The Violated

January 9, 2017
In the prologue of this disappointing standalone from MWA Grand Master Pronzini (The Hidden), two Santa Rita, Calif., cops inspect the dead body of Martin Torrey lying on a grassy riverbank. Whoever shot Torrey in the groin may have done so as an act of vigilante justice, since Torrey was the prime suspect in a series of recent rapes in which the perpetrator always wore a condom. When Torrey, who had a history as a sex offender, moved from Ohio to Santa Rita, he failed to register with the authorities as required by law, but people soon learned about his past. That a case couldn’t be built against Torrey furthered tensions between the town’s self-centered and nakedly ambitious mayor, Hugh Delahunt, and police chief Griffin Kells, who landed his position despite Delahunt’s support of another candidate for the job. The effort to identify Torrey’s killer involves reinterviewing the rape victims, whose perspectives help humanize the novel. Unfortunately, Pronzini’s choice to include the perspectives of other, often-inconsequential characters dilutes the emotional impact. Agent: Dominick Abel, Dominick Abel Literary Agency.

November 15, 2016

Santa Rita, CA, police chief Griffin Kells and detective Robert Ortiz suspect Martin Torrey, a registered sex offender, of raping several women. They are unable to arrest him owing to the lack of physical evidence and the victims' inability to confirm the identity of their attacker. However, when Torrey's mutilated body is discovered by two passersby in Echo Park, there is increased pressure from the community and from the mayor for Kells to produce results immediately. VERDICT In a change of pace from his "Nameless Detective" series, the Shamus Award-winning Pronzini delivers a masterly stand-alone novel. Readers of T. Jefferson Parker's crime novels will enjoy the way Pronzini cleverly unfolds the case through alternating perspectives. In addition, fans of David Joy's novels will appreciate the strong sense of place in Pronzini's depiction of Northern California. [See Prepub Alert, 10/3/16.]--Russell Michalak, Goldey-Beacom Coll. Lib., Wilmington, DE

Copyright 2016 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

January 1, 2017
Will the execution-style murder of a suspected rapist heal the wounds in a California town or tear them open even further?Santa Rita Police Chief Griffin Kells has never had enough evidence to arrest Martin Torrey, a registered sex offender for peeping and masturbating back in Ohio, for a series of four assaults. Despite constant pressure from Mayor Hugh Delahunt, who didn't want Kells as chief in the first place, he hasn't been able to make a case against Torrey. Now he doesn't have to, because someone's shot his leading suspect three times, two of them in unmentionable places, in Echo Park. It would be nice to report that the killing brings closure to the rape victims--fitness instructor Sherry Wilder, housewife Ione Spivey, spinster schoolteacher Eileen Jordan, brew-pub waitress Courtney Reeves--or the men who variously support them. It would also be a lie, since the women remain just as traumatized as ever (one of them will end up committing suicide), and after a break of only a few days, there's still another rape. This fifth attack, however, provides crucial evidence that eventually breaks the case wide open. The series of brief first-person accounts used to report the progress of the case and its many resonances throughout Santa Rita is the most impressive feature here, giving a truly prismatic view of many conflicts that have divided the troubled community; the pedestrian solution to the mystery is the weakest. Prozini's stand-alones are frequently less formulaic and more sensitive than his trademark Nameless Detective franchise (Zigzag, 2016, etc.). This one doesn't scale the heights of his finest work, but fans won't feel let down either.

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November 1, 2016
Once again Pronzini imposes his version of modernist style on conventional crime-story material, with character studies all but standing in for plot, and brings it off quite well. The dead body on the beach at the edge of the little California town turns out to be that of Martin Torrey, a registered sex offender suspected of vicious attacks on local women. The progress of the investigation is told in alternating points of view, giving everyone involved something to say. Torrey's widow thinks her husband's suspected murder may be for the best, while one victim's husband takes to swaggering about with a gun. Another victim kills herself. The mayor wonders what this will do to his career; the newspaper publisher is happy to use the case to skewer the gasbag mayor; and so on. Detective Robert Ortiz, the only one trying to solve the murder, keeps the whodunit plot alive by patiently interviewing and reinterviewing everyone until, finally, coincidence provides a break. This is a psychological novel dressed up in a thriller suit, which means the teeth are showing, and Pronzini's skill keeps things moving. Another satisfying tale from a crime master.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)