Sunday, September 26, 2010

Blond Run-Jim Michael Hansen

Blond Run
Jim Michael Hansen
Thriller Publishing Group, Nov 15 2010, $13.95
ISBN: 9780981999395

In San Francisco, the SJK serial killer has the city panicked. Thirtyish SFPD homicide detective Trane Ravenwood believes the killer is Condor, but lacks proof. He illegally sneaks into the Nob Hill Victorian home of his prime suspect to find files on the victims starting with Paris Zephyr and the six other females, but no hard evidence. Upstairs in the mansion he sees a telescope, which he looks through only to have his quarter Apache and three fourth other blood boil over with what he witness between two women in a “dungeon”.

As he struggles to take down this serial killer and how to handle what he saw, Trane knows the next SJK victim will be found dead in a few days. Complicating matters for Trane is when his department creates a SNAFU in the Grayson fiasco as the chief and a detective were fired leaving Trane in charge. He has to conceal how he knows Condor is the killer if he does not want to join his predecessor and another detective while he also meets the dungeon mistress, attorney Trance St. Croix.

One of the best police procedural writers on the market today Jim Michael Hansen provides a great Run tale that is so dissimilar from the super Coventry “Law” cases, fans will assume a different author wrote them. Ravenwood does things that Coventry would never do, which enhances the exciting story line. Readers and the cop believe Condor is SJK, but to prove it in court after the Grayson flop is going to be tough. St. Croix adds a refreshing but needed element to what is a fantastic Lombard Street crooked twisted mean streets of San Francisco noir.

Harriet Klausner

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