26. A Fatal Obsession by James Hayman

#6 McCabe and Savage
read on my iPhone/Kindle
2018 Witness Impulse
368 pgs.
Adult Mystery/Police Procedural
Finished 2/8/2020
Goodreads rating: 4.11 - 369 ratings
My rating:  4+
Setting: Contemporary NYC, mostly lower east side

First line/s:  "The worst thing about the rage was its randomness.  Tyler Branshaw never knew what might trigger one."

My comments: This was an excellent story, I love the way it switched back and forth between the abducted Zoe and the police proceedings trying to find her.  I was actually quite intrigues with this "bad guy," and formed a bond with him, as Zoe did in a weird, quirky way.  What a wonderful character she was!  And boy, are there some evil people in this world.  I'd still rather be going through life with blinders on....
     I'm not sure how quickly and happily the NYPD would allow two detectives from Portland, Maine, be the lead investigators in a recent abduction in NYC, particularly when one of the detectives is the uncle of the abducted!  And Maggie certainly took a back seat in this one.  Not that I remember the first five really, really well, but I think there was more of a partnership involved than in this one.
      Overall, I really liked the storytelling.  I wasn't a nervous wreck whenever we were in Zoe's world, I actually found the happenings quite intriguing.  I originally thought of this as a five, but because of a few weak points (above), I think I'll rate this a solid 4.
     As much as I love NYC, I sure hope they plan to return to Portland!

Goodreads synopsis:  "James Hayman’s edgy, ingenious novels rival the best of Lisa Gardner, Jeffery Deaver, and Kathy Reichs. A Fatal Obsession is his finest to date: a ferocious live-wire thriller starring two of the most appealing cops in contemporary fiction." —A.J. Finn, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Woman in the Window   
          Someone’s watching...      
          Zoe McCabe is a beautiful young actress on the verge of stardom who has been basking in the standing ovations and rave reviews she’s been getting from critics and fans alike for her portrayal of Desdemona in an off-Broadway production of Othello. As she takes her final bows, Zoe has no idea that, seated in the audience, a man has been studying her night after night, performance after performance. A man whose carefully crafted plans are for the young actress to take a starring role in a far deadlier production he has created just for her.         
          Portland, Maine detectives Mike McCabe and Maggie Savage are settling into the new rhythm of their relationship when McCabe gets a late night call from his brother Bobby that Zoe, McCabe's favorite niece and Bobby’s daughter, has suddenly disappeared. The NYPD is certain Zoe's abduction is the work of the man the tabloids have dubbed “The Star Struck Strangler,” a killer who has been kidnapping, abusing and finally strangling one beautiful young performer after another. Bobby begs McCabe to return to the New York City crime beat he’d left behind so many years ago, to work his old connections, and to help find Zoe before her time runs out. The stakes for McCabe and Savage have never been higher. Or more personal. And suddenly the race is on to stop a vicious attacker, before the McCabe family is torn apart beyond repair.

29. Among the Shadows by Bruce Robert Coffin

#1 John Byron, Portland Maine Homicide Detective
read on my iPhone
2016 Witness Impulse
400 pgs.
Adult Mystery
Finished 3/17/2019
Goodreads rating: 4.27 - 1259 ratings
My rating: 3.5
Setting: Contemporary Portland, Maine

First line/s:  "The bitter stench of urine and impeding death permeated the small dingy bedroom."

My comments:  This was a well written police procedural about a smart, honest homicide detective in Portland, Maine.  I started this with great excitement the minute I knew it was contemporary Portland.  I wasn't disappointed, though it was a little slow in places and I wanted more setting (MAINE!).  Boy were there some bad cops in this novel, which of course encourages...forces...my dislike of cops in general.  Weird, really, that I love police procedurals...Looking forward to the next in the series.
     Detailed info to refresh my memory before reading #2 (spoilers included):  John Byron has begun an affair with his partner, Diane Joyner.  He has just taken down both his father's killer and his father's best friend.  Byron has spent twenty years thinking that his dad had committed suicide, which he now discovers is not the case at all.  The chief of police - Stanton - is a real jerk, and Byron's direct boss  always has his hands tied and is pretty much mamby-pamby.  Byron's "crew" seem pretty decent, honest, and hardworking.

