2 out of 4 stars
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The Cleansing by Daniel Cross is a book in the crime fiction genre. The story is set in the, until recently, low-key and relatively crime-free city of Jubilee. Things were running fine for Detective Colm Mallory, working in the New York Police Department, with success and fame in good measure. Until one fine day alcohol, fused with short temper, led to an unfortunate incident and Colm is found guilty of undue force.
Now, suspended from work without pay for six months, he is forced to reconsider his best friend, Kevin Avery’s, job offer to join the Jubilee police force. Though he grew up there, this city is an unhappy reminder of his father’s death and the crisis that followed. With his funds running out, Colm heads out to Jubilee, thinking how much worse can it be? With two brutal, sinister double murders in one week and absolutely no clue about the murderer in this sleepy town, Colm is in for a harsh welcome back home.
Psychotic serial killers and ritualistic murders are not unheard of crime suspense novels; in fact readers of this genre are pretty familiar with this plot idea. Therefore, an author swimming in these waters has to be inventive with the plot twists and characters. As far as characters go, the author had ample material but I felt that he just managed to scratch the surface in the characterization department. Colm’s character showed plenty of promise: the author could have delved into his past deeper, could have explored his anger management issues more closely, etc., but the author just skims through this character.
The other characters like Kevin and Tracy (Colm’s partner on this case) could have also been developed better, but here again the author did not utilize the characters to his advantage. Such gory murders are unknown to Jubilee, and Kevin’s handling of the situation that seems beyond his experience could have been developed better. The same goes for how Tracy deals with being sidelined for her promotion in favor of Colm because he’s from the ‘big city’ and the mayor’s evident bias for Colm. Her character deserved a nuanced treatment instead of seeming unduly unprofessional through half of the book.
Moving on to the writing, the author could have avoided several grammatical errors with better editing. The story switches between the perspective of the murderer and the detectives, and the author has detailed the perpetrator’s thought process well, which I felt was the best element in the book. The plot progresses along predictable lines until the reader reaches the climax, which was totally unexpected. I didn’t see the conclusion coming, and that helped the book win a few brownie points in the unpredictability section.
I hope the author continues with these characters in a sequel because there is still lot left to uncover. The book had potential but as such, presently, it is a half-baked attempt, and hence I rate it 2 out of 4 stars.
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The Cleansing
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