Cold Case Squad

I had already read all the 'Britt Montero' books by Edna Buchanan before I read this book. It was interesting to get to know some characters from the previous series in more depth. It's a quick and easy read. I did NOT appreciate the profanity. It was NOT necessary. <br />

While "Cold Case Squad" isn't Edna Buchanan's best novel, it still has her trademark style and wit that makes her immensely readable. Like Carl Hiaasen, Buchanan calls Florida home, and also like Hiaasen, she has a love-hate relationship with the state and its inhabitants. Winner of a Pullitzer Prize for her years of crime reporting for The Miami Herald and other newspapers, Buchanan knows how to tell a fascinating story well. Her knowledge of politics, police procedural, and crime is abundant and evident in every sentence that she writes. "Cold Case Squad" is reminiscent of Ed McBain's 87th Precinct novels in that it follows the daily minutiae of several homicide detectives as they investigate several cases at once. At times, it feels less like a novel and reads more like a journalistic account of cops on duty. Not that that's a bad thing. There is definitely a level of believability to this novel than others of its ilk. Buchanan is also great at revealing the absurdly funny but oftentimes tragic inanity of politics involved in police work. In one memorable scene, a routine hostage situation is made anything less than routine when local and federal officers begin to bicker over jurisdiction. The scene is hysterical until you realize that there are still hostages being held at gunpoint. Thankfully, the scene comes to a satisfactory, and humorously unexpected, end, but not until every tension-filled suspenseful second has been utilized by Buchanan. This is apparently the first in a new series by Buchanan, and I look forward to reading more.

3.5 Stars .... Buchanan is in top form as she introduces a new series - Det Craig Burch leads the cold case squad. Here he's looking into two cases, including one that his lieutenant K C Riley has insisted the squad check - wasn't even a homicide but the circumstances hit close to home for Riley. A fast wrap-up leaves some holes.

Normally Edna Buchanan writes about Britt Montero, a Miami reporter. In this book she uses some of the police characters from other "Britt" books, but only hints about Britt (namelessly) once in awhile. Although, I love Britt, this was really good!

Two seemingly unrelated deaths take place in 1992. A strip club owner and a stripper are gunned down after a robbery. Later that afternoon, a man is trapped under the car he's working on. He's killed when the fuel tank ignites and the car and garage explode. The murders appear to be solved soon afterwards, and the explosion is recorded as an accident.<br /><br />Twelve years later, the ex-wife of Charles Terrell (the man who died in the explosion) reports to the Miami Police Department's Cold Case Squad that she has seen Charles. Chief K. C. Riley, still fresh from the burning death of the love of her life, assigns the Cold Case Squad to start investigating immediately. Squad members are Sergeant Craig Burch, dealing with problems in his marriage; Detective Sam Stone, hot on the case of a killer who has been at it for many years; and Detective Pete Nazario, the 'human lie detector'. None of them want to get involved in something that will take a lot of work and turn up nothing. But soon pieces begin to fall into place, that bring the entire Squad into the path of danger.<br /><br />Although these characters have appeared in other books by the author, she has switched her focus away from crime reporter Britt Montero (who isn't even mentioned here) to the Cold Case Squad. Enough back story is given that readers will not be lost if this is their first experience with the series. The main characters are all endearing in their own ways, and the reader will care about each person and their troubles from the beginning. The plot is intense and fast moving - though it deals with old crimes, that doesn't make them any less exciting. There's a satisfying feeling to being able to reach closure on long-open cases and give family members peace. <br /><br />Fans of police procedurals will delight in this newest offering (of a type popularized in tv shows such as CSI: Miami and Cold Case). The mystery is intense and clues are uncovered at a brisk pace. The action-filled drama is lightened occasionally by humor, particularly featuring Burch's estranged wife's revenge plots against him and his car. The Cold Case Squad is determined, no matter how long ago crimes happened. In the words of Detective Stone, 'You think you're getting away with it. Well, your worst bad dream is about to come true. Keep looking over your shoulder, because we're coming for you.'

