Jeff Crook

I normally don't enjoy reading about current or reformed addicts, but there are exceptions: Barbara Seranella's Munch Mancini, Ken Bruen's Jack Taylor, and now Jeff Crook's Jackie Lyons. As she visits crime scenes and talks to the police officers she knows, it's obvious that she had a lot of talent as a detective-- or she would have, if drugs hadn't sidetracked her. Seeing glimpses of that talent made me a patient reader, willing to tease out wisps of clues throughout the narrative in order to learn what made her so wounded, so defensive, so distrustful. I'm not about to tell you what happened, but the wait is worth it.

There is also a high creep factor in The Sleeping and the Dead. Are the visions Jackie sees late at night actually ghosts or are they drug-induced dreams? And what's up with that camera that takes photos when no one is pushing the button?

There are two mysteries in this novel-- one of the man accused of murdering his wife, the other of the Playhouse Killer. I liked both, and I really enjoyed how the author tied them together in a very unexpected way.

There's a lot to like about Jackie Lyons, and I'm really looking forward to reading more about her in the future.… (mer)

An ex-cop turned photographer and a Leica camera that tells stories it has no right to know.

Jackie Lyons, formerly of the Memphis Police Department, turns into a junkie after one thing too many uproots her world. She tries to pull it together with the help of a detective friend by the name of Adam. She now takes pictures of murder scenes and sells them back to the department . . . and an old perv she befriended from a past case. It is her means of making a living.

When the Playhouse Killer enacts his version of well-known plays, Jackie becomes knee-deep in the case. She ‘sees’ things differently than the detectives, and that ‘sight’ is what leads her to the serial killer. She fights off her own death in order to bring justice to the dead around her.

Despite the fact that I feel Crook misses the mark at times when he attempts to write the female protagonist, the book is enjoyable and worth the read.

Reviewed by Starr Gardinier Reina, author of “One Major Mistake”… (mer)