My blog post about this book is at this link. ( )

A very enjoyable tale with powerhouse action scenes that explode out of nowhere. Highly recommended.

For my complete review please visit "The Mystery Bookshelf" at http://wp.me/p6kwu-Xl ( )

Every once in awhile, I come across a book I just can't get into. I put it aside, pick it back up, try to figure out the problem. This was one of those books for me. The plot could have - should have - grabbed my attention. Instead, it felt like I'd been spun around in circles and I couldn't get my bearings.

This book is written in first person, with two POV characters, but they felt the same to me. Each narrated and spoke in short, clipped phrases. An abundance of one word sentences like "Blink" and "Breathe", made it read more like a screenplay than a novel. And I didn't connect or even like either character.

Things could have gotten better by the end, but I gave up halfway through. ( )

Chicago has been chosen the Olympic city for 2016. The action begins in the gang dominated neighborhood of Four Corners. Two brothers, Bobby and Raul Vargas grow up there and enter the police force.

Coleen Brennan was Bobby's girlfriend. She was white and he wasn't and this was a dangerous thing in the race rules of Four Corners. She was age thriteen when she was raped and murdered.

"The Chicago Herald" runs an expose stating that in the future days, they will show that Bobby and Raul were the two men who killed Coleen.

The story moves quickly with an interesting literary style with chapter's beginning with a quote from the expose and then moving to current events. Coleen's murder is said to be reprisal for racist policing but there is a question if she was raped to death as a gang initiation.

Anton Dupree was arrested, tried and found guilty of Coleen's murder. He was executed and now his mother is suing the city claiming that he was of low intelligence and easy to manipulate into confessing.

Bobby frear that the city will settle and he and his brother will be fired and then face civil action.

There are a number of levels to the story which is told in a darkly realistic manner. Japan had done something in WWII and should have been subject to criminal prosecution. Currently, a member of the company responsible for the criminal acts is influential in financing Chicago's Olmypics. Coleen's twin sister, Arlene returns to the city and begins a relationship with Bobby.

There is excellent dialogue and the writing moves across the pages effortlessly. Bobby Vargas is the type of protagonist we enjoy reading. He is brave, loyal, fearless and the center of an excellent novel. ( )