Goodreads synopsis:  Fall in Portland, Maine usually arrives as a welcome respite from summer’s sweltering temperatures and, with the tourists gone, a return to normal life—usually. But when a retired cop is murdered, things heat up quickly, setting the city on edge.
          Detective Sergeant John Byron, a second-generation cop, is tasked with investigating the case—at the very moment his life is unraveling. On the outs with his department’s upper echelon, separated from his wife, and feeling the strong pull of the bottle, Byron remains all business as he tries to solve the murder of one of their own. And when another ex-Portland PD officer dies under suspicious circumstances, he quickly realizes there’s much more to these cases than meets the eye. The closer Byron gets to the truth, the greater the danger for him and his fellow detectives.
          This taut, atmospheric thriller will appeal to fans of Michael Connelly and John Sandford.

55. The Girl on the Bridge by James Hayman

# 5 McCabe & Savage, Portland, ME
listened to on Audible
2017, William Morrow
368 pgs.
Adult murder mystery
Finished 9/3/17
Goodreads rating: 4.12 - 732 ratings
My rating: 3
Setting: Contemporary Portland, ME (with flashbacks to 2001 NY state)

First line/s:  "October 2001:  Winter comes early to northern New York state.  By the third Saturday in October nighttime temperatures on the Holden College campus in Willardville had dropped to well below freezing."

My comments:  Lots of talking and very little action in this one, more telling than showing.  The same story/s seem to be told over and over again, the book could've and should've been shorter.  No surprises - hints from the very beginning (chapter 2, I think).  This is the first one in the series that I've listened to, and although it was read well, the reader's voice was too old and gruff for the Michael McCabe I had in my head.  I didn't care for the way he did women's voices, either.  It's amazing how much this changed people's personalities in my mind (this is, after all, the 5th I've read in this series and feel like I've gotten to know the protagonists a bit...)  Note to self:  READ the next one, don't listen to it.  Also, the last four or so minutes of the book were fun.

Goodreads synopsis: From New York Times bestselling author of the acclaimed McCabe and Savage series comes an electrifying new thriller of taut and twisted suspense.
          On a freezing December night, Hannah Reindel leaps to her death from an old railway bridge into the rushing waters of the river below. Yet the real cause of death was trauma suffered twelve years earlier when Hannah was plucked from a crowd of freshman girls at a college fraternity party, drugged, and then viciously assaulted by six members of the college football team.
          Those responsible have never faced or feared justice. Until now. A month after Hannah’s death, Joshua Thorne—former Holden College quarterback and now a Wall Street millionaire—is found murdered, his body bound to a bed and brutally mutilated.
          When a second attacker dies in mysterious circumstances, detectives Mike McCabe and Maggie Savage know they must find the killer before more of Hannah’s attackers are executed. But they soon realize, these murders may not be simple acts of revenge, but something far more sinister.
          The Girl on the Bridge is a compelling and harrowing tale of suspense that once read will not easily be forgotten. 

8. Girl in the Glass - James Hayman

McCabe & Savage #4
read on my iPhone...
2015 Witness Impulse
373 pgs.
Adult murder mystery
Finished 2/12/16
Goodreads rating:  3,81
My rating: 4
Setting: Contemporary Portland, ME

My comments:  In this fourth-in-the-series, Hayman uses the islands off Portland, Maine, to showcase how the rich and "beautiful" live - and fall, just like the rest of humanity.  Rich private school, Maine's wealthy and elite, spoiled high schoolers, tarnished adults, and a beautiful summer setting all enrich a really good mystery.  Intermingled with the contemporary happenings are bits and pieces of memories from 1904 and a mystery linked to the Whitby family in almost-believable ways.  Okay, so you have to use your imagination a bit and not roll your eyes, but when you do it becomes a truly enjoyable reading experience, especially if you LOVE anything written about the state of Maine!

Goodreads synopsis:  New York Times Bestseller!
     Two identical women.
     Two identical murders. Two lives brutally cut short
     108 years apart
     June 1904.
     Aimée Garnier Whitby, a beautiful French artist and wife of one of Maine's richest and most powerful men, is found near death on the Whitby family's private summer island, the letter "A" mysteriously carved into her chest.
     June 2012. 
     Veronica Aimée Whitby, the eighteen-year-old descendant and virtual double of the first Aimée, becomes the victim of a near perfect copycat murder. With another beautiful, promising young Whitby woman slain, the media begin to swarm and pressure builds for Mike McCabe and Maggie Savage to bring the killer quickly to justice. But the key to solving Aimée's death just might have been buried with her beautiful ancestor.

