Cuts Through Bone: A Mystery
Rachel Vasquez, PI Clayton Guthrie’s rookie operative, is thrilled when the pair is hired to investigate a Columbia University student’s murder, mainly because it offers respite from the interminable training exercises Guthrie has been giving her. Camille Bowman was killed with her war-veteran boyfriend’s gun, and, because the crime matched the profile of an active serial killer, the NYPD suspects Greg Olsen of the entire spree. Guthrie and Vasquez, hired to establish Olsen’s innocence, agree their client seems an unlikely killer, but Guthrie knows it’s easy to be deceived. They follow the trail of the case from a subterranean vagrants’ hideout through Columbia’s Greek scene, checking out along the way Camille’s past trysts and Greg’s Afghan War tours. Publisher promotions highlight the author’s current incarceration, but this debut mystery, a PWA Best First Private Eye Novel Competition winner, doesn’t need a shocking authorial backstory. Hunt’s enticing investigators invite a series, and the red-herring-riddled gumshoe story explodes into a climax rivaling those of Robert Crais and Ridley Pearson. --Christine Tran