No Place To Die by James L. Thane

Beverly Thompson is snatched from her garage in broad daylight, her husband gunned down in cold blood.  A killer is on the loose and detective Sean Richardson of the Phoenix PD is on the case.  When a string of murders follow Beverly’s abduction, Richardson and company struggle to connect them.  Do the killings have anything to do with Thompson’s disappearance and can Sean stop the madman before the body count continues?

I probably should provide full disclosure – James is a friend of mine and while he never asked me to review his book, several folks within the Goodreads community seemed thoroughly impressed with his work so I thought I’d give it a shot.

Rather than spend the entire novel in the dark alongside Detective Richardson, Thane reveals the villain almost immediately allowing a different perspective for the reader as the Phoenix PD chase down leads; stumbling along the way.  I thought this worked really well in giving Thane a chance to develop a plethora of characters rather than just using the story as vehicle to establish Richardson alone.  In doing so, I found myself becoming increasingly invested in the actions of many of the supporting characters – which was great.

Not only is No Place to Die’s plot structurally sound (you’d be hard pressed to find any holes in this story) but it moves quickly as well; a real page turner.  It’s hard to believe this is Thane’s first crime novel, the story feels like it was written by a real pro.  There’s a sequel out – published last year (2013) – and you can bet I’ll be snagging it up shortly.