Red Light Book Review

Merci Rayborn has a lot to live down. In T. Jefferson Parker's first-rate thriller, Red Light, Marci not only has to deal with the fact that, Tim Hess, her lover and father of her two-year-old child was murdered in the line of duty. Both Merci and Hess worked as detectives for the sheriff's department and Merci blames herself for Hess' death. This blame, like a dark, hovering cloud, has followed her around for two years.

In Red Light, when a nineteen-year-old prostitute is murdered Merci catches the case. As she begins to unravel the young woman's life she is dismayed that a woman so young should be, as she put it, "a real pro." The clues slowly, but surely began to point the finger toward a fellow officer Mike McNally, a member of the vice squad. To make matter worse Merci is having a confusing affair with him. To complicate matters even more, her supervisor drops a cold case on her desk that dates back to the sixties.

At first the cold case is not that much of a priority. That changes as the clues to the recent murder lead her to have serious doubts about Mike and his involvement with the young prostitute. She begins looking at the cold case as a way to clear her mind of her suspicions concerning her boyfriend. But being the detective that she is she wants the truth to come out no matter who it might touch. Balancing the two cases, one recent and one decade's old, Merci is saddled with the guilt feeling of her dead lover and a growing feeling of remorse because of the clues she is finding lead her toward the ever growing suspicion that Mike, her present lover, killed the young woman.

As she is beset with rage and remorse concerning her feelings about Mike and the murder, she finds that the cold case has similar features. In both cases a prostitute with ties to the sheriff's department has been murdered. The cold case becomes a political hot potato as Marci continues to pursue it as she does the recent case. Between the two cases her world is turned upside down and she is drowning in rage for believing Mike is guilty of the murder and shame that she is unable to give him the benefit of the doubt. It's the clues. They keep piling up and so do the ones concerning the cold case. Merci is emotionally vulnerable and that is not a good thing.

Red Light is a good book. T. Jefferson Parker, in this reviewer's opinion has never written anything but good books. I have read a number of books written by Parker and have never came away from any of them without a feeling of complete satisfaction