Black and Blue

Starred review from March 18, 2019
In Edgar finalist Rosenfelt’s outstanding third Doug Brock novel (after 2018’s Fade to Black), Brock, a New Jersey State Police homicide lieutenant who lost some of his memories after being shot in the head several years earlier, hopes this handicap won’t compromise a high-pressure investigation. Someone shot attorney Alex Randowsky through the heart as Randowsky was leaving a tennis court. The m.o. is identical to the murder of affluent businessman Walter Brookings, who was killed shortly before Brock’s brain injury; Brock has no independent memories of his role in investigating that case. But as he reviews the case files, he’s haunted by the possibility that gun collector Danny Phelan, a suspect he dismissed in Brookings’s death, and who was in prison between the two killings, is actually responsible for both deaths. The investigation takes a personal turn when the killer sends Brock a taunting note, stating that he’s already taken two lives, with 98 more to go. Dead ends and red herrings abound as the action builds to a jaw-dropping reveal. Rosenfelt knocks it out of the park with this fiendishly twisty serial killer thriller. Agent: Robin Rue, Writers House.

October 1, 2018

A New Jersey state police officer who suffers from amnesia after being shot in the line of duty, Doug Brock is roped into a case he was investigating before his accident and starts wondering why he eliminated one obvious suspect. Reconstructing what happened leads him into dark territory indeed. Third in a series (after Fade to Black) from the Edgar and Shamus Award-nominated author.

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