Shadows Still Remain: A Novel by Peter De Jonge (ARC) ~
New York City, 2005. Thanksgiving weekend. Tower Record is still in business and topless Kate Moss peers down from a billboard over rain-splattered Houston. Street. Escaping a troubled past, Francesca Pena came to the city and reinvented herself as a successful. charismatic student. Yet after a night of drinking, Pena has gone missing. Detective Darlene O'Hara of the Seventh Precinct in Lower Manhattan "catches" the case, and with her partner, Serge "K" Krekorian, sets out to find her. When Pena's body, encased in a plastic and carved up like a totem pole, is discovered in a men's bathroom in East River Park, the case turns high profile, and Homicide, led by legendary detective Patrick Cooney, is called in.
But the thirty-four year old O'Hara, who has an eighteen year old son she saddled with the name Axl Rose O'Hara, and whose binge drinking exacerbates the massive chip on her shoulder, refuses to let go. Risking both her and K's careers, she secretly pursues her own investigation, a hunt that leads from NYU's ivory towers to Brooklyn tattoo parlors, from a skanky strip club to a whitewashed boutique run by a Korean madam. But O'Hara has to move fast, because Cooney and the NYPD are about to make a devastating mistake that will leave the real killer free. (From the back cover)
Having co-authored The Beach House with James Patterson, Peter De Jonge strikes out on his own with this intense tale of prostitution, deceit and murder.
When seemingly good girl Francesa Pena goes missing after a night of drinking with her friends Darlene "Dar" O'Hara and her partner Serge "K" Krekorkian catch the case. When her body is found, the case quickly becomes "high profile" due to the "connections" of her rich friends. This forces Dar and K's boss push them for a quick close to the case. With 72 hrs to find the killer before having to turn the case over to homicide, and egotistical Detective Cooney, Dar pushes things to the extreme. When Cooney sets his sights on a suspect, Dar knows in her gut that he's not the one responsible and decides she's going to find the killer, even if it means having to do it on her own and potentially lose everything she holds dear. After pushing things to far, Dar is put on suspension. Going over each minute detail of the case, she is able to track Pena's movements throughout the night. And what she finds will both keep the reader riveted to the pages while at the same time make their stomach churn. An incredibly twisted tale of bad girls gone good ~ gone bad again. A tale of murder and greed. This powerful thriller will have you turning the pages well into the wee hours of the morning even though, at times, you're sickened by what you're reading. Mr. De Jonge has great future ahead of him as a solo writer and I hope to see more of Dar & K in the future.
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