What happens to an officer when his word is crumbling around him? What if he is a homicide detective and gets a high profile case? He can’t just quit, but yet his head is stuck between this case and his family.
Truth Always Kills is a novel by Rick Ollerman. Full disclosure I met Rick this July at the Public Safty Writers Conference in Las Vegas. We took a walk on the Vegas Strip talking about life, writing and police work.
Detective Jeff Prentiss works for the St. Petersburg, Flordia police department. Previously he worked at Tampa Bay in Tampa, FL. A prior case that went sideways landed Jeff on a suspension and for political reasons transferred over to St. Petersburg. An internal investigation is ongoing which could lead to his being fired.
As the story opens, Jeff is on his way to a death scene when his wife calls saying she is leaving. She is having issues with an ex-husband and wants to get out of town for a short time.
The victim turns out to be a local career thief Jeff has a history with. Soon a second body is found over in Tampa, and electronic records link the two men.
Working the case Jeff digs into the world of strippers, amateur porn and the local small time mafia. At the same time, he also is trying to follow the trail of breadcrumbs to locate his runaway wife.
Overall the story is tight. The dialogue keeps the story going a good clip. The terms and mannerisms of the officers all are inline with real cop talk. Jeff’s partner even does a good job of covering for Jeff when he is absent from a meeting. Something I may have had to do for a co-worker once, or twice…
Some of the issues with the police union and transfer to other department seem a tad far-fetched. However, it is fiction, and I have seen a lot worse breaches in police procedures in other novels.
The way Jeff goes about the case he has the markings of a hard-boiled detective, like what was popular in fiction decades ago. Yet, Mr. Ollerman has not created some knock off crime noir set in modern times like many poorly written ebooks are. This is an excellent read.
If you are looking for a book that has an interesting plot and filled with characters, you will care about Truth Always Kills should be your next read.
A free review copy of this book was provided by the author for this unbiased review.