When straight-arrow detective Jason Scarsdale unwittingly befriends a woman secretly bent on murderous revenge, he’s drawn into a web of malice that teaches him the value of breaking the rules.
His focus is on solving the murders—until the unthinkable happens…
Recently widowed, Austin Police Detective Jason Scarsdale works to solve the murders of two pedophiles, while trying to be both mother and father to his five-year-old daughter. During his investigation, Scarsdale is forced to navigate between the crosshairs of two police commanders out to get him. Drawn to Austin Police Crime Analyst, Dani Mueller, who has also suffered tragedy, Scarsdale fights both his attraction and his suspicions that something just isn’t right…
She is hiding a secret, one that could not only cost her a job—it could end her life…
Dani hides a deadly past. After her daughter was brutally murdered, Dani exacted her revenge then changed her name and fled to Austin. But if her secret ever gets out, she knows there is no place she can hide from the murderer’s vicious family.
Pulled into a web of malice and deceit, Scarsdale and Dani discover the value of breaking the rules. Then just when they thought things couldn’t get worse…they do.
Excerpt
I watched him pass through the door toward the courtroom. His head hung down, and his shoulders slumped as he stuffed his hands into his pants pockets. He shuffled his gait. His steps seemed weak and tottering like those of a condemned man. In my mind, he already was one. But if the system didn't work this time, if the jury let him go, I'd kill him myself.
Just like I had killed Doyle Burton.
Professional Reviews
Kirkus Reviews
"Brenham’s fast-paced police drama juggles a number of narrative lines and disparate characters . . . The entire cast of characters—good and evil—is well-constructed and realistic, while the action-packed ending grows organically out of their varied personalities. So too does the emotional ending, which chooses intelligence over sentimentality. A gripping, fast-moving and emotionally charged drama centered on well-drawn characters with genuine motives."
A Crime Thriller with Many Twists and Turns
Detective Jason Scarsdale's wife Charity passed away four weeks prior as the result of a car wreck. Jason feels guilty because he should have gone to the store rather than watch TV. They have a five-year old daughter, Shannon, whom Jason has rather ignored because of his long hours at work and his excuse that he needed time with the boys. After Charity died, Jason's sister Sarah came and stayed with them for awhile. Severely depressed, Jason was on the edge of committing suicide until Sarah reminded him how much Shannon needed him particularly now. Jason's police partner Harris and he were called out on a case where the mother Dory Mabry when she got home from work found her boyfriend and baby sitter, Terry Wayne Olsen, with his penis in her three-year old daughter's mouth. She attacked him, hurting him. Thus begins this story of Jason and his buddy Harris investigating several pedophile cases of rape and murder.
Scott Dewayne Lasiter was on trial for the murder of a nine-year old girl Amy Crowell. The mother Susan Crowell had to testify. Dani Mueller, an observer at this trial, once known as Karla Engel, a defense attorney and crime analyst in California had suffered the death of her ten- year old daughter, Katarina, who had been raped and beaten to death by a pedophile, Doyle Burton. Karla, shocked to the core when the murderer of her daughter was not convicted and she received notes and phone calls from him bragging about how he did her daughter, found him and beat him to death the same way her daughter had suffered. It was for that reason she legally changed her name so that she could not be traced. She thereafter secured a position with the Austin Police Department as a crime analyst and her specialty was child molesters. While Dani was commiserating with Susan while she was on the stand, she relived those terrible days after the death of Katarina.
The pedophile on trial was Scott Lasiter and Dani had decided to do to pedophiles who get off without a conviction what they did to their victims...kill them in the same manner they killed. Thus she sneaked into Lasiter's house one evening intent on sneaking up on him and butchering him as he butchered the child, but he returned home with Tom Zarko. She hid in the closet and the two men got into a fight and Zarko killed Lasiter. During their oral exchange Dani realized that Lassiter was not the murderer, but Zarko was.
From there the story has many surprises with Scarsdale attempting to be a father/mother to his motherless child; trying to track down the real killer of Amy and the leader of a pedophile ring; resisting an obvious attempt within the Austin PD to get rid of him because he was getting too close to the truth; aware of an appeal between him and Dani that he feels is betraying his deceased wife, Charity; car chases; an inability to make necessary arrests because of the shenanigans within the PD of those in office who can thwart him; and finally finding his own daughter in danger from this ring.
This tale is a page turner with many unexpected twists and turns. It is well written, an easy quick read and I recommend it.
A Good Solid Mystery
It takes a certain kind of mystery or crime thriller to hold my complete attention. The cookie cutter plot lines of James Patterson make me laugh every time I see him hanging out on the New York Times Bestseller list. I enjoyed the occasional Mary Higgins Clark or John Grisham back in my high school days, but even they don't do it for me today. Thomas Harris has always been a fav, but he's written all of five books in three decades. These days author Gillian Flynn has me screeching like a vamp crazed teen girl every time a new book comes out, but again, three books in six years.
In between, I take some pleasure in reading good solid mysteries that indie authors are putting out these days, such as Alan Brenham's Price of Justice. They may lack a certain depth when it comes to narration, and may copy the plot structure of any CSI or Law and Order Episode verbatim, but good writing and strong characters speak for themselves and keep me reading. And Mr. Brenham can definitely write.
In Price of Justice, detective Jason Scarsdale has just lost his wife in a car accident. He's having trouble balancing his case load with the need to be a good father for his five year old daughter, Shannon. Unfortunately, his latest case involves a ring of child porn hustlers led by a masked ruffian that calls himself the CEO, so Jason is a bit uncomfortable but is determined to seek justice.
A crooked police commander who wants Jason gone, a connection in jail that won't talk without a deal, Jason's unsympathetic mother-in-law dragging him into court, a determined vigilante, there's plenty of subplots to really drive the story and keep the pages turning. Mr. Brenham does an excellent job of building tension throughout the layers of his story. I was constantly trying to stay one step ahead by figuring out what would happen next; sometimes I was right and sometimes I was pleasantly surprised at the outcome.
The author does use one device that can be very tricky, but can also be very effective if pulled off well. He mixes a first person and third person narrative. The chapters told from Dani's perspective are through her eyes in first person, but the chapters from Jason or anyone else's POV is in third person. It works very well in Brenham's favor and makes Dani a very interesting and likable character. I thoroughly enjoyed being inside her head.
As I said before, the structure of the everyday mystery is one that fans of the genre all know inside and out. It's the characters, both sympathetic and unsympathetic, that have to drive a good detective story these days. Price of Justice definitely has both, which makes it a good solid mystery, with some dark undertones, that a solid fan of the genre is sure to enjoy.
The Reed’s faith, a mystery to some, will be tested like never before. Will it hold? Mark’s love for his wife and their intimate romance is shattered by Brandy, a barmaid.
