(Reviewed by Don Jung)
The Wrong Side of Murder involves a twenty-year murder mystery that catches you off guard with all its twists and turns. It features detective Aislinn Bryne who has to cope with a long-lost high school friend and has to solve a case that is close to home.
Jeff Buick has vivid characters in his story, and you get to know them as each chapter keeps you wanting to know more. This is a fast-paced thriller so get ready for action. The city of Boston has a history of the mafia involvement in the local businesses and it’s interesting how the detectives interplay the mob’s actions to find out what the killer is doing.
The backdrop is a twenty-year high school reunion where the police must try to trace what happened on prom night and how did the disappearance of a popular girl leads to the discovery of her dead body so many years later. As the story unravels, the author brings up various scenarios on who might be the killer and you keep thinking the story will soon end and then another detail throws you in a different direction.
The detectives unravel clues that keep you wondering how the cold case can be solved, and yet there are more facts that later bring you guessing what will happen next. The writing is well done, and you feel you know these characters as you see them seeking the answers.
This is the second in the Curtis Westcroff detective series but is really a stand-alone thriller. I read it in only two days, and just like A Killing Game, the first in the series, this is a must-read.
