Genre: Thriller
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David Rosenfelt’s protagonist in Black and Blue, Doug Brock, is a New Jersey state police officer. This is the third book in the series that features Brock, who was shot in the line of duty and is suffering from amnesia. He lost about ten years of his immediate past memory after the shooting and has gained approximately fifty percent of it back as of this novel.
This thriller begins when Doug and his partner Nate are presented with a cold case murder that took place right before Doug’s shooting. A wealthy businessman, Walter Brookings was killed, and the murderer was never apprehended. Someone recently shot attorney Alex Randowsky in the same manner, with the same weapon, and the connection puts these two partners in the middle of the case. Doug worked the original case but, unfortunately, remembers very little. He worries that Danny Phelan, a suspect he dismissed in Brookings' murder might actually be responsible for both shootings. When he starts receiving notes from the perpetrator and another man is murdered in the same way, he realizes just how personal this whole thing is getting.
It is no secret that I am a fan of Rosenfelt’s Andy Carpenter series, so finding out that Andy is Phelan’s attorney made my day. I love how characters cross over series and was entertained at the meeting of these two witty protagonists. Both series are written in a similar style, heavy on characterization with humor lightening some otherwise heavy situations. I stopped reading serial killer novels several years ago, but there was no way I would pass up a Rosenfelt contribution. As is the author’s style, there are a great deal of twists and turns before we get to the unexpected ending.
Black and Blue can definitely stand on its own, but if you haven’t read the first two books in this series (Blackout and Fade to Black) you might want to start with them.
- Beverly
Publisher - Minotaur Books
Date of Publication - March 26, 2019
This thriller begins when Doug and his partner Nate are presented with a cold case murder that took place right before Doug’s shooting. A wealthy businessman, Walter Brookings was killed, and the murderer was never apprehended. Someone recently shot attorney Alex Randowsky in the same manner, with the same weapon, and the connection puts these two partners in the middle of the case. Doug worked the original case but, unfortunately, remembers very little. He worries that Danny Phelan, a suspect he dismissed in Brookings' murder might actually be responsible for both shootings. When he starts receiving notes from the perpetrator and another man is murdered in the same way, he realizes just how personal this whole thing is getting.
It is no secret that I am a fan of Rosenfelt’s Andy Carpenter series, so finding out that Andy is Phelan’s attorney made my day. I love how characters cross over series and was entertained at the meeting of these two witty protagonists. Both series are written in a similar style, heavy on characterization with humor lightening some otherwise heavy situations. I stopped reading serial killer novels several years ago, but there was no way I would pass up a Rosenfelt contribution. As is the author’s style, there are a great deal of twists and turns before we get to the unexpected ending.
Black and Blue can definitely stand on its own, but if you haven’t read the first two books in this series (Blackout and Fade to Black) you might want to start with them.
- Beverly
Publisher - Minotaur Books
Date of Publication - March 26, 2019
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