Immoral by Brian Freeman

This is Book #1 by Brian Freeman.



I prefer my mysteries on audiobook and I stumbled across this one about the same time the author was in town promoting his most recent release (I wasn’t able to attend, darn it!). What grabbed my attention was not only was it set in Duluth, but also in Las Vegas. Very cool.

Premise of the book from Goodreads.com: Lieutenant Jonathan Stride is suffering from an ugly case of déjà vu. For the second time in a year, a beautiful teenage girl has disappeared off the streets of Duluth, Minnesota - gone without a trace, like a bitter gust off Lake Superior. The two victims couldn't be more different.

First it was Kerry McGrath, bubbly, sweet sixteen. And now Rachel Deese, strange, sexually charged, a wild child. The media hounds Stride to catch a serial killer, and as the search carries him from the icy stillness of the northern woods to the erotic heat of Las Vegas, he must decide which facts are real and which are illusions.

And Stride finds his own life changed forever by the secrets he uncovers. Secrets that stretch across time in a web of lies, death, and illicit desire. Secrets that are chillingly immoral.



I really enjoyed this book with three exceptions (there shouldn’t be any spoilers here):
1) At the beginning of the book, the main character throws a pack of cigarettes into the canal, and thus, into the lake. WTF? Seriously? Littering Lake Superior? Not cool.

2) At the beginning of the book, two teens take a ride on the Lift Bridge, the bridge that connects mainland MN to Park Point, the peninsula that juts out along the tip of Lake Superior. The bridge lifts to permit the ships access into the harbor. Ahh, no. People are not allowed to ride the lift bridge. Das ist Forbotten. Period. They have cameras to prevent that sort of thing. Have for years and years – even encompassing the timeframe in which this book is set.

3) We have a killing in the courthouse. A stabbing. Copious amounts of blood everywhere. Spooting across the room and pooling on the floor. It is my understanding (I’ve been to enough ‘medical’ panels at conventions to understand that the chances of stabbing someone in the chest, in the heart is not only incredibly unlikely, but very difficult.) So, without giving too much of this scene away, implausible.

The rest of the book was outstanding. Go read it.