Tag Archives: Colin Conway

Fiction, Reviews

‘The Only Death That Matters,’ by Colin Conway

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I’ve skipped a few episodes in Colin Conway’s excellent The 509 series of police procedurals. That was because The Only Death That Matters became available free. But they’re stand-alones, so it was all right. I enjoyed this book just as much as its predecessors.

Ray Christy is a police volunteer. He’s 72 and an army vet. Every day he visits his wife, who’s in a care facility for memory loss. His only son became a cop and died in the line of duty; Ray volunteered to help the Spokane police in an effort to understand his son’s commitment. He doesn’t carry a badge or a gun; he does routine work to take pressure off the real cops. It fills his time and gives his days a purpose.

One day he’s called to pick up a “found” item, a woman’s wallet found in a parking lot. On a whim, he decides to take it back to the owner, at the address on the ID. But when he gets there, he learns the woman is dead, drowned in a bathtub. This is a group home for the elderly, and the owner treats him rudely. Surprisingly, that owner is a cop.

Ray is immediately suspicious. He starts doing research on the man and his business dealings. And then everything blows up…

The 509 series, set in eastern Washington state, is a top-rank mystery series, in this reader’s view. Emphasis is heavily on character. The people in the story are faceted and relatable; I wanted to see how things worked out for them. Detectives Quinn and Burkett are here again, welcome like old friends.

The Only Death That Matters is highly recommended.

Fiction, Reviews

‘The Suit,’ by Colin Conway

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Even though Matt was younger, Craig admitted his brother was the smarter one. Now, many years after high school, Matt still read books when no teacher was making him.

Another novel in the 509 series by Colin Conway, which I’m enjoying very much. This is Number Four, and it’s called The Suit.

Times are tough for cocaine dealers in Spokane just now. The cops have shut their supply down, and nerves are frayed. One frustrated junkie, Craig, takes it into his head one day to stick a knife into a random guy walking past, a guy in a suit. But the “suit” surprises him by defending himself quickly and efficiently, leaving Craig with a broken nose. Video of the incident goes viral.

Craig’s brother Matt, meanwhile, is trying to keep his “crew” of coke dealers under control. To focus their attention, he suggests they play a game. It begins with “the knockout game,” a fad from a few years back where street punks punched strangers, trying to knock them out with one blow. But Matt adds a new wrinkle. They pool their money, film each attack, and then award points by vote. The winner takes the pot.

Detectives Quinn Delaney and Marci Burkett are on the case, but it’s a tough one. The attacks are random, scattered all over the city. But once the game finds a focus – once the attackers start targeting “suits,” men in business attire, alone, they begin finding a few leads. Which will lead them to, among other people, the original hero “suit” of the video – a man with secrets.

Another good book in an outstanding series. I personally enjoyed The Suit a little less than the previous books, because it required the reader to spend a lot of time with Matt and his “crew,” who are not pleasant company at all.

I also have to admit – and this will surprise no one who follows these reviews – that I have a little trouble with Detective Marci Burkett. I dislike the cliché of the kick-butt female cop who can beat any man. Marci is definitely one of those – I still insist that size and strength count for something, and such characters often seem to deny the laws of physics.

On the other hand, Marci is a better crafted character than most of her sisters in literature. It’s clear she has anger management issues, that her emotional ducks aren’t all in a row. That helps.

But mostly I put up with her because the books are so good otherwise.

Minor cautions for the usual stuff. Good book.

Fiction, Reviews

‘The Blind Trust,’ by Colin Conway

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Sheriff Tom Jessup is investigating the death of an elderly man, a loner, in Whitman County, Washington state, as The Blind Trust begins. It could be natural causes, but something doesn’t seem right. His investigations will put him in touch with Detectives Quinn Delaney and Marci Burkett in Spokane, who are investigating another death. Gradually a picture develops of an extremely dysfunctional family, of five siblings who haven’t communicated in years, suddenly dying out at the same time. What no one can figure out is why anybody would go to the trouble of killing them.

As the story unrolls, they’ll cross paths with another Spokane detective named Morgan, a corner-cutter neither Delaney or Burkett likes. They have the same objectives, but will their mutual mistrust delay the resolution of the case?

