Frederick Weisel

Paul Behrens is missing and Annie, his wife, has no idea where he has gone. He never made it to his teaching job at Brookwood Middle School. Instead, he just left the house, at some point, and vanished. Annie, who works nights as a nurse hardly ever saw him. It isn’t until after he vanished and police start asking questions, that she fully realizes how far they had drifted apart in their marriage and how little she knew of his day-to-day activities.

She did not know all of his secrets, though she did know some things. Of course, she had her own secrets as well. She thinks her husband had no idea, but is that really true? When a spouse goes missing, everything is on the table and there are no more secrets. As the fiction of their marriage gradually tears apart, Lieutenant Eddie Mahler and the other members of the Santa Rosa Violent Crime Investigative Team start finding out various truths in the missing persons case.

As in the first book of the series, The Silenced Women, things are very complicated in The Day He Left: A Violent Crime Investigations Team Mystery by Fredrick Wesel. There is the current case as well as the ongoing backstories of numerous characters, and other cases. While this reader did not enjoy this book as much as the first one, it is a good book that builds solidly on the first. As such, it is recommended to read in order.

My reading copy came by way of Lesa Holstine who, months ago, sent her copy to me.

Kevin R. Tipple ©2022… (plus d'informations)

Paul Behrens got up early one morning, dressed in a suit, got in his car and drove off, not to work at the middle school, but off … where? When his wife Annie gets a phone call that staid, boring Paul hadn't shown up for work, she immediately goes to the police who note the oddity of Paul's disappearance and begin immediately to investigate.

The circle of characters is small – a handful of detectives, a cluster of relatives, friends, colleagues, students, parents – but these are interesting characters, far more interesting than I expect in a detective story. The police officers especially. They are reflective and developed as individuals. Not a clown among them. Very nice.

I received a digital review copy of "The Day He Left" by Frederick Weise from Poisoned Pen Press through NetGalley.com.… (plus d'informations)

A murder has happened again in the same areas as others as The Silenced Woman: A Violent Crime Investigations Team Mystery by Frederick Weisel begins. For Violent Crime Investigations (VCI) leader Eddie Mahler, the body on the bench in Spring Lake Park, Santa Rosa, California, is clearly yet another kill by a man he has been chasing for two years now. He knows the same guy has done it again and is sure of that fact. He could not prove it before and his marriage and his health has suffered greatly because of that fact.

Not to mention the fact that Mahler and his team’s failure to lock him up means that he was able to kill again. Clearly strangled and wrapped up in a blanket, the dead young woman was placed on a bench at the small lake in the park. While this murder does not present the same as the victims two years ago, Mahler is sure that the same killer is at work. Once again, there is no proof.

There is also no explanation for his two-year silence. The fact that he is back killing again means that Mahler is more committed than ever to stop him. Especially as, if he continues the same pattern, he will kill again in 72 hours and place another body in the park.

What follows is an engrossing and complicated police procedural where the head of the unit is dealing with debilitating migraines, a lack of support by his boss, and a public terrified that history is repeating itself. It does not help that some of his fellow officers are aware that Mahler believes he sees the ghosts of the dead victims and has conversations with at least one of them.

Not that they have any leg to stand on in the sanity department. Every single member of the VCI team is a bit off and not quite all together. Each one has his or her own mental issues which slowly are teasingly revealed to the reader. Then there is the killer who, thanks to technology, becomes aware of how they are investigating and begins to play with them without their knowing.

A foundational book for a series, The Silenced Women: A Violent Crime Investigations Team Mystery by Frederick Weisel is complicated, intense, and very good. Well worth your time.

Strongly recommended.

The Silenced Woman: A Violent Crime Investigations Team Mystery
Frederick Weisel
https://frederickweisel.com/the-silenced-women/
Poisoned Pen Press
https://poisonedpenpress.com/
February 2021
ISBN# 1464214182
Paperback (also available in audio and eBook formats)
400 Pages (376 pages not counting the excerpt for the next book)

I put a copy of this book on hold in my local library system because of this review by Lesa Holstine. Very glad I did. My reading copy came from the Central or Downtown Branch of the Dallas Public Library System.

Kevin R. Tipple ©2021… (plus d'informations)