“South of Hell” by P.J. Parrish – unusual but good mystery.
Sunday, July 5th, 2009I know, I know – I’m reviewing a lot of novels lately. Well, it’s summer, there’s nothing to watch on television. I keep checking the new movies out and….nothing appeals! Libraries on the other hand are just chocked full of wonderful, interesting FREE books and I love to read.
Okay, down to business. I read the blurb on “South of Hell,” snatched it off the shelf and brought it home because it was different. Louis Kincaid, a P.I. in Florida receives a call from Jake Shockley, a police detective working cold cases in Ann Arbor, Michigan, where Kincaid grew up and was a cop at one time. Shockley asks Kincaid to fly back to Michigan and help him with a cold case and tells him the police will pay his expenses. Kincaid jumps at the chance because his girlfriend lives in Michigan. Now, this is a series character and I this book is in the middle but…I didn’t get lost and the author didn’t put in a lot of boring back story about previous cases.
When Kincaid arrives in Ann Arbor, he finds out that Shockley wants him to help manufacturer evidence on the cold case so he can obtain a search warrant. Of course Kincaid refuses. I don’t want to go into too much detail but we find out with Kincaid that Shockley was having an affair with the missing woman, is still in love with her and is going crazy trying to find her …. or her body.
There are plenty of twists and turns in this story. Missing bodies, past life regression, the old slave underground railroad – enough to keep you turning pages long into the night. Two things bothered me a bit about the book. We find out fairly early that Louis Kincaid is black and his girlfriend, Joe is white. No biggie but I never believed Kincaid was black and I really cannot tell you why. It just didn’t track to the point that I looked up the author and went to the website. Turns out Parrish is really two white sisters. Now, I’ve written black characters into my books but I’d never have the audacity to make a main character black. I don’t know why the sisters decided this for his ethnicity but perhaps it’s explained in earlier books. I’ll try to go to the beginning and read more because I did enjoy this book, but never bought that Louis was black. I didn’t believe it for a minute. The second thing that bothered me was Kincaid’s girlfriend’s name – JOE! Huh? I’ve never seen a female character named Joe! It’s usually Jo! Joe is male – always. Maybe be a quirk of mine (Yeah, I know, I have a lot) but every time JOE was mentioned, it’s stopped me reading. As a writer, you never want to do that – never.
At the end of “South of Hell,” all the loose ends are tied up, there are many parallel surprises and I have to say I really enjoyed the book. Yup, these characters are worth reading about. What do you think?
