Empty Places

May 9, 2016
In the prologue of this capable thriller set in 1987 from Hill (The Killing Depths), an unidentified man guns down TV reporter Robin Anderson in California’s Coachella Valley after she confronts him with an incriminating tape. The news of Robin’s murder reaches her former husband, Peter Brandt, in his Mexico City office, where he’s been investigating war crimes in Central America. Peter, who once worked in the Coachella Valley as a police reporter before he was fired, still has grim recollections of the area (“I remember street corners by the number of people killed there”). Peter reunites with an old friend, cop-turned-PI Matt Banyon, and the pair quickly dismiss the official account of the crime—that Robin was killed by a stranger she picked up—especially when it becomes clear that someone is desperately seeking some piece of information she obtained. Hill’s well-rounded lead, scarred by what he’s witnessed, helps make up for a plot that loses its way after a strong start.