Recently Read – The Killing Of Bobbi Lomax by Cal Moriarty

The Killing of Bobbi Lomax by Cal Moriarty

Genre; Crime

CANYON COUNTY, HALLOWEEN 1983

Bobbi Lomax was the first to die, the bomb killed the prom queen on her own front lawn.

Just moments later one of the nails from the city’s second bomb forced its way into the brain of property investor Peter Gudsen, killing him almost instantly.

The third bomb didn’t quite kill Clark Houseman. Hovering on the brink, the rare books dealer turns out to be Detectives Sinclair and Alvarez’s best hope of finding out what linked these unlikely victims, and who wanted them dead and why. But can they find the bomber before he kills again?

Set deep in the religious heartlands of America, The Killing of Bobbi Lomax follows this troubled investigation as a narrative of deceit, corruption and forgery emerges, with an unlikely hero at its heart – a rare coins, books and manuscript dealer – who could either be a genius or the devil.

My thoughts;

It took me a while to read this one because I was listening to it as an audiobook. My first audiobook ‘read’. And what a book to start with!

The Killing of Bobbi Lomax is unlike most other crime books I’ve read. It was set up around the dealing of rare coins, books and manuscripts in the religious heartlands of America so there was a lot of talk about the faith that the people were involved with, a lot of talk about the books and how they were made, the provenance of them, but it wasn’t backstory or dumping, it was beautifully and perfectly woven in. It was the storyline. It was also fascinating.

The novel is told from two different viewpoints, one being the investigating cop and one the manuscript dealer and I just couldn’t get enough of the chapters that were from the viewpoint of the manuscript dealer. They were so vivid and alive. So utterly spellbinding. They tell the story of how he came to be where he was at the point of the bombing. So it’s a story of him as much as it is about solving the bombings. Two stories cleverly interwoven, seamlessly.

Moriarty has written such a clever and superb novel with The Killing of Bobbi Lomax that I’d tell everyone to read it. The plotting is tight, the characters are living off the page and the setting, the time and religious mindset just suck you right in.

I can’t give this book enough praise. If you want a different kind of crime novel then you really need to try this, you won’t be disappointed.