Sweet After Death

Starred review from June 18, 2018
Giambanco’s superb fourth police procedural featuring Seattle homicide detective Alice Madison (after 2017’s Blood and Bone) takes Madison and her team—Det. Sgt. Kevin Brown and crime scene investigator Amy Sorenson—to Ludlow, Wash., where Dr. Robert Dennen was found burned to death in his car. Ludlow’s tiny police force isn’t equipped to handle the town’s first ever homicide, and the Seattle PD detectives must deal with makeshift crime facilities, treacherous weather, and the residents’ daunting, long-established “fabric of relationships.” Key to solving Dennen’s murder is 15-year-old Samuel Tanner, who lives with his many siblings on an isolated farm that’s more of a compound and controlled by his abusive father. Sorenson’s smart use of forensics enhances Madison and Brown’s intuitive partnership. Giambanco seamlessly melds a solid look at police work with an intriguing glimpse at small-town life and the secrets that motivate people. Agent: Teresa Chris, Teresa Chris Literary Agency (U.K.).

September 1, 2018
Several storylines converge in a remote town in Washington.The gruesome murder of Dr. Robert Dennen in the tiny town of Ludlow, Washington, is beyond the capabilities of its police force to investigate, so a team is dispatched from Seattle. Homicide detective Alice Madison, her partner, Sgt. Kevin Brown, and crime scene investigator Amy Sorensen arrive the next day and begin a systematic and credible investigation. The primary suspect is Jeb Tanner, a cranky iconoclast living off the grid. The father of a number of children, he had quarreled with Dr. Dennen, who feared some of the children were suffering abuse. Before Tanner can be interviewed, there is a second murder, and it transpires that Tanner had also quarreled with the second victim. But Tanner has alibis for both crimes, and his confident defiance unsettles the investigators. Interwoven with this narrative are two others: Samuel, one of Tanner's sons, goes about his difficult duties at the homestead and in the woods, suffering his father's capricious demands and cruel punishments. This thread is paralleled by flashbacks to Madison's childhood and the miseries she suffered as a 12-year-old runaway captured by an austere woodsman. This experience is recalled in force as Madison gets to know Samuel and justifies her fierce determination to help him. But the investigation takes a different course when diligent police work reveals a wholly different suspect and motives, and the connection between Madison and Samuel plays no part in unmasking the murderer. It is revived in a coda but seems somewhat contrived at that point. This is a generally agreeable thriller, if a little low-key, and Madison is a sturdy character, but the sideshows detract from the main event.A pleasant excursion into the wild of the rural Northwest.

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July 1, 2018
In this fourth outing (after Blood and Bone, 2017) Seattle homicide detective Alice Madison is sent to remote Ludlow, Washington, to investigate a gruesome murder. This peaceful town, where nothing bad ever happens, is harboring a killer, who strikes again, with Madison barely escaping the crossfire, and then once more amid baffling evidence and well-kept secrets. Madison is both beset and fortified by issues from her past, with backstory illuminating her ability to navigate the freezing woods and ignore the isolation. Madison is a complex character presented in clear, expressive prose, but the story itself strains credulity.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)