Dangerous Ends

February 27, 2017
Segura’s flawed third Pete Fernandez mystery (after 2016’s Down the Darkest Street) finds the Miami, Fla., PI, who’s been doing routine investigative work, drawn into a re-examination of the notorious Gaspar Verela case. Verela, a former Miami narcotics officer, was convicted of the slashing murder of his wife, but has maintained his innocence, despite losing multiple appeal efforts. Verela’s daughter wants Kathy Bentley, a friend of Pete’s who’s been a newspaper columnist, to write a book that will help prove his innocence. When Pete and Kathy, aided by retired FBI agent Robert Harras, uncover connections to a deadly pro-Castro street gang, they start receiving warnings to back off, which become more and more forceful. Meanwhile, a link emerges to the murder of Pete’s grandfather, Diego Fernandez, in 1959 Cuba. A traditional tarnished-knight detective, Pete takes a beating but perseveres even when everyone from Verela to his partners seem to be against him, in a case with dark, unexpected twists—and unlikely coincidences. Agent: Dara Hyde, Hill Nadel Literary Agency.

Starred review from February 15, 2018
It's been five years since Harrington's last novel (The Rat Machine), and that's way too long for readers who have come to appreciate this uncompromising author's ability to probe the many shades of darkness that his characters confront both in their own psyches and in the world around them. San Francisco Police Detective Michael O'Higgins is attempting, unsuccessfully, to recover from the death of his wife in a freak sailing accident. Therapy seems to help, pulling him from the suicidal spiral into which he had fallen and prompting him to return to work, but the double murder of a prominent Indian businessman and the family's nanny only increases his turmoil, driven by his attraction to the dead man's wife, Asha, who is the main suspect in the case. As Harrington parcels out the story, jumping back and forth in time, we watch as Michael risks his career to prove Asha's innocence, finding in his feelings for her a possible way back to life. The finale leaves a few plot strands untied, but Harrington's focus is on the inner lives of all his characters, large and small, and their various attempts to deal with grief and the suffering they find at the core of life. A powerful, well-wrought psychological thriller.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)