Review: Everyone Dies

Michael McGarrity's Kevin Kerney returns for the eighth time as a Santa Fe police chief who's been to hell and back enough times to know the way with his eyes closed. Married to Lt. Colonel Sara Brannon, a military police Corp officer, he's decided to take a few weeks off. Sara is nearing the end of her pregnancy and their newly remodeled house is taking up a lot of attention. Their joy is marred by the barely spoken issue of recent her posting at the Pentagon, a position that would take her across country from Kerney and their home together.

When former A.D.A. and well-known gay attorney Jack Potter is found just minutes after being shot in front of the county courthouse, Kerney is unknowingly beginning an investigation that has him just steps in front of a vicious and highly intelligent psycho with a taste for revenge. And this psycho has Kerney and everyone he holds dear in his sights.

With little evidence at the scene, Kerney has his team explore Potter's past. They stumble across an unstable ex-boyfriend who is the current girlfriend of a gardener with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and a tendency to disassociate to his Vietnam experience when under stress. When the agitated boyfriend meets with a violent end at the hands of a SWAT team under his direction, Kerney thinks he's encountered the worst of his troubles.

It is then that a series of vicious events brings Kerney's attention into sharp focus on his family. The sadistic killing of his horse, Soldier, and his wife's discovery of a poisoned rat on their front porch closely follow Potter's death. A second victim with ties to Kerney is found with her throat slit and the ominous note 'EVERYBODY DIES' left at the scene. When another rat is found at his house accompanied by another note conveying a more direct threat, Kerney culls every resource at his disposal to protect his family and to trace the source of the corpses piling up.

Readers familiar with McGarrity's Kerney series will mark a continuing transformation in this latest book. There continues to be a complicated but strong relationship with his wife, Sarah, and bonds deepen between him and his newly found grown son, Clayton. The focus is more on the day to day life of Kerney as chief of police, expectant father and husband to a Lt. Colonel. This change of focus has not harmed the series or the characters, but strengthened them.

The writing is meticulous and disturbing. The tension of the investigation and between characters involves the reader with a protagonist rare in crime fiction. One that is happily married, dependable and well respected in his position.

McGarrity's ability to draw on his own experience as a former investigator for the New Mexico Public Defender's Office, ex-sheriff for Santa Fe County and as a trained psychotherapist brings a degree of realism to his writing few can match.

Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Jennifer Jordan

Book Review: Everyone Dies