As with all the books in Colin Conway’s The 509 series that I’ve read so far, I relished The Blind Trust. I especially enjoyed the fascinating, layered characters. I was particularly intrigued with the dubious Detective Morgan – a lesser writer than Conway might have made him a caricature, but when we spend time in his head, his thinking makes perfect sense – from his own point of view.

Only mild cautions are in order for language and mature subject matter.

Fiction, Reviews

‘The Side Hustle,’ by Colin Conway

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“The 509” is the eastern, more rural part of Washington state, where Spokane is the big town. I’d already read one of the books in Colin Conway’sThe 509 series, The Long Cold Winter, and liked it very much. So I picked up the first installment, The Side Hustle.

Quinn Delaney and Marci Burkett are homicide detectives in Spokane. When they’re called to view the body of Jacob Kidwell, online financial guru, they find him with his neck broken at the bottom of a stairway in his apartment building. It could easily be an accident, but the detectives suspect he was pushed. The suspicion is increased when they learn that one of his two computers has disappeared.

Young Kirby Willis, an Uber driver and budding entrepreneur, idolized Jacob, who was his friend, and can’t resist making his own investigation. In theory, the cops should resent his interference, but he has sources of information unavailable to them, and anyway, Marci thinks he’s kind of cute.

Quinn, meanwhile, is having trouble concentrating on his work because of personal problems that he won’t discuss with Marci. When he does finally open up to someone, it’s almost the last person you’d expect… but that could be the very person who can offer him hope.

Author Colin Conway excels at portraying three-dimensional characters. I liked Quinn, Marci, and Kirby very much, and followed their adventures with just as much interest as if the book had been a blood-and-thunder thriller. The Side Hustle has the added value of actually offering good advice for living, at no additional charge.

I liked The Side Hustle even more than The Long Cold Winter. I’m officially a fan of this series.

Fiction, Reviews

‘The Long Cold Winter,’ by Colin Conway

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I stood and shoved my hands back into my pockets but left my coat open. The cold worked its way inside and nipped at the lightly covered areas of my body. I didn’t pull the long coat closed, though. I wanted to feel something other than the hurt inside.

I enjoy a good thriller. Writers like Hurwitz, Klavan, and Hunter stand among my favorites. And yet, for preference, I personally can do without all the fights and explosions. I like the mystery itself, and the interplay of characters. Some people enjoy being scared; they’re probably braver than I.

My point is that a novel that emphasizes mystery and character over action suits me just fine. And that’s what The Long Cold Winter by Colin Conway has to offer.

Dallas Nash is a police detective in Tacoma, Washington. It’s early winter, and his mood is as bleak as the weather. He’s mourning his wife Bobbie, who died just before Thanksgiving in a single-car accident. The hopelessness and futility of it all has unmanned him. He visits her grave every day, and lately he’s been waking up with old songs in his head. Some of them are his favorites, some Bobbie’s favorites. Some he can’t even place. He’s begun to wonder if they’ve been sent as messages from Bobbie. He’s begun to wonder if he’s losing his mind.

He goes back to work, not because he feels ready, but because he can’t handle the inactivity anymore. When he gets to the office, he finds a cold case file on his desk. The brass have decided that’s a good way to ease him back into the job.

The case is the murder of a high school student, Jennifer Williams, back in 1987. This sparks a memory in Dallas. He saw Jennifer on the day she died. He was cruising the main street with some highs chool friends, and a friend of a friend pointed to her and said she was his girlfriend. Oddly, that guy is not mentioned in the police reports.

Here’s a fresh angle on the case. In intervals from investigating another, fresher, murder that also occurs, Dallas will have to reconnect with old acquaintances to locate the guy, whose name he’s forgotten. He’ll make mistakes, and there will be more deaths. But the truth will come out.

I expect some people won’t care for Detective Nash’s depression, and some would prefer more action on-stage (the deaths here generally happen out of sight. Dallas tends to get his confessions through quiet conversation). But I enjoyed A Long Cold Winter very much, and I recommend it.

Cautions for adult themes and language. There’s a priest in the book, and he’s treated positively.