Sunrise Highway

Starred review from July 2, 2018
Bestseller Blauner’s excellent sequel to 2017’s Proving Ground connects two strong story lines—the discovery of a body washed up on a beach in Far Rockaway, Queens, and a trail of murdered women along Long Island’s Route 27 (aka Sunrise Highway) that dates back to 1977. The case involving the body found on the beach—a badly decomposed pregnant woman with stones lodged in her throat—resonates with NYPD Det. Lourdes Robles, whose sister has been missing for six months. But as she begins to find connections between the killing and numerous murders out of her jurisdiction in Suffolk County, she becomes entangled with police chief Joey Tolliver, a charmer who has more than a few skeletons in his closet. The intertwining narratives—Robles’s investigation and Tolliver’s shadowy backstory—make for an action-packed and plot twist–laden thriller. Exploring such subjects as police corruption, misogyny, and racism, this is a page-turner of the highest order. Agent: Richard Pine, Inkwell Management.

July 1, 2018
A string of murders on Long Island leads a New York cop into a web of corrupt police officers and politicians in this first-rate suspense novel.When NYPD Detective Lourdes Robles visits the family of a murdered woman, she's outraged that the Long Island Police did nothing when the victim was reported missing nor saw the connections to five similar murders in the course of 15 years. The negligence touches a nerve because Robles' younger sister has been missing for months, but it also eventually points to a powerful police chief who has good reason to want the killings overlooked. Blauner (Proving Ground, 2017, etc.) borrows a few characters from his previous outing, notably Robles, who is the heart and soul at the book's center, as well as her aged Yoda, Kevin Sullivan.The murderer is revealed early on, and the story shifts among several time frames to show how 17-year-old Joseph Tolliver, the son of a policeman, rises to become top cop on Long Island in 2017 and, along the way, a serial killer. It begins when Tolliver lies as the star witness in a 1977 murder trial to help a crooked detective. That marks the start of his storing up favors and influence, manipulating weakness and frailty and the code of silence behind the badge. Other years in focus are 1982, when he commits his first murder as a policeman, and 2012, when he tries something different with a victim. The central conflict doesn't favor Robles, a savvy but impetuous, flawed woman bridling at the Alpha-male cop world, compared with the coolly malign Tolliver, hampering, threatening, and mulling when to quash this hunter, as he has others. Blauner excels with strong, realistic characters, believable police work, and smart, propulsive dialogue.A highly readable and unnervingly close-to-home view of power in the service of evil.

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September 15, 2018

In Blauner's second book in the series (after Proving Ground), young and ambitious Latina NYPD Det. Lourdes Robles heads to Long Island to investigate the death of a young, pregnant woman whose body has washed up on a New York City beach, leading to the discovery of a series of unsolved murders of women along the Sunrise Highway. Instead of cooperation on Long Island, Robles is stonewalled by police, the district attorney, and even the courts. Chapters jump from decade to decade between 1977 and 2017, focusing on the killer's escalation and concentration of power, the investigators who concentrate on finding the killer, and details of the crimes. The murderer is well-developed and a pleasure to root against, evoking genuine anger and frustration from readers, who will find the book difficult to put down. Robles and her personal issues are sincerely conveyed but underexplored, particularly her relationship with her boyfriend. VERDICT This fast-paced, well-told police procedural and thriller with a serial killer, conspiracies, and police corruption will appeal to fans of Reed Farrel Coleman and John Verdon. [See Prepub Alert, 3/12/18.]--George Lichman, Rocky River, OH

Copyright 2018 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

September 15, 2018

During a mid-Seventies Long Island summer, troubled teen JT's testimony helps convict a high school football star of a schoolgirl's murder. Decades later, with numerous women found murdered along Long Island's Sunrise Highway, NYPD detective Lourdes Robles yanks away at the tangled threads connecting the victims and numerous local high-ups, including JT, now a chief of police. Second in the Edgar Award-winning, New York Times best-selling author's Robles series.

Copyright 2018 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.