Homicide 69

by Sam Reaves

Overview

It's the summer of 1969, and Chicago police detective Mike Dooley has his hands full. An ex-Playboy bunny has been brutally murdered, and once Dooley finds out she was a mobster's girlfriend, he figures this is no mere sex killing. A mope coughs up a confession, but Dooley doesn't like the way the case is being stitched up. He's already got enough to worry about with a son in Vietnam and the usual spate of hot-weather killings, but he'll keep digging until he knows the truth, and not just because it brings him together with the smouldering beauty who was the victim's best friend. Meanwhile the world is changing around him, with the moon landing, Woodstock, the Manson murders and other apocalyptic craziness in the background. This one will push Dooley's personal and professional ethics to the limit.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940045175654
Publisher:	Sam Reaves
Publication date:	07/26/2013
Sold by:	Smashwords
Format:	eBook
File size:	616 KB

About the Author

Sam Reaves is the author of the Cooper MacLeish Mystery series, which includes such titles as Fear WIll Do It and Bury It Deep. Under the name of Dominic Martell, he also wrote the noir thriller Lying Crying Dying. He lives in Evanston, Illinois.

Editorial Reviews

Set in 1969, Reaves's new crime novel opens impressively, as world-weary Chicago detective Mike Dooley seeks the man responsible for the savage, sadistic murder of Sally Kotowski, a mobster's ex-girlfriend. Despite a quick official wrapup of the investigation, Dooley remains skeptical that the guilty party has been punished, and he defies warnings from both sides of the law by continuing to turn over stones in pursuit of the real killer. Distracted by his worries over his eldest son, who's stationed in Vietnam, Dooley recklessly risks his family life by a prolonged flirtation with an attractive friend of the dead woman. That subplot and the author's penchant for starting each chapter with a litany of headline events of the day detract from the gritty beginning, while the disappointing resolution has more to do with the motive for Kotowski's being silenced than her actual killer. Reaves (Fear Will Do It) is also the author of Lying Crying Dying under the pseudonym Dominic Martell. (Jan.) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

Publishers Weekly

1969 finds a Chicago cop surrounded by enemies, only some of whom are hoods. Mike Dooley is smart, tough and a pain in the neck. He's an obstacle to the go-along, get along approach to law enforcement embraced by so many of his fellow officers. The ugly murder of Sally Kotowski-beaten, raped, tortured-is a case in point. After seeing what's been done to the former Playboy bunny, Dooley vows to bring the perps to justice. Soon enough, his hard work pays off in a confession. But Dooley thinks it feels rigged, overly convenient, part of a complex cover-up. So he digs in his heels. The brass, struck by this typically cantankerous display, wonder why Dooley would look a gift horse in the mouth with cases as hard to clear as they are. They point out that there could be some powerful people involved with the killing, people who've been protected for a long time, people who could become exceedingly vindictive unless Dooley agrees to go along and get along just this once. A vivid cast, a flawed but compelling protagonist and, for good measure, a wry and poignant love story. Reaves (Dooley's Back, 2002, etc.) has accomplished something remarkable here: a doorstop-sized crime novel that doesn't feel a single page too long.

Kirkus Reviews