my, my, murder

When philanthropist Kathryn Montgomery was found murdered in her own home in Colorado Springs in the mid 1970s, it was a rookie detective named Joe Kenda and his partner Lee Wilson who were called to investigate. She had been shot with close range in six different places, but there were no bullets left behind, no shell casings, almost no clues as to the identity of the killer.

Kenda and his partner had to dig to find anything on this case. They suspected that the husband had something to do with it, but he had an alibi—he was getting in trouble in Las Vegas that entire weekend. Since the killer was clearly a professional, it was possible the husband had hired the killer, but they had nothing to connect him to a professional hit man. It wasn’t until they reached out to other law enforcement agencies with the specifics of the crime that they started to piece together the puzzle.

There had been three other contract killings with the same signature—the six close shots with no bullet fragments. It was Kenda who first thought the shooter had used the type of ammunition that was used to shoot paper targets, bullets called wadcutters. They basically disintegrated on contact, but the close range ensured that the target wouldn’t survive. But who would chose that for a weapon? What kind of killer were they dealing with?

Kenda and Wilson spend weeks on the phone, trying to get as much information as they can. They get the case notes from the other shootings. They travel to Vegas to get some background on their victim’s husband and start to see a connection to the other rich wives who were shot the same way. But will they be able to connect all those dots all the way to the international bigwigs who may be running a killing-for-hire business, or will the Colorado Springs Police Department get outgunned?

All Is Not Forgiven is the first novel from Homicide Hunter Joe Kenda. As he says in his prologue, this is not true, but it is based on a real case that he came across early in his career. Kenda himself as a rookie is one of the starts of this story, and while it is not true, it reads like a script for what could be a very special Kenda movie. But a movie that includes international intrigue, Vegas mobsters, undercover officers, bad husbands, good husbands, and one exceptionally brutal sociopathic killer.

I struggled with the beginning of this book, as it starts with the sociopath and some of his more distressing crimes. It was a very dark way to start the book, but once we see Kenda for the first time, things start to ease and the book is easier to read. The sociopath is part of the story until the end, but his brutality is more balanced as the story goes on and we get to spend time with the good guys also. There is some humor, although it’s darker as well, the gallows humor that law enforcement officers and others with difficult jobs gravitate to. And for me, a longtime fan of the show Homicide Hunter and Lt. Kenda himself, it was such a pleasure (sociopath aside) to read this story and see some of the inner workings of the detective mind.

If you’re a fan of Kenda’s other books or his television shows, you might like this as well. But keep in mind that it is emotionally difficult, far more than his other work, and the beginning of the story is particularly challenging. If you are sensitive to crimes against women, especially, there will be scenes in this book that could be triggering for you. It does get better the more you read, but there are still disturbing scenes throughout. That being said, I am so glad I got to read this book. It’s well written and interesting, with that voice of Kenda throughout, encouraging us all to be good citizens and stay safe in a dangerous world.

Egalleys for All Is Not Forgiven were provided by Blackstone Publishing through NetGalley, with many thanks.