Shutter Man

Starred review from December 21, 2015
In Montanari’s exceptional ninth procedural featuring Det. Kevin Byrne and ADA Jessica Balzano (after 2015’s The Doll Maker), Kevin investigates a series of odd, violent home invasions scattered throughout Philadelphia. While the victims appear to have little connection, clues prove these murders aren’t random. The reader knows that the killer is Michael Farren, a member of an Irish crime family with a vendetta to enforce. Michael, who calls himself Billy the Wolf, has an unusual handicap: he suffers from face blindness, which makes it impossible for him to recognize people by their faces. The murders turn out to echo a decades-old crime committed in the Devil’s Pocket neighborhood during Kevin’s childhood there. Montanari takes care to show the humanity in each character, even in the criminals. As Kevin’s investigation intensifies, the brisk plot quickly becomes an engrossing story of a neighborhood’s residents—those who escape, those who stay, and those who are buried there. Agent: Jane Berkey, Jane Rotrosen Agency.