Rating: 3 1/2 stars

Thirty-four-year old, NYC Detective Darlene O’Hara is every bit the “Brooklyn Irish” she claims to be. With a chip on her shoulder the size of Ireland, her combative attitude and hard-drinking make for an explosive combination.

It’s Thanksgiving Day and O’Hara is on her way home after a long tour, when she sees David McLain waiting to make a report—his ex-girlfriend, Francesca Pena, 19 and star student at NYU is missing. What seems like a routine case turns into a career-maker, when hours later Pena’s tortured and mutilated body is found in an abandoned restroom of East River Park.

O’Hara and her partner have 72 hours to work the case before homicide is brought in. Despite the rule, Homicide Det. Patrick Lowry, 6’5” 360 pounds, arrives at the scene. Lowry is somewhat of a legend—both in fact and in his own mind—and he will shadow O’Hara until her time on the case is up.

Determined to find the killer and prove herself, O’Hara must fight the huge ego and voluminous physical presence of Det. Lowry, as well as her own personal demons. While Lowry mistakenly focuses on David McLain, O’Hara unravels the bright and sunny fabric of Francesca Pena’s life and finds a very dark and evil truth. One bad decision leads to another and rather than making her career, O’Hara will have to fight to keep it.

An excellent solo-debut effort, DeJonge succeeds in rendering a sympathetic, yet hard-nosed, feisty and self-destructive character in Darlene O’Hara. DeJonge also does a good job of portraying the seedy underbelly of New York City that seems to have all but disappeared. Tattoo parlors, strip clubs and dive bars. Ah, the good ol’ days.
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Mass Market Paperback: 288 pages
Publisher: Harper; Reprint edition (April 27, 2010)
ISBN-13: 978-0061882265