Review: Detective Elliot takes on a bizarre case
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 06 2, 2013
Opening line: "Seeing old friends isn't always a good thing."Detective Kenny Elliot of the Tulsa P.D. is out for his evening run when Laura Bradford, a girl who disappeared during their senior year at Oklahoma State, appears ahead of him on the trail. Is she real or did he imagine her?His cell phone rings. His old friend Stanley Gerald has seen Laura, too, and wants to talk. They agree to a breakfast meeting. Gerald doesn't show up. Elliot goes to Gerald's hotel and finds his room empty.Elliot takes a temporary leave from the P.D. and begins a circuitous and sometimes torturous search for his old friend. People from his past keep showing up. Elliot thinks he's either seeing ghosts or losing his mind.He remembers the group that met regularly at Eskimo Joe's bar and grill near the college in Stillwater, and how they were steered toward paranormal activity. Where were those people now? They had simply disappeared.Elliot won't let it go. His investigation uncovers multiple murders, both past and present, all linked to an artifact taken from the Spiro Mounds, once inhabited by people of a pre-Columbian culture.They seemed to be a bloodthirsty people given to human sacrifice. An old newspaper man remembers the 1930s, when mining company employees dug into the King's chamber at the Mounds and released a curse.I liked Detective Elliot enough to follow him through an investigation that becomes increasingly bizarre and dangerous. Elliot is a tough and experienced cop, with a soft side for people in trouble, especially teenagers.One of my favorite passages involves Elliot's conversation with Shane, the son of a cop who took a bullet intended for Elliot.(Quote) Elliot stared at the boy in front of him, not with anger but with a sort of pity. Even though Shane had had a hard life, he hadn't lived long enough to realize his view of things bothering him now would not so much soften with age as they would from overcrowding. With so many other problems coming along you just get numb. (End Quote)The same sentiment is expressed in a different way when Elliot tracks down the elusive Laura's grandfather, a gentle old Indian who knew Laura as a little girl who loved to dance.(Quote)"It's when we have the time to sit around and think about what we are doing that we get ourselves into trouble." (End Quote)One good thing the past contributes to Elliot's life is the reawakening of his relationship with Carmen, his long-ago love and the mother of his son. My only quibble with this book is the ending. When I read the last sentence I said, "Huh?"However, it does open the door for the next book. According to Bob Avey's blog, he's working on his fourth Detective Elliot book. Avey really put him through a wringer in Book #3. I'll be interested to find out what happens next.