Whisper Ridge - Home to Dreams - November 6, 1992 - April 27, 1996. So reads the strange epitaph carved beside the door of the home called Whisper Ridge, a multimillion-dollar piece of architectural majesty that once housed the beginnings of a unique programme for paroled murderers. It was the passion of Alexandra Sanabria, the daughter of a deceased Mafia don, but the program never got off the ground. Uninhabited for twelve years, the home now remains as a strange monument to dangerous secrets. Private investigator Lincoln Perry's first involvement with the house and its legacy comes when Parker Harrison - a convicted killer and former tenant of Whisper Ridge - asks him to find Alexandra, who disappeared with her husband after the failure of the program. Disconcerted and embarrassed by his own immediate mistrust of Harrison, Perry decides to take the request at face value until he discovers that the bones of the Alexandra's husband were discovered at the exact same time Harrison began his quest to locate her.
Now the investigation is active again and decade-old threats are circling, confronting Perry with a sordid family mystery that will challenge both his abilities as a detective and his commitment to that calling.
This was my first glimpse of Koryta’s non-supernatural side, and you’ll have to color me impressed. Lincoln Perry has reached the point in his career that I think every good hard-boiled detective series explores: the point where they have to ask themselves, "Is this still worth it?" Tortured by memories of his partner and girlfriend in mortal danger, Lincoln starts taking more risk on himself, a decision that rarely leads to happy endings. Throughout the story, you’re never quite sure if the mystery is wrapped up in the mob, in drugs, or in something altogether different. All you know for sure is that things are more dangerous than Lincoln expected. It’s never just a simple missing persons case.
One thing in particular that I appreciated about Koryta’s writing is that his characters aren’t superheroes. When someone is injured, it affects not only their body but their mind. There’s no getting shot three times and still miraculously chasing down the bad guy here.
I haven’t read the other three books in the series, but I had no problem jumping in and connected with Lincoln. He’s everything we look for in a hard-boiled detective. Hard on the outside, soft and gooey within.
