The Darkness Hunter
Christopher Valen
Conquill Press, Sep 1 2015, $15.00
www.conquillpress.com
ISBN: 9780990846123
Senior St. Paul Homicide Detective Wendell
Hudson, assisted by Detective John Santana,
forensics specialists and the medical examiner, leads the investigation into
the murder of seventeen year old Danielle Lonetree. The victim
was found in a Hidden Falls Park shallow grave with a lock of her hair
missing. Fifty yards from the corpse is
an abandoned pickup truck that belongs to Clay Buck. Hudson turns
the key left in the ignition, but the vehicle fails to turn over. The two cops visit Clay’s Uncle Youngblood
who keeps locks of hair that he claims is a Sioux tradition to honor deceased
loved ones. The ME informs them the vic
was sexually assaulted. All signs point
to her boyfriend, still missing Clay.
Santana looks into one of his retired partner Hudson’s cold cases;
the murder of environmental engineer Sam Noor who was killed while working for
opponents of silica mining. The
detective uses the working premise that Noor’s death involved his finding
evidence of the harm caused by silica mining that may outweigh the Select Sands’
claim this is a cleaner cheaper alternative to natural gas. Based on that assumption, Santana makes
inquires; unaware that when he began, several personal threats will follow.
The latest John Santana police procedural (see
White Tombs, The Black Minute, Bad Weeds Never Die, Bone Shadows and Death's
Way) is a fantastic mystery that grips readers from the opening at Hidden Falls
Park and never loses its hold until the final confrontation. Filled with action yet also containing key
cerebral moments throughout, Christopher Valen once again affirms he is one of
the subgenre’s top guns.
Harriet Klausner
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