City of Saviors

June 26, 2017
Hall’s absorbing fourth mystery featuring LAPD homicide cop Elouise “Lou” Norton (after 2016’s Trail of Echoes) finds Lou, recently promoted to detective sergeant, still suffering from injuries sustained in her previous outing and struggling with symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder, to which she refuses to admit. One hot Los Angeles summer day, Lou and her partner, Colin Taggert, are called to the debris-filled home of 73-year-old Eugene Washington, who was found dead that morning sitting in his armchair. A gun rests on the floor near the body. While others at the scene want to write off the cause of death as a combination of heat stroke and food poisoning, Lou thinks otherwise. Her inquiries bring her into contact with an array of intriguing, well-defined characters. The dialogue has moments of genuine wit, and Lou’s relationships with her women friends ring true. Her struggle with her inner demons adds fascinating nuances to how she behaves on the job and in her personal life. Agent: Jill Marsal, Marsal Lyon Literary Agency.

Starred review from July 1, 2017

LAPD homicide detective Elouise "Lou" Norton, back on the job after the traumatic events recounted in Trail of Echoes, is called to investigate the death of an elderly man. At first glance, his demise appears to be from natural causes, but almost immediately it becomes obvious that there is much more beneath the surface. The vultures begin circling even before the coroner can remove the body. The victim was a hoarder, and as his friend begins clearing his house, a gruesome discovery is made. The investigation leads to an unusual cast of suspects, from a gold-digging girlfriend to the pastor of a local megachurch. As Lou and her partner Colin Taggert dig deeper into the mystery, the plot makes many turns and the reader is kept guessing to the very end. VERDICT In her fourth gritty series police procedural, Hall once again captivates readers with her intricately woven plot and well-drawn characters. Her protagonist easily holds her own against her male colleagues in this genre. [See Jessica Moyer's Mystery Spotlight "Novel Crime Scenes," LJ 4/15/17.]--Sandra Knowles, South Carolina State Lib., Columbia

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