One evening over an excellent dinner, my friend David Swinson and I were complaining about mistakes made in TV shows related to cops, crime, and corpses.
Our families wholeheartedly agreed that we both spoil movies for them and gladly send us out of the room so they can watch in peace. With this background information in mind, you will be pleased to hear that I found a book that surprised me because I got it wrong!
Kevin Murray, the author of Blood of the Rose, is a master story-teller. Without giving away the plot or the characters, he described the actions in such a way that they applied to a few people in the story. And I had my money in the wrong basket. That is just awesome!
In an interview, Kevin said that the inspiration for this book came from an old case from the sixties, the Boksburg Lake Murders. Of course, after I had read the book I had to check these out too. I quote:
“On the morning of 27th October 1964, a young teacher, Mr Robert Bekker made a grisly discovery. On the western shore of Boksburg Lake, in a suitcase was a middle-aged woman’s decapitated torso, covered in plastic, brown paper and a sheet. Although there were numerous stab wounds in her chest and back, a postmortem revealed that these had been inflicted after her death. The victim had first been battered and then had her throat cut. She had been in the water between 24 and 48 hours.”
How he got from this case to his book is for you to find out.
In general, the first thing people mention about this book is the difficult relationship between the press and the authorities in cases of crime and investigations. However, I think the primary concern in this book is the relationship between police officers, the blind trust between them, how fragile that trust is, and how incredibly difficult working together can be. Our main characters could not be further apart in history, upbringing, experience, and life skills. But they are forced together and somehow have to make it work.
One word of critique: I was surprised that at the end the author had chosen for the epic battle style between good and evil being fought out between the cop and the murderer leaving no room for the cop’s partner. The cop’s partner was crucial and in fact more instrumental to the case than the one who gets the last bit of action.
The epilogue gave me a Bonny Bedelia flashback. After you are done reading, let me know if you thought of that role she played as well.
I received a free PDF version of this book through AuthorAmp in exchange for an honest review.
Highly recommended reading.