Rick Torres, a young ex-Marine and ex-cop, recently returned from Iraq. But he had made a big mistake and needed to talk to his good friend about it -- in the middle of the night. Raymond Donne, now a New York City school teacher, is also an ex-cop and is always glad to help a friend. Rick (moonlighting as a taxi driver) swings by and takes Ray to an unusual location. Before Rick can confess his big mistake, shots are fired into the taxi, and the truth dies on his lips.
Ray can't turn off his investigative instincts. Despite pounding headaches, he agrees to some contract work for another ex-cop Jack Knight, who runs his own Private Investigation firm. It's the same company Rick had worked for before his death. Ray figures he can make a few bucks while possibly finding some answers. Yet, as he helps with Jack's investigation of a missing teenager, things start going south and deadly very quickly.
Tim O'Mara has created a very interesting protagonist in Raymond Donne with his intriguing background of teaching in a disadvantaged area in Brooklyn and knowing certain criminal elements while also straddling many connections with his previous police work and investigations. DEAD RED (a great play on words for both the murders involved as well as for a baseball reference) is the third book in the series following the success of the acclaimed SACRIFICE FLY and CROOKED NUMBERS.
While O'Mara fans are sure to appreciate this new mystery featuring Ray, DEAD RED can be easily read as a stand-alone novel. The fast paced action starts right from the first paragraph and just never lets up as the plot moves like a high stakes game of snakes and ladders. Not only is O'Mara very talented at character development, but he's very realistic in defining his characters and how they will respond. The dialogue is streetwise, gritty and full of quick quips that are effective in relieving tense situations. I really enjoy seeing how Ray attempts to balance life and communications with Allison, his reporter girlfriend, as well as how he interacts with his friends, especially with his uneasy relationship with Jack Knight and Edgar, his autistic and technologically brilliant friend.
DEAD RED has a great storyline involving PTSD and the trouble some soldiers experience after returning to the States from overseas assignments. DEAD RED is sure to hold your attention and it definitely beats the usual "what I did on my summer vacation."
After having read the previous book, CROOKED NUMBERS, I do miss Ray's interactions with his school kids, so I hope there will be more of that in the next book in the series. Meanwhile, do check out DEAD RED! If you are a mystery fan, you are sure to find DEAD RED the suspenseful and riveting read you have been looking for!
New York City school teacher Raymond Donne has no idea how bad his night is going to get when he picks up the phone. Ricky Torres, his old friend from his days as a cop, needs Ray’s help, and he needs it right now---in the middle of the night. Ricky picks Ray up in the taxi he’s been driving since returning from serving as a marine in Iraq, but before Ricky can tell Ray what’s going on, the windows of the taxi explode under a hail of bullets killing Ricky and knocking Ray unconscious as he dives to pull his friend out of harm’s way. Ray would’ve done anything to help Ricky out while he was alive. Now that he’s dead, he’ll go to the same lengths to find out who did it and why. All he has to go on is that Ricky was working with Jack Knight, Ray’s old nemesis, another ex-cop turned PI. They were investigating the disappearance of a PR giant’s daughter who had ties to the same Brooklyn streets that all three of them used to work. Is that what got Ricky killed or was he into something even more dangerous? Was there anything that Ray could’ve done for him while he was alive? Is there anything he can do for him now? Filled with the kinds of unexpected twists that make for the best crime fiction, and with secrets that run far deeper than loyalties, Dead Red is the most thrilling mystery yet in Tim O’Mara’s widely acclaimed series.
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