Darryl's Reunion by John B. Wren

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ThosHowellBookReview
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Darryl's Reunion by John B. Wren

Post by ThosHowellBookReview »

Wren's third mystery/thriller, Darryl's Reunion, hits the ground running as the story opens with a mysterious "Patient", a terminally ill person, who reappears later in the story but whose identity is kept from the reader.

The plot line then shifts to the main story of a new dective in a small town in Northern Virginia. In an attempt to keep busy in a peaceful rural community, he opens a 'cold case' file from the basement. He becomes intriguied with the case of the unsolved murder of a frail, withdrawn freshman by a gang of school bullies many years ago.

The detective is new in town but has ten years behind the badge in Pittsburg. He sets out to prove himself to his new police chief. As the investigation continues on with dogged determination, the chief says to himself, "I've got me a bulldog here." It all seems very real and makes for a fun read.

The plot thickens when the high school reunion comes to town and the planning committee share their views on who killed poor Darryl. Most of those working on the upcoming High School Reunion think they know who the bullies turned murderers where. As one former friend and classmate says, "Why don't we just shoot the basterds." Our hero Ian objects to the idea, demonstrating once again that he is a by-the-book cop.

We meet a lot of interesting characters and are left wondering who-done-it right up the plot-twist at the end. Detective work can be tedious, and some reviewers have criticised this novel's up-close look at the painstaking task of police interviews, asking the same questions over and over. Ian McLarry uses these interviews to narrow down the list of suspects, and I thought this part only added to the verisimilitude of Darryl's Reunion. This cold case does heat up, however, when the McLarry finds himself falling for one of the suspects, but the romance turns out in a most unexpected way.

A great piece of work from John B. Wren, I look forward to his next book, which I understand will be coming out soon. A good read.
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