department Detective Sarah Pribek. The events of the previous book are still hanging over Sarah's head as the story opens with a quick recap bringing those who hadn't read the first book up to speed.
A couple of unrelated, yet deeply absorbing cases dominate the book. The first begins when Marlinchen Hennessey walks in to Sarah's office. She has the type of story that has been heard numerous times before by numerous police around the world. Marlinchen's 17 year old twin brother, Aidan, has gone missing. There's nothing unusual in that, but then she goes on to reveal that not only has he been missing for two months, but he was living in Georgia at the time. Being a busy cop, Sarah has also been given the job of locating someone who has been practicing medicine without a license. Her task is to use her contacts to find the phony doctor and shut him down before he causes some real damage. Finding him isn't a problem, not becoming emotionally involved with a caring man who is obviously a terrific doctor but is denied the right to practice because of a silly mistake? Yep, now that's a problem. Finally, there's the little matter of the other shoe dropping, and it looks as though it will come in the form of an internal investigation. Just what Sarah needs is the distraction of some very pointed questions and a forensic investigation taking place with her as the subject under the microscope. From the moment the book opens with Sarah diving into a dirty storm-water drain to save some young boys to her heroics later on, there is barely time to draw breath. Yet Sarah still has time to suffer a debilitating illness, carry on a lightning-fast (although completely unrealistic and out of place) affair and generally get the stuffing knocked out of herself. Piled on top of the some character analysis, Compton hits us with a multitude of plot twists at the end that will, if you're anything like me, have you reeling with one closely following the other. There is a risk of over-loading the senses with too many shocks in too short a time, but it's definitely a book that will remain with you long after you've finished. I think Jodi Compton has surpassed her excellent debut with a compelling second book in Sympathy Between Humans.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Even better than her first novel...,
This review is from: Sympathy Between Humans (Hardcover)
"Sympathy Between Humans" cuts to the bone of police work. Hennepin County Sheriff's Deputy Sarah Pribek has more on her plate than she can deal with:
Her husband, Mike Shiloh, is in jail in Wisconsin for stealing a car which he was going to use in the commission of a revenge murder "Shorty" who'd raped and killed a friend's (and Sarah's former partner's) teenage daughter. Sarah herself is under suspicion of actually killing "Shorty." Despite not being the motherly type, Sarah's gotten guardianship of a family of five children whose famous author father is incapacitated by a stroke. Her first exposure to the family was when Marlinchen, the eldest daughter, came to Sarah to help her find her missing brother, who'd been given away by their father to a family friend in Georgia. Marlinchen's brother, Aidan, eventually shows up and the mystery around him grows stronger. The family is not what they seem and the further she digs, the more dark secrets she uncovers. Finally, she's asked to investigate an unlicensed physician operating out of the local housing projects. Can she actually bust a man who turns out to be doing so much good in the projects? Sarah's choices change the destiny of several people, including her own. Sarah's going to have to face some ugly parts of her past--and potentially troublesome future in the next installations of her series. What I like most about Jodi Compton's work is that it's very realistic police procedural. No one doing any kind of casework gets things done in a linear fashion. Deputy Pribek is constantly shifting from one hot issue to another with various incidentals thrown in. 'Sympathy Between Humans" is a tough book to read, but a strongly impressive one. Jodi Compton is definitely an author to watch in the future.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Riveting,
By
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Sympathy Between Humans (Hardcover)
I have read and liked hundreds of books over the years, and several that I have not liked. This in the first time I have felt motivated to write a favorable review. I read and liked The 37th Hour, so when Sympathy Between Humans came out I bought and read it. I will not give a plot summary, as that is readily available elsewhere. Ms. Compton has written a book that really moves along, and that at the same time has excellent character development. I felt that she really put me in the shoes of the protagonist. As the book progressed I was concerned that it could not have a satisfactory ending without being totally contrived. (By satisfactory I do not mean that everyone lives "happily ever after". I simply mean that I can finish the book feeling very glad that I read it.) Ms. Compton concluded the book in a realistic and satisfactory manner. I am looking forward to the next book in the series.
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