Hangman

Nurse Adrianna Blanc is found strangled at a construction site near the hospital where she worked. Mitchell Greenberg narrates at a steady pace with subtle characterizations. His gravelly voice draws listeners into the circuitous plot. LAPD Detective Peter Decker and his team are chasing Blanc's killer across Southern California and Nevada. At the same time, Decker becomes the unofficial guardian of Gabe Whitman, the son of hit man Chris Donatti and his estranged wife, both of whom have disappeared from L.A. Greenberg's evenly paced reading becomes more emotional as the plot twists and turns. Decker splits his attention between his family obligations and finding the killers while his wife, Rina Lazarus, helps Gabe adjust to their unusual family dynamic. M.B.K. (c) AudioFile 2010, Portland, Maine

March 3, 2014
Talty’s fast-paced sequel to 2013’s Black Irish breaks no new ground and relies on clichés common to serial killer novels. Brilliant Buffalo, N.Y., police detective Abbie Kearney and her colleagues are on high alert when a serial killer nicknamed the Hangman escapes while being transferred to Attica, killing one of his guards. Years before, the Hangman held the city hostage as he stalked and killed teenage girls from Buffalo’s wealthy neighborhood. Despite the intense hunt, the Hangman kidnaps another girl. When higher-ups tell Abbie to back off her investigation, she turns to the Network, a shady group of ex-cops and longtime residents from the County, the city’s working-class Irish section, where Abbie was raised. The Network moves outside the law to get results, and Abbie knows once she teams with them, it puts her on dangerous moral ground. The smooth narrative and evocative look at Buffalo’s history don’t disguise the predictable twists or the too obvious villain. Agent: Scott Waxman, Waxman Leavell Literary.