Dark Harbor

April 25, 2005
Compelling characters pulse through attorney Hosp's surprisingly engaging fiction debut. Why surprising? Because readers will think they've seen all this before, and more stylishly told: there's a gritty urban center (Boston) menaced by a serial killer (nicknamed "Little Jack" because of his similarities to the legendary Ripper) but protected by a tough cop (prickly police lieutenant Linda Flaherty). But Hosp works some wrinkles on the formula with a terrorist subplot and digs deep for complex portraits of Flaherty and a jittery suspect, lawyer Scott Finn. Finn was the last known person to see Natalie Caldwell, the killer's latest victim, alive: they were colleagues at the prestigious law firm as well as former lovers. At the time of her death, Natalie was defending a local security company against liability in the terrorist bombing of a commuter train. Grief over Natalie's death exacerbates Finn's feeling that he's in over his head, both with Natalie's case, which he inherits, and at the white shoe firm, where his humble roots and blue-collar affinities set him apart. Flaherty feels similarly besieged, though her demons are detective subordinates whom she can't completely trust or control. Hosp's plotting is shaggy and his book feels overlong, but by following his two protagonists into the mundane corners of their lives, he earns genuine empathy for these flawed human beings struggling to be both ethical and effective. Agent, Lisa Vance.

A narrator is stuck with the book in front of him, and a pro like George Guidall knows he still has to sell it. And so he dutifully does as he delivers this preposterous thriller in which the work of a Boston serial killer becomes mixed up in a high-profile lawsuit arising from terrorist act. When one of the lawyers working on the case becomes the killer's latest victim, her former lover and colleague, Scott Finn, a survivor of the rough streets of South Boston, is the chief suspect. Guidall gamely forges the absurd plot and finds his fun where he can, particularly wherever Finn's old Irish gangster friend makes his lively appearances. M.O. (c) AudioFile 2005, Portland, Maine