Goodbye to the Dead

Starred review from January 18, 2016
The recovery of a gun used to kill a young woman outside a seedy Duluth, Minn., bar propels Freeman’s deftly plotted seventh Jonathan Stride novel (after 2014’s The Cold Nowhere). Nine years earlier, Dr. Janine Snow, a highly respected heart specialist, went to prison for fatally shooting her abrasive journalist husband, Jay Ferris. The gun used on Ferris wasn’t found, until the bar murder. The older case has a personal connection for police detective Stride; his beloved late wife, Cindy, was Janine’s best friend and drove her home on the night of the crime. Stride and Serena Dial, a police officer who’s also his girlfriend, investigate both murders. Meanwhile, Stride and Serena must deal with the problems of their pregnant 17-year-old ward, Cat Mateo. Stride’s heartfelt memories of Cindy and his reluctance to fully commit to Serena, coupled with an in-depth look at the book’s supporting characters, make this police procedural a standout. Agent: Deborah Schneider, Gelfman Schneider Literary Agents.

January 1, 2016
Nine years after his late wife's friend was convicted of killing her husband, Lt. Jonathan Stride of the Duluth Police Department finds new evidence that reopens the case and tears him up as well. Everyone knew that hotshot surgeon Dr. Janine Snow and her third husband, newspaper columnist Jay Ferris, had their troubles, but nobody expected them to end with Jay shot to death in his home while Janine was in the shower just minutes after Cindy Stride dropped her off after an evening out. The evidence against Janine is strong. Jay was certainly alive when Cindy left his house and dead very shortly thereafter, and he'd just discovered not one but two explosive secrets Janine was desperate to keep under wraps. Defense attorney Archie Gale, for his part, makes much of the absence of physical evidence and the murder weapon's disappearance. The trial does nothing to change anyone's mind about Janine's innocence or guilt--but it does change the vote of one juror, history teacher Howard Marlowe, who'd gone into the trial worshiping Janine from afar but found himself voting to convict her anyway. Nearly a decade after Cindy died and Janine was sentenced, the murder gun is tied to a shooting a few weeks before Jay's murder and the more recent killing of telemarketer Kelly Hauswirth, putting a completely different complexion on the case. Meanwhile, Freeman (The Burning Place, 2010, etc.) keeps the pot boiling by introducing a mall shooting, a sex trafficking ring, and the personal perils of Cat Mateo, the orphan Stride and Cindy took in all those years ago. If you're looking for a full docket, Freeman pays off in spades. But the felonies are only loosely linked, and the solutions are less compelling than the setups. Below average for this accomplished, ambitious series.

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Starred review from January 1, 2016
Past and present merge in Freeman's seventh Jonathan Stride mystery, adding depth to the characters of Stride and those close to him. Nine years earlier, surgeon Janine Snowa lauded and life-saving doctor but a cold, calculating personwas convicted of killing her husband, controversial newspaper columnist Jay Ferris, in their Duluth home, ending a marriage that was known to be stormy. Stride's wife, Cindy, a close friend of Snow's, became involved in the case because she had driven the doctor home from a party the evening of the crime. But the gun that killed Ferris was never found, nor was the jewelry that Snow said had been stolen in what she claimed was a theft turned murderous. Cindy Stride died the following year. Now Stride and fellow detective Serena Dial are working on their relationship with its rocky past, along with housing a troubled pregnant teenager, when Dial finds a gun recently used to kill a young woman that turns out to be the Ferris murder weapon, too. Freeman skillfully weaves together diverse story lines, from the old murder to a sex-slavery operation, with twists that build suspense, in this fine, character-driven addition to a strong series.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)