MADreads

Exchanging truth for fiction

October 30th, 2008 Jane J. - Central Library

Diane Fanning has been writing true-crime for a number of years. She has only recently begun novel writing and her sophomore effort, The Trophy Exchange, introduces Lt. Lucinda Pierce. Lucinda is just returning to the job after a suspension and investigation into a shooting. Determined to prove she can still do the job, Lucinda is eager to take on a new case. If only it weren’t this case.

When eight-year-old Charley Spencer returns home from a birthday party she walks into a nightmare. Her mother has been murdered and the only witness is Charley’s baby sister. Lucinda is the detective assigned to the case and she quickly zeros in on Charley’s dad as a suspect even though Evan Spencer was in Afghanistan when the murder happened. The evidence that this murder may be connected to a string of similar deaths frustrates and alarms Lucinda even more. Spencer is keeping something from her but until she figures out what that something is, the case is going nowhere.

This is a solid police procedural and I’ll definitely be back for Punish the Deed (due out in March 2009). My only quibble is the piling-on of Lucinda’s torturous backstory. Her father killed her mother and himself when she was a child, she lost an eye and gained ugly facial scarring from a shotgun blast, and the incident that got her suspended still torments her. I’m all for a complex, dark protagonist, but it did feel like a bit much. That said, I’m convinced this issue is one that comes with being the first in a series and I can’t wait to read the new one in the spring.

Entry Filed under: Mystery