From Publishers Weekly
Defense attorney Yessayan's promising debut nicely juggles a large cast of attorneys and cops, though at times it comes close to sounding like a legal spinoff of the TV show Friends. Someone is killing young women in Boston, or at least young women are disappearing, leaving behind no trace except bathtubs full of blood. The police are pretty sure the victims must be dead, but no bodies have been found. The killer, who's identified for the reader as Richter, is doing something with the bodies that involves embalming, but it remains unclear what he's up to until the very end. Extended forays into race relations, the plight of the poor and questions of legal responsibility tend to slow the action. Hopefully, Yessayan, who doesn't stray beyond the conventional bounds of the legal thriller/serial killer subgenre, will strike out in his own direction next time. (June)
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From
The television series Law and Order meets the city of Boston in this first novel. A serial killer drains the blood from his victims, leaves it in the bathtub, and then removes the body from the scene. Newly promoted to homicide, Detective Angel Alves wants to prove his worth to his superiors, even at the cost of his marriage. Assistant District Attorney Conrad Daget struggles to juggle the hundreds of cases piled on his desk and still help officers and attorneys catch this elusive maniac.Β First-novelist YessayanΒ provides a deeper, more complex look inside the criminal-justice system than we usually see on television, and he holds our interest with a cast of full-bodied characters. The plot begins to fall apart a bit near the end, but Yessayan saves the best for last and redeems himself. For a better read, ignore the jacket blurb, which gives away too much. --Jeff Ayers