Freeman, Brian – IMMORAL

[LJ Roberts]

IMMORAL (Police Procedural-Duluth, MN-Cont) – Ex Freeman, Brian – 1st book
St. Martin’s Minotaur, 2005- Hardcover

Lt. Jonathan Stride, is investigating the second case of a girl who has disappeared without a trace. The first girl was sweet, well-liked and never found. Now a second girl has disappeared, but she’s hard, promiscuous, has a very adversarial relationship with her mother and there’s something not right about the relationship with the step father. Are the cases related? Are the girls dead or runaways?

Boy, what an amazing debut. Freeman has constructed a story with strong, interesting characters. Their strengths and shortcomings are all very real. Freeman’s sense of place and dialogue are strong and involving. His plot is tight, gripping and has more twists than Lombard Street all the way to the very end. I was never able to project where the story was going next. This is a captivating book and I highly recommend it.