Slow Kill (Hardcover)

~ (Author)
Key Phrases: arrest affidavit, badge case, cutting horses, Claudia Spalding, Clifford Spalding, George Spalding (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In McGarrity's latest Kevin Kerney procedural, Kerney, police chief of Santa Fe, N.Mex., is drawn into a messy murder investigation while vacationing at a California ranch. A wealthy hotel magnate, Clifford Spalding, dies of poisoning in the guest room next to Kerney's. Finding himself a suspect, Kerney decides to pursue the case on his own for a few days, uncovering some peculiar circumstances and characters in Spalding's background. They include an unfaithful trophy wife and her shady boyfriend, a deranged and bitter ex-wife and a missing son who presumably died in Vietnam 30 years ago, as well as a couple of police officials who are not as forthcoming as one would expect. Within a few days, Kerney is cleared by California authorities and returns home to more familiar ground. But because of the case's Santa Fe connections, he and his stable of detectives continue the pursuit. As in McGarrity's eight previous Kerney novels (Everyone Dies; etc.), the author excels at detailing police procedures as well as creating a homespun, wry tone that suits setting and characters. His action sequences are shakier, however, and several highly dramatic moments—the arrest of the main suspect, her release and eventual capture—are flat and hurried. A bit more attention to pacing and momentum could give this appealing series a needed shot of adrenaline.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Santa Fe police chief Kevin Kerney is visiting a Santa Barbara ranch, looking to buy quarter horses, when he stumbles on the dead body of another guest staying at the ranch. Kerney looks like a prime suspect, which prompts him to make a few inquiries of his own. The trail leads Kerney on a crisscrossing journey around the country, with a stop-off at FBI headquarters in Virginia, near where his wife, Sarah, a career army officer, is stationed at the Pentagon. As in past episodes in this long-running series, McGarrity juggles police procedural and domestic story lines effectively, drawing readers into the dynamics of Kerney's long-distance marriage just as he unerringly charts the painstaking investigative work that defines the lives of real-world cops. Precise realism remains McGarrity's hallmark; his own experience as a deputy sheriff and as a therapist working with abuse victims informs his fiction on every page. This is not a series for those who hope to find either high-octane excitement or existential angst in their cop novels. McGarrity's milieu is the quotidian reality of a cop's life. Bill Ott
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: Dutton Adult; 1st ed/1st printing edition (August 19, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 052594799X
• ISBN-13: 978-0525947998
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #645,082 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

• This is item 9 in The Kevin Kerney Series.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An excellent series continues, November 4, 2004

By	R. Kelly Wagner "[e-mail]" (MD, United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

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.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars excellent police procedural , August 20, 2004

By	Harriet Klausner - See all my reviews (#1 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

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

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not the best in the series, October 4, 2004

By	A. Christie "bibliofiend508" (Plano, TX United States) - See all my reviews

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.