Review: “Desolate Angel”
I picked this book up mostly because of the tag line: “A good cop never gives up the ghost…” With a line like that, what’s not to love?
The premise of the story is fantastic. A cop has been killed (okay, that’s not so fantastic, but bear with me!), but hasn’t moved “to the light.” As the story progresses, we learn that Detective Kevin Fahey was a drunk and a bit of a jerk. He was also a lazy cop.
Fahey spends some time trying to determine out why he’s “still here” and hasn’t moved on when he’s visited by the victim of one of his previous cases — one of the few he’d “solved” in the last few years of his life. That visitation leads Fahey to another body eerily similar to the previous victim, which forces Fahey to realize the wrong man is in prison for the crime.
As a spirit, Fahey can’t do much in the investigation. At one point, the dead detective tries to move something and the effort drains him for hours. He does however keep track of the investigation’s progress by following around his replacement, Detective Maggie Gunn.
I enjoyed the premise of the story and I think there is some serious potential for additional novels with these characters. However, the choice to write this novel in first-person from Fahey’s point of view drove me batty. In fact, I described the POV to one friend as “first-third person” — yes, it’s written in first person, but Fahey is telling us everything as if it were written in third. Clearly that was done for a reason. As a spirit, Fahey didn’t communicate with anyone. Dialogue seemed almost non-existent in points. I would like to see future novels in this series have more of the dialogue. In my opinion, the overall writing was very much “telling” as opposed to “showing.” Again, I attribute that to the POV issue.
Overall, I really enjoyed the story and how the characters grew from page one to page two hundred and ninety-eight. I look forward to another “Dead Detective” novel by Chaz McGee.
Blessings!
Nichole