37. Playing God - Kate Flora

Joe Burgesss #1 Portland, ME police detective
read on my iPhone/Book/listened to audio CD/Audible...
2006 Five Star (ME)
286 pgs.
Adult Murder Mystery
Finished 5/24/15
Goodreads rating: 3.73
My rating: 4
Setting: a contemporary winter in Portland, ME

First line/s:  "The small black dog skittered into the street, shining eyes registering canine astonishment that a vehicle dared to be out at this hour.  Burgess stomped on the brakes, the Explorer responding with orgasmic ABS shudders, stopping just short of the beast."

My comments:  I like Joe Burgess. A lot. Love the setting – Portland, Maine. A dead doctor, without compassion for anyone including his wife and especially his patients,disliked by everyone– including Joe Burgess. Various leads, including one that Burgess was a little reluctant to pursue. But listening to his mother's admonitions not to play God he's relentless in pursuit.  Lots of food for thought in the way he thinks, the sorts of feelings and virtues he accepts and does not accept, and interesting thinking in the way/s he views his own life.

Goodreads synopsis:

67. The Cutting - James Hayman

McCabe & Savage #1

Read on my iPhone/through Kindle/Audio eBooks

Audio read by Jonathan Davis

9 unabridged cds (11:00)

2009 Minotaur/McMillan

336 pgs.

Adult Murder Mystery

Finished 10/21/2014

Goodreads rating: 3.80

My rating:   (4) Loved it, despite a few "flaws"

Setting:  Contemporary Portland, ME

1st sentence/s:  from prologue:  "July, 1971.  He pressed the terrified creature firmly against his body.  He was a sturdy boy, tall for his eight years, with dark hair and a long, thin face.  After more than a month of summer sunshine, his normally fair skin had turned quite brown."
from Chapter 1:  "Portland, Maine; September 16, 2005.  Fog can be a sudden thing on the Maine coast.  Even on the clearest mornings, swirling grey mists sometimes appeared in an instant, covering the earth with an opacity that makes it hard to see even one's own feet on the ground."

My comments:  I love intense murder mysteries (does that make me ghoulish?) but this one had a few "grizzly" factors that almost took it too far for me.  This always happens when it involves any cutting of the skin with a knife or scalpel.  I have a difficult time with this.  The title should certainly tip one off......  That said, I greatly enjoyed this mystery.  I love the setting - Portland, Maine and upwards to Blue Hill (home!), and I really like the very human protagonist, Mike McCabe.  He's a police detective who has relocated from NYC with his 13-year-old daughter, Casey.  He made a few assumptions -- perhaps you could call them gut feelings - that seemed a bit over the top, but without which he could not have followed the clues to catching the bad guy. And this one one bad-ass bad guy.....

Goodreads book summary: From a formidable new voice in suspense fiction comes an edge-of-the-seat story of a homicide detective on the trail of a killer, who slays with exacting precision, and who harbors a terrifying motive
          Detective Sergeant Michael McCabe moved from New York City to Portland, Maine, to escape a dark past: both the ex-wife who’d left him for an investment banker, and the tragic death of his brother, a hero cop gone bad. He sought to raise his young daughter away from the violence of the big city . . . so he’s unprepared for the horrific killer he discovers, whose bloody trail may lead to Portland’s social elite.
          Early on a September evening, the mutilated body of a pretty teenaged girl, a high school soccer star, is found dumped in a scrap-metal yard. She had been viciously assaulted, but her heart had been cut out of her chest with surgical precision. The very same day a young businesswoman, also a blonde and an athlete, was abducted as she jogged through the streets of the city’s west end. McCabe suspects both crimes are the work of the same man---a killer who’s targeting the young---who is clearly well-versed in complex surgical procedures, and who may have struck before. Just as the investigation is beginning, McCabe’s ex-wife reemerges, suddenly determined to reclaim the daughter she heedlessly abandoned years earlier.
          With the help of his straight-talking (and, at times, alluring) partner, Maggie Savage, McCabe begins a race against time to rescue the missing woman and unmask a sadistic killer---before more lives are lost.