Thrill Kill

Starred review from May 30, 2016
At the start of Thiem’s hard-hitting sequel to 2015’s Red Line, Det. Sgt. Matt Sinclair of the Oakland, Calif., PD and his police partner, Cathy Braddock, arrive at a crime scene in a park. Hanging by the neck from an oak tree is a dead naked woman. Sinclair recognizes the victim as Dawn Gustafson, a Midwest runaway turned prostitute whom he tried to help years earlier. Sinclair, who once did a harrowing stint in Iraq as part an Army CID detachment, manages to maintain his hard-won sobriety and overcome his terrifying nightmares as he plunges into a morass of political and big-business corruption in his search for Dawn’s killer. Thiem, a former Oakland police detective and retired U.S. Army officer, offers insights into the prices paid by those sworn to protect and defend an increasingly obstructive and even hostile citizenry. His portrayal of a decent man’s efforts to uphold civilization in a decaying urban jungle rings all too disturbingly true. Agent: Paula Munier, Talcott Notch Literary Agency.

June 1, 2016
The second case for Oakland PD Sgt. Matt Sinclair (Red Line, 2015) hits a little closer to home than he'd like.Dawn Gustafson was only 17 when Sinclair arrested her for streetwalking 10 years ago. Though she couldn't abide life with her God-fearing parents back in Minnesota, the girl seemed to be as bright and gifted as she was beautiful, and Sinclair cheered when she avoided the worst punishments of the justice system and got another chance. Now that second chance has ended with an indelible image: the figure of Dawn, strangled, shot, set afire, and hanged from a tree in Burckhalter Park. Who could have hated her enough to choreograph such an elaborately sadistic murder scene? Going through customary investigative routines sharpened by his personal sense of mourning, Sinclair soon realizes that despite taking accounting courses at San Francisco State, Dawn was back on the game. His attempt to lean on Helena Decker, her boss at Special Ladies Escorts, brings him into an uneasy alliance with the FBI, and his meeting with Bianca Fadell, Helena's smoking-hot lawyer, leads to a further round of introductions to local bigwigs, the obligatory temptations of the flesh, and the strong suspicion that he's playing with several different kinds of fire. When everyone from FBI agent Mark Cummings to U.S. Attorney Jack Campbell to Sinclair's ex-partner, Sgt. Phil Roberts of OPD Intelligence, acts as if Dawn's murder can be safely ignored in favor of the big picture, Sinclair wonders how big that picture must be if it allows an unusually savage murder to be swept under the rug.No surprises here, but Thiem's tough-but-tender hero's dedication to a routine so grueling it feels authentic puts the procedure back in procedural.

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June 1, 2016
Readers bowled over by Oakland homicide detective Matt Sinclair in Thiem's fine first novel, Red Line (2015), may wonder what happened to that cold-blooded justice machine. Now he cries, has nightmares, and sees a shrink. He goes to AA meetings. Most likely readers will say, Give him a pass! He's earned it! Filling a broad canvas with precisely observed details, Thiem tells the story of a reformed call girl's gruesome murder as a sort of existential tragedy: she died because she serviced this city-council member and that big-deal businessman. The bulk of the novel is a procedural, with Sinclair and his partner knocking on doors and tracking reluctant witnesses, and Thiem manages to give a heartbeat to what could have been dry as dust. Then comes a surprising link to a protest group, of all things, and suddenly the last 30 pages turn into one long, stunning action scene. As someone said, It's all connected, like the back of an old radio. Another satisfying read in a top-notch new series. Be well, Detective Sinclair, and come back soon. We need you.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)