Series: Andy Broussard/Kit Franklyn Mystery
Format Read: Ebook
Source: From the Publisher for an honest review
Release Date: February 4, 2014
Buying Links: Amazon* | Book Depository* | OmniLit* | Barnes & Noble |
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Blurb from goodreads:
Andy Broussard, the plump and proud New Orleans medical examiner, obviously loves food. Less apparent to the casual observer is his hatred of murderers. Together with his gorgeous sidekick, psychologist Kit Franklyn, the two make a powerful, although improbable, mystery solving duo.
It's a bizarre case for Andy and Kit. A man is found in Jackson Square, stabbed, one eyelid removed and four Scrabble tiles with the letters KOJE on his chest. Soon, there's a second victim, also stabbed and missing one eyelid, but this time with only three letters on his chest, KOJ. The pattern is unmistakable, but does it mean there will be two more victims and then the killer will go away, or is he leading up to something bigger and deadlier?
Broussard and Kit use their disciplines to profile the killer, but it soon becomes clear that the clues and objects they've found are part of a sick game that the killer is playing with Broussard; a game most likely engineered by one of the hundreds of attendees at the annual forensics meeting being held in New Orleans. Has Broussard finally met his match?
Steph's Thoughts:
I love murder mystery books and if there is forensic science involved I love them even more. When this series crossed my path it was fate. One thing I must point out is that this book and the other two in the series I will be reviewing are reprints. A brand new story will be released soon. In the original publishing New Orleans Requiem was book number four but the first three are not being republished right now. However, I did not feel like I was missing anything important in the series by starting with this one.
These books were first published in the 1990’s so it is a different experience than reading a similar novel written today. DNA was in its infancy, so while there was a perfect hair found in the first scene they couldn’t do with it what they could today. The old way of doing things does not detract from the story at all and it really makes you realize how much things have changed in a few years. If this was NCIS, Abbey would have had a full DNA profile on that hair in minutes but back in the 1990’s they did not have that option. There is so much we take for granted these days and this was a great reminder of how easy we have it. Goodbye slide projector, hello Power Point.
I LOVE Andy and Kit! They are a great team and both are quite enjoyable as characters. They are both down to earth and feel like old friends. I learned something in this book and not just science stuff. Did you know that the first game on a new scrabble board is supposed to be STRIP Scrabble? Apparently, it is an old Cajun tradition (If you want the rules, you will have to read the book.) The killer leaves Scrabble letters at the crime scene, hence the need for a new scrabble board and also takes an eyelid off the victim. So we have two lovable characters and a serial killer and old school detective work. It was what made me love this book.
The author has extensive knowledge of the material he is writing about and I really enjoy being able to trust and author not to feed me a lot of BS. I know there are some people out there that think, the serial killer thing is over-rated but hey, I liked it! I was also kept guessing throughout the book. I am usually pretty good at figuring out who-done-it but I was stumped and this is a good thing. I really liked "New Orleans Requiem" and will be starting "Sleeping with the Crawfish" and "Louisiana Fever", this weekend. I can’t wait to crack them open. (Ok, will be powering up the kindle and trying to find these in print to add to my bookshelf)
Oh I can't wait to read this one! I really enjoyed Louisiana Fever and am definitely looking forward to reading more of this series. It was definitely interesting to see how far we've come in what doesn't feel like that long. Great review!
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