Gus had retired from the police department. What laid ahead was to be a better father to his two children, and more time with his wife. How quickly things change.
Out of the blue his son John dies. Gus and his wife Anne can't get over this loss, and as much as they tried, they could not save their marriage. This not only affects Gus and his wife, but their daughter Kristen. Kristen's life has taken a bad change. Gus doesn't know which is worse, watching his daughter spiral out of control or losing his son.
In the mist of all of this, Gus gets a visit from a former crook, Tommy, he had dealings with in the past. Tommy wants Gus to help him find out who murder his son. Gus wants nothing to do with this because he is retired. But when Tommy comes up dead, Gus feels he needs to check out what is going on.
Gus soon is swept into this case. He is warned off by several different police officers, however, none of them will give him a reason why. Gus won't give up on this case, even though it could cost him his life.
WHERE IT HURTS is the first book I read by Reed Farrel Coleman. I can tell you this will not be my last. Reed Farrel Coleman weaves a web of corruption in the police department. In this day and age, I almost have to wonder how much of this could be true.
I did get a little confused at times on the different characters and had to go back a few pages to straighten out who was who. But that didn't stop me from continuing this book. I can usually by three quarters of the way figure out who the murderer is. I didn't figure out who the murderer was in WHERE IT HURTS until almost the end. To me, this makes WHERE IT HURTS a great thriller.
If you like mystery, or thrillers, WHERE IT HURTS is definitely for you. Hopefully there will be a sequel. I would really like to know how Gus and his family are now doing.
From the critically acclaimed and award-winning author comes a gritty, atmospheric new series about the other side of Long Island, far from the wealth of the Hamptons, where real people live—and die. Gus Murphy thought he had the world all figured out. A retired Suffolk County cop, Gus had everything a man could want: a great marriage, two kids, a nice house, and the rest of his life ahead of him. But when tragedy strikes, his life is thrown into complete disarray. In the course of a single deadly moment, his family is blown apart and he is transformed from a man who believes he understands everything into a man who understands nothing. Divorced and working as a courtesy van driver for the run-down hotel in which he has a room, Gus has settled into a mindless, soulless routine that barely keeps his grief at arm’s length. But Gus’s comfortable waking trance comes to an end when ex-con Tommy Delcamino asks him for help. Four months earlier, Tommy’s son T.J.’s battered body was discovered in a wooded lot, yet the Suffolk County PD doesn’t seem interested in pursuing the killers. In desperation, Tommy seeks out the only cop he ever trusted—Gus Murphy. Gus reluctantly agrees to see what he can uncover. As he begins to sweep away the layers of dust that have collected over the case during the intervening months, Gus finds that Tommy was telling the truth. It seems that everyone involved with the late T.J Delcamino—from his best friend, to a gang enforcer, to a mafia capo, and even the police—has something to hide, and all are willing to go to extreme lengths to keep it hidden. It’s a dangerous favor Gus has taken on as he claws his way back to take a place among the living, while searching through the sewers for a killer.
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