For as long as I can remember, I have loved reading mysteries. The idea of discerning clues as I read the story and trying to come up with the answer before the detective does has always given mysteries a little extra spice for me. I'll admit I read more cozies, having cut my teeth on Agatha Christie, than police procedurals, but I enjoy a good story with a lot of plot twists.

As The Twig is Bent opens with George Spiros, an aging manufacturer of wrought-iron furniture, on the way home after a successful business trip, anxious to see his wife, Melina. Scenes of George on his way home to his beloved wife, while on a flight threatened by a storm, are interspersed with scenes of Melina being brutally raped and killed. Melina Spiros is not the first in the string of deaths, but her death and the commonalities of another determine the murderer is a serial killer, who must be stopped. A heart carved on the breast of the victims with four initials, the initials of the victim and JC, and a bible at the scene with a specific passage underlined are the only clues Detective Lieutenant Matt Davis and his team have to unravel the mystery surrounding these brutal murders.

When the case lands in the lap of Matt Davis, he is not pleased. In the twilight of his career, trying to keep his current marriage from going south due to the pressures of the job, a serial killer with religious overtones is the last thing he wants to face. The primary team consists of Davis, his partner of seven years, Chris Freitag, and the recent transfer to the station, Rita Valdez. Rita has a history of inappropriate relations with colleagues, and is trying to live down her past as a homewrecker as well as prove she is a good cop. Rita's biggest problem is that she is lonely. The investigation takes the team into the realm of the local church because of the bible connection and their attempt to determine whether the JC stands for Jesus Christ, giving the murders a religious twist or whether they are the initials of the perpetrator.

Joe Perrone, Jr. takes the reader on a ride through the cyber world where the killer is active in online chat rooms, searching for his next victim; something Melina Spiros found out to her detriment.

The man she had arranged to meet this evening was someone she had met several weeks ago in an Internet chat room, called “Manhattan Singles.” He had intrigued her from the start, and when he had invited her to meet him for a drink, she had been pleasantly surprised, accepting immediately. Privacy was important, so they had agreed upon a small tavern, just out of the neighborhood, where no one would know either of them, especially her. Inviting him back to her apartment had been a risk, but she never intended to do anything more than talk, so she had taken it.

Perrone switches back and forth throughout the book from Davis's point of view to that of the killer, bringing out the murderer's background and what shaped him to be the twisted wretch he has become. While appreciating the background information and the glimpses into the psyche of the murderer, I feel these sections were, at times, a little heavy-handed, telling me the how's and why's instead of showing me. The best of Perrone's writing shines through in his depiction of the relationship between Davis and his wife, Valerie. In particular, their trip on a rare day off to go fly fishing. Perrone's own love of fly fishing imbues his descriptions and I felt like I was standing next to Matt and Valerie as they cast their lines.

As The Twig is Bent is not for the squeamish. There are sections containing brutal details of grisly murders, and glimpses into the mind of the insane. Although I would like to see Perrone go back and polish this novel a little more, removing the passivity, the base story is a good one and is satisfying for murder mystery fans.

Preview As the Twig is Bent

Review of other book(s) by Joe Perrone, Jr. - Review 10 - Escaping Innocence

Originially reviewed for the LL Book Review