“Being a good Samaritan is hazardous”
- Book: Hooker Avenue
- Location: Pennsylvania, The Hudson Valley
- Author: Jode Millman
Based on a true-life crime investigation which must have been so distressing, soul destroying and utterly devastating for so many families, I am almost loathe to admit that I enjoyed this book so much. However, whilst place names are real (and yes, there really is a Hooker Avenue in Hudson Valley, PA) and many of the pertinent facts surrounding the case are correct; all other names and references appear to be fictional, which does help to absolve my conscience somewhat, and justifies my treating this as a work of fiction for review purposes. The blending of fact and fiction has been so sensitively and seamlessly executed, that it is impossible to know where one ends and the other begins, and purely from a police procedural point of view, I haven’t read such a well constructed, immersive and engaging interpretation of the genre, for some time now.
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Just to bring you up to speed with the story…
Disgraced attorney, Jessie Martin, finds herself playing the Good Samaritan whilst driving home in the dark, during a particularly wild storm. She comes across what looks like a body in a roadside ditch, although when the inert form suddenly moves, she realises that she must act quickly, as this is now a life-saving mission which she cannot undertake alone. Along with the emergency rescue services, Jessie’s one-time best friend, Detective Ebony Jones and her partner Zander, are in attendance. In an atmosphere of tension and discord, the former ‘besties’ can hardly bare to speak to each other, setting the pattern for a case which grows exponentially and will eventually involve several State forces and the FBI, forcing Jessie and Ebony to call a truce to hostilities, in the name of justice.
When it becomes clear that this is no accident, and although initially reluctant to cooperate with the authorities, a very feisty victim begins to let her mouth run, divulging more than she ever intended to and enough to lead Ebony, Zander and Jessie to believe that her beating is certainly no isolated incident. To complicate matters even further, Jessie and her baby daughter are living with District Attorney Hal Samuels, so law enforcement from all sides of the spectrum are jostling for position, in trying to unravel the whys and wherefores of an angry woman’s ranting and raving, but from their own individual perspectives, not as a single cohesive team. The victim Lissie, eventually gives enough information away to cause a sudden scramble to coordinate similar unsolved cases and disappearances from across the region, which to everyone’s shame, have hitherto been pretty much treated in isolation and ignored, given the various and unorthodox lifestyles of drugs, alcohol and prostitution, led by the victims.
It soon becomes apparent that Lissie’s partner Kurt, although he is abusive, was not her assailant and is not a suspect for the most heinous of crimes, however his major drug and larceny ring also comes in for unwanted attention, which yields a great result in itself and will see him removed from circulation for some time to come. Lissie is keeping tight-lipped about the identity of her attacker, for whom she genuinely has no name, and despite the inter-service rivalries and individual tensions in the room, which are beginning to spiral out of control, it is only Jessie who is ultimately able to reach out to her for help in bringing the perpetrator of so many potential cases, to book. Lissie drives a surprisingly hard bargain and has been quite astute at deceiving a thoroughly obnoxious and nauseating Kurt; so recognise her spirit, decry the way of life she thinks she had no option but to take, or applaud her resilience and strength; you can’t help but admire her strength and tenacity. When, from the details Lissie is able to provide, the search is narrowed down to a mere handful of suspects, it doesn’t take long for the team to find their man. Despite Ebony potentially jeopardising the entire operation, an arrest is made, although the horrendous and ghastly discoveries which follow, will test the mental and physical stamina, and well being of the entire team and haunt them for some time to come.
For the victim’s families, closure is going to be all they have to cling to, although for everyone else involved a good result is heralded and rewarded, with all of them living to fight a new battle another day and maybe, just maybe, some of those old rivalries and wounds can be healed, if not entirely forgiven just yet.
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This well structured, powerful and highly textured, multi-layered storyline, was intense and full of atmosphere from beginning to end. Even though I didn’t want the book to be finished, I found myself reading ever faster and turning the pages more quickly, in my haste to see what twist the author had added in next, which was going to change my way of thinking all over again. I suppose I missed the very obvious connection between Jessie and Lissie and that was even more scary, because I could see how that kind of scenario might actually happen in real life, with potentially devastating consequences. It certainly shook Jessie to her very core. Relentless and face paced, told in short well signposted chapters, with a crisp no nonsense narrative and dialogue, replete in descriptive detail, which afforded a very visual sense of time and place, this infinitely tangled web of lies, deception, manipulation and control, definitely kept me on my toes. Everyone was looking for the angle, in their attempts to avoid revealing their own individual secret agendas and weaknesses.
As with so many fictional detectives, lawyers and investigators, Jessie is really carrying an awful lot of baggage and secrets, although I get the feeling that this case has really set her back on track a bit, both professionally and personally, so it will be interesting to see how she develops in her role, assuming of course that the series is expanded and continued, which I sincerely hope it is. On the whole, the cast of characters were quite authentic, compelling and believable, despite their emotional complexities, which often made them rather raw, passionate and prone to being volatile, when they could have done with keeping their cool and using their heads a bit more. I found myself being able to relate to them, in a strange way, even Lissie, whose background only came to light right near the end and was one of those jaw dropping, ‘never judge a book by its cover’, moments. Even Duvall Bennett, although definitely the disgusting and reprehensible perpetrator he is portrayed as, has a motive which if examined, would surely constitute some form of PTSD, in modern day mental health developments. It didn’t make me detest him any the less, and yes, he knew exactly what he was doing making him cold and calculating. Once again, some fictional license was brought to play around this character and I may not have had quite so many ‘what if’ thoughts about the real life offender.
For those of you with an interest in the true background storyline, below is a link to the original news story as it was check out…
Kendall Francois – The Poughkeepsie Killer – Bodies On The Floor (wickedwe.com)
I also really want to go back and read and author Jode Millman’s previous book The Midnight Call where we are first introduced to the character of attorney Jessie Martin. Don’t get me wrong, although there are references to Jessie’s first case in this book, the backstory is filled with more than enough detail to keep any series reader happy, yet without short-changing any new reader just joining the journey. It’s simply that the case sounds really intriguing and I want to know more!
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