Book Review: Open Season

Open Season by Maryann Miller is a police-procedural and a mystery. Two female police officers are paired together and the undercurrent between them is almost as charged as the case they’re working.

Here’s the back cover blurb:

Amid racial tensions and the deadly force controversy sweeping the city of Dallas, Homicide detectives Sarah Kingsly and Angel Johnson are unlikely and unwilling partners. They both see the pairing as better PR than policy.

The Dallas Review Board wants Sarah’s badge because she shot a young black boy when an undercover drug operation went bad and her partner was killed. Angel is under pressure from her family to refuse to work with “this white, Honkey bitch.”

Their first case, dubbed the Mall Murders, begins with the death of a maintenance worker at one of the Metroplex shopping malls. A security guard is then killed at another mall. The final murder victim is a young window dresser whose body is left like a mannequin behind the glass of an exclusive boutique at the Galleria Mall.

In this police procedural mystery, the women follow the trail of a killer until it comes too close to home, and they have to decide if they can handle being partners.

There’s such tension between Sarah and Angel that it’s a stretch to call them “partners.” Sarah is dealing with the loss of her previous partner as well as the killing of the boy. Angel doesn’t like being partnered with Sarah since it seems to be a ploy by the upper brass, plus her family is against the arrangement. Will the animosity get in the way of solving the murders?

Both women will have to fight their personal demons. Racing against time and a murderer adept at hiding and killing, they have to put aside their differences and work together to solve the case, as each killing becomes more brazen.

Open Season is character driven. There’s also action and mystery, but it is the two main characters who move the story. Miller does a good job of personalizing each woman and bringing each to life on the page. She doesn’t take sides, but lets the reader see inside the mind and heart of each woman. Miller also doesn’t shy away from the controversial undercurrent in the book.

Open Season by Maryann Miller
ISBN-13: 978-1-59414-915-3
Five Star Publishing
Amazon
Barnes and Noble

I give Open Season by Maryann Miller a rating of Hel-Yeah because the book is a good read with fully developed characters, an elusive killer and a highly charged social aspect.

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FTC Disclaimer: The ARC was sent to me by the author, Maryann Miller, but this did not influence my review. What did influence my review was the realism in the book. The characters were real, yes, and the turbulence between them was real, yes, but the realism I’m talking about is the mall murders. I really hate malls or shopping in general so I can certainly believe that a berserker killed people in the mall. I mean, come on, you’re walking in the mall, you turn a corner, and there’s a gaggle of teens coming toward you and they have no intention of moving an iota so you can get past and you left your Taser at home in your other purse … never mind, my personal story is not relevant since this killer does his work after hours. Just check out Open Season. It’s a good mystery.