I've been reading books about cold case murders and how police departments all over the country handle them as research for the 3rd novel I'm writing. Prior to this, mysteries just didn't appeal to me -- I got enough of police procedurals through the TV shows I watch. But this book was a terrific read, never mind all that I learned about policing of cold cases. Edna Buchanan was a Pulitzer Prize-winning Florida journalist (ret.) who followed such crimes, and this could easily have been a cut and dry journalistic book, but it as anything but. From the opening sentence, the author had my attention with a voice that was part noir and part dry wit that made me laugh out loud quite often with her gimlet-eyed look at life via her detectives. She juggled more than one case, and several detectives, and everything moved along pretty quickly even when the detectives were riding from one interview to another discussing the cases. All the characters were well drawn, and there were intriguing moments when she slipped from 3rd person into 1st person for certain characters and things they had to reveal about themselves. Once I've finished my research, I intend to read her other novels. And write her a fan letter.

Sgt. Craig Burch leads the Miami Cold Case Squad, a unit constantly worrying about funding and being disbanded. What they really need to "keep their worth" is an old case that can bring positive press and encourage the Miami Police Commissioner that they are worth having around. <br /><br />Then along comes a woman who claims she has been seeing her ex-husband, Charles Turrell, around. The problem is that he was blown to bits 12-years ago. Even though most of the cops on the squad think this case is a waste of their time, thier boss Lt. KC Riley inexplicably wants them to follow up on it. What may seem like a lost cause, Burch and Detective Pete Nazario start to do some digging and things become interesting, especially regarding Terrell's then wife Natasha. <br /><br />While all this is going on, Detective Sam Stone is investigating a possible serial killer who murders old women, cleans their bodies, wraps them in clean sheets back in their own beds, and then places dirt under their heads. After consulting with a local rabbi, Stone believes that the murder is an Orthodox Jew. The problem is how to find the murderer before he strikes next. <br /><br />I really lucked out with this book. It was an advanced reader's copy that I found for $1 in the used book section. I had never heard of Buchanan and I figured for a buck, why not? This book was quite enjoyable. Buchanan really brings the reader into the lives of the detectives involved in the cases. For example, you read about how Burch's estranged wife is constantly harassing him both in and out of work and you develop sympathy for him and want to strangle his wife. LOL I highly recommend this book. It's a good storyline with fantastic characters and nice plot twists.

The characters from Ice Maiden transition into their own series here and... at least by my read it's kind of a train wreck. The two actual cold case mysteries work here (better than the social commentary laden mystery of Ice Maiden), there are some injections of Carl Hiaasen-esque Florida Crazy as subplots that I could take or leave because while they added a little weirdness they also added nothing to the main plots, but mostly the stylistic shifts from first person to third person across the book, the continuation of plot threads from the last book in the prior series into this one that made the book feel like it had too much baggage for the first in a new series, and the again too-much-telegraphed bits of business trying to gin up suspense didn't land for me. <br /><br />Probably the last I read of this author. Again, YMMV.

This is a better-than-average police procedural with a <a href="https://goodreads.com/author/show/21158966.Carl_Hiassen" title="Carl Hiassen" rel="noopener">Carl Hiassen</a> feel for Miami. I downgraded it a little because I didn't understand the motive of one of the serial killers (and because I like mysteries with smaller body counts better). Then I upgraded it again because the author did her research to figure out what Orthodox Jews do when someone in their family dies, instead of faking it or assuming they're like Christians.<br /><br />The next time I want a fast-paced mystery with a bunch of testosterone flavoring it, and a multi-cultural cast of characters, with a woman in charge, this is the series I will reach for.

An odd one for Edna Buchanan. She kept switching from third person to first person with the main character. It also reads like she ran out of steam at the end. Both the primary and secondary mysteries that the novel focuses on get solved over like a half dozen pages and then it just kind of ends. It's an entertaining read for a while but would have been much better if it had been fleshed out quite a bit.