Negative Positive
Title: Great police procedural
Review: Elizabeth Gunn's Triple Play is the first of the Jake Hines mysteries, a series that I am looking forward to reading. In it, police work is definitely a team acitivity. Lead detective of the Rutherford, MN, police department, Jake Hines is presented as hard-working and self-aware, able to use both his intelligence and forensics to solve murders. The novel features many attractive characters including his boss, chief of police Frank McCafferty; county coroner Adrian Pokornoskovic ("Pokey"); and crime techs Trudy Hanson and Jimmy Chang. Ms. Gunn has a positive gift for creating believable characters in just a few sentences of indirect characterization. She handles the first person male narrator adeptly. Her sense of place is above average. The plot involves gruesome murders, apparently the work of a serial killer. The violence is not graphic. There is a neat surprise ending, but it had been adequately set up with appropriate clues. All in all, a most satisfying read.
Is the review positive or negative? 