In the streets of New Orleans, a murder was committed. Then another, and another. In James Snyder's THE BROTHERS SHAUGHNESSY: The Shaughnessy Duology (Book 1), the eponymous brothers have no clue what might happen next. And neither does the reader.
There have been trafficked children and an aristocrat’s kidnapped daughters. Those crimes the brothers could solve; but when it comes to murder, nobody's safe. From the poor to the wealthy "Ring" leader’s wife and daughter, the detective brothers need to work it out. Who is this criminal who acted alone (and he had to be acting alone, because he left no clues)? Quinn, The Ring gang leader, swore his wife and daughter’s killer had come to brag, yet there is no record. Was it the madness of grief, or did this man appear like a ghost?
The text grips us from the very beginning, opening with a gruesome murder and pulling the reader into a state of visceral emotion. Small details of scenery root the reader in a vanished world: “Ned tossed this aside to attend the other; though it mattered not, his heart no longer pumping life through his still-young body, even as his mare munched contentedly, here and there, on her stray tufts of short tough grass.”
Some novels offer breadcrumbs for readers to try and make sense of, but THE BROTHERS SHAUGHNESSY does not. The result is an echoing of the hypervigilance the detectives feel when investigating a murderer who leaves no clues. The belief that anything can happen at any time haunts every moment; the tone can shift from tenderness to devastation in only a few paragraphs. It can be dense, without a lot of space for readers to breathe between all of the action. We don’t get a great deal of insight into the minds of the detectives, either, yet the story is riveting anyway.
