Joni Parker's Blog - Posts Tagged "michael-mcgarrity"
Book Review: Under the Color of Law by Michael McGarrity
Published in 2001. Kevin Kerney has just taken over as police chief in Santa Fe, New Mexico, but the book begins with Officer Alonso Herrera doing a welfare check on a local well-to-do resident, Phyllis Terrell. She was supposed to fly to Washington, D.C. this morning but never showed up. He finds her dead and calls it in. When detectives arrive, he backs off and handles crowd control, all that he wants to do. Kerney isn’t pleased with his handling of the situation and finds him another job off the streets, even though he knows the repercussions. Officer Herrera has some high-level connections.
Shortly after this murder, another one occurs at a local religious college. Father Mitchell was found dead and no one knows why. At this point, Kerney considers both cases to be difficult to solve homicide cases until the FBI shows up, unexpectedly and takes over the Terrell murder case because the woman is married to an ambassador. The lead FBI agent is a man by the name of Charlie Perry, well known to Kerney from a previous case. Kerney suspects something more is going on.
Interesting story, involving high tech and national security. Kerney proves to be tenacious, not the small-town cop that everyone was hoping for. I enjoyed reading this story and meeting Chief Kerney and his wife, Sara Brannon, a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army, attending the Command and General Staff College in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. On a personal note, I, too, am a graduate of the college even though I was in the Navy.
The author has written twelve other books and has received a number of awards, so I’ll keep an eye out for them.
Shortly after this murder, another one occurs at a local religious college. Father Mitchell was found dead and no one knows why. At this point, Kerney considers both cases to be difficult to solve homicide cases until the FBI shows up, unexpectedly and takes over the Terrell murder case because the woman is married to an ambassador. The lead FBI agent is a man by the name of Charlie Perry, well known to Kerney from a previous case. Kerney suspects something more is going on.
Interesting story, involving high tech and national security. Kerney proves to be tenacious, not the small-town cop that everyone was hoping for. I enjoyed reading this story and meeting Chief Kerney and his wife, Sara Brannon, a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army, attending the Command and General Staff College in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. On a personal note, I, too, am a graduate of the college even though I was in the Navy.
The author has written twelve other books and has received a number of awards, so I’ll keep an eye out for them.
Book Review: Residue by Michael McGarrity
Published in 2018. The story begins with the arrest of Kevin Kerney, the main character, who is in Missouri after attending the retirement ceremony for his wife, Brigadier General Sara Brannon. They are looking forward to a new life together in New Mexico when the police show up to arrest Kerney for a murder that happened 45 years ago. Then the story backtracks and tells us how it came about. As it turned out, his son, also a police officer, was on duty at a ceremony at the local university, breaking ground on a new artists-in-residence colony with a lot of dignitaries on hand. As part of the ceremony, a backhoe scoops up dirt and at the same time, uncovers human remains. They are identified as Kim Ward, a former girlfriend of Kerney, decades ago.
A very good read. Kept me interested all the way and I wasn’t sure if Kerney could find his way out of this one. The author has written twelve novels with Kerney as the main character and three others. I’ve only read one other book by the author, so I’ll be looking for more.
A very good read. Kept me interested all the way and I wasn’t sure if Kerney could find his way out of this one. The author has written twelve novels with Kerney as the main character and three others. I’ve only read one other book by the author, so I’ll be looking for more.
