Immoral

October 31, 2005
Barrett has his work cut out for him on this audiobook. The novel, spanning several years during which Duluth Police Lt. Jonathan Stride investigates the disappearance and probable murder of a promiscuous teenage girl, has an extraordinarily large number of characters. Barrett moves efficiently through a variety of voices and accents, but he's stuck with a few sexually explicit sequences that sound a bit silly, especially coming from a single narrator. His smooth reading can't hide that the novel is simply too long and its plot too convoluted. A protracted segment in Las Vegas should have stayed in Las Vegas, and a subplot involving Stride's much too impulsive marriage doesn't merely derail the action, it suggests that the hero has the emotional maturity of a teenager. Barrett manages to take some of the tin out of Freeman's uninspired teenspeak dialogue by elevating his pitch when enacting the missing girl's contemporaries with boyish croaks and girlish squeaks. Immoral
may not be a thriller for the ages, but Barrett does make the most of it. Simultaneous release with the St. Martin's hardcover (Reviews, July 25).

July 25, 2005
A Harlan Coban–esque murder/psychological suspense structure and some uninspired writing ("He saw urgency written in her face") add up to a mildly interesting but unsurprising thriller for first-timer Freeman. Called to investigate the disappearance of beautiful teenager Ruth Stoner, Duluth, Minn., police detective Lt. Jonathan Stride is haunted by the disappearance of another teen, Kerry McGrath, 14 months earlier. Stride's an honest, likable cop, full of angst over the cancer death of his beloved wife. He has a great working relationship with diminutive partner Maggie Bei, who's been in love with him for years. As Stride and Mags investigate, the only aspect of the case that becomes clear is that everyone involved with the crime—the victim, her family and her friends—is guilty of something. Tweezing apart these strands of guilt and trying to connect them to the missing Ruth occupies Stride for more than three years. Finally, in an extended denouement, the pieces fall into place, and Stride is able to solve not only the mysteries of both Ruth and Kelly, but mend his own fractured life as well. BOMC and Literary Guild main selections; Doubleday Book Club and Mystery Guild alternates.

Starred review from August 15, 2005
Detective Jonathan Stride believes that, according to the laws of human nature, most people leave behind a trail. He is hard-pressed, however, to find one in the disappearance of a teenage girl in Duluth, MN. When a second girl goes missing a year later, he carefully builds his case, even without a body. A skillfully drawn courtroom scene ends with the murder of the accused and the apparent resolution of the case. But that's just when things really get complicated: the action shifts to Las Vegas, where the Minnesota menace seems to have relocated. In this compelling debut thriller, Freeman turns in a psychologically gripping, virtuoso performance, with a detective who is likely to return. He deftly lays bare the demons lurking in many of us while keeping us tantalized through a series of plot shifts. Highly recommended. [A BOMC and Literary Guild main selection. -Ed.] -Roland Person, formerly with Southern Illinois Univ. Lib., Carbondale

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