Book Review: A Mourning in Autumn

Reviewed By: Harriet Klausner

A Mourning in Autumn     Amazon US HC Amazon Canada HC
Harker Moore
Class/Genre:   Mystery
Mysterious, July 2004, $25.00, 325 pp.

While emptying a dumpster, a body falls out; Lieutenant James Sakura investigates and concludes after reading an autopsy report that the same person who killed this young woman previously murdered another female a few weeks ago. The police find two more corpses in the garbage dump.

The women were young and thin, and wrapped in a plastic garbage bag with their organs cut out and put in upside down. No fingerprints, semen or trace evidence was left behind. A fifth body is found in the same condition as the others. The killer changes his MO when he hangs an older woman on a meat hood in a meat packing warehouse. The seventh victim is found in a store window and the eighth victim is the ex-wife of the policewoman working the case. The investigation takes a dramatic shift when they realize that he kidnapped her twin sons. A full manhunt is on for a man that the police don’t have a clue who he is or what he looks like.

Japanese Americans James Sakura is not your average police officer. He feels too deeply and becomes very involved in the case, taking every failure as a missed opportunity to catch the monster who is terrifying his city. Adding to his woes is the gulf that widens between himself and his wife Kanae who was the victim of a serial killer in A CRUEL SEASON FOR DYING. Harker Moore has written a fascinating police procedural with an ending that will totally shock readers who never could imagine the truth about the killings. The short stark prose reflects the gothic tone of this unique who-done-it.

Harriet Klausner

Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Harriet Klausner