Where I Can See You

November 7, 2016
Set in what might be rural Michigan, this gripping if overwrought crime novel from Sweazy (A Thousand Falling Crows) focuses on a detective’s personal obsessions. Homicide detective Hud Matthews, having left the Detroit police under dubious circumstances, has returned to the decaying lakeside resort town where he grew up and where his mother disappeared when he was just a boy. Besides joining the overwhelmed local police to solve a baffling series of murders, Hud pokes at his mother’s cold case, to the residents’ dismay. He can’t help himself, as the action staggers relentlessly onward, revealing the little town’s secrets. What, for example, is Hud supposed to think when he discovers a photograph of his mother in the company of his best friend’s father, his best friend being the sheriff who just hired him? Set in autumn, the story is overloaded with images of death and despair, but it will intrigue readers willing to grope through the gloom. Agent: Cherry Weiner, Cherry Weiner Literary Agency.

October 15, 2016
A police detective returning to his Midwestern hometown is confronted by an unending stream of new crimes when he'd rather be investigating an old mystery close to his heart.After killing a snitch who'd shot and wounded him, Hud Matthews was politely asked to leave the Detroit PD. Now he's back home working for police chief Paul Burke, a man he's spent most of his life not much liking. On "the perfect kind of day for someone to find a dead body," someone leaves the corpse of Pamela Lynn Sizemore, a jobless junkie, half in and half out of Demmie Lake. The obvious suspect would seem to be some unpaid dealer who wanted to make an example of her, unless it's one of the dozens of lowlifes her downward path has crossed. The case gets seriously complicated by the murder of Kaye Sherman, who worked in a medical office that could have been feeding Pam's habit, and even more baffling when Kaye's husband, Conservation Officer Leo Sherman, who's gone on the run, gets shot down just as Hud's finally at the point of taking him in. As Burke aptly notes, however, Hud's heart isn't really in the case no matter how tangled and violent it gets. What he really wants to do is solve the mystery of his mother's disappearance back when he was 8 years old. Certain that she wouldn't have abandoned him, he's convinced she was murdered. But what are the chances of bucking Burke to solve an ancient crime nobody else even believes was a crime when the townsfolk are stuck in a much more obvious nightmare? Versatile Sweazy (See Also Deception, 2016, etc.) punctuates the lawman's quest, laid-back yet urgent, with snatches of flash-forward dialogue that warn you not to expect a series. Well, we'll see.

COPYRIGHT(2016) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

December 1, 2016
A long time ago, when Hud Matthews was a little boy, his mom disappeared. Later on, he left his little midwestern town to become a cop in Detroit, but that went wrong, and now he's back home, starting a fresh law-enforcement career. As soon as Hud walks in the door, the bodies start piling up, but for the first half of the book he has trouble keeping his mind on them. He'd rather think about his mom. We're not surprised to learn that Mom's vanishing is connected to the current crimes. Readers' reaction will depend on their view of neo-noir, a form spearheaded now by Reed Farrel Coleman and Ace Atkins, among many others, and grounded in the view that the world is rotten. Friends and family offer no consolation because they're out to get you, too. Such pessimism is usually accompanied by lethargy, but, halfway through, Sweazy brings off a thrilling boat chase, and the finale is appropriately tense. Some fine writing, too, in the service of a world that has monsters walking among us. (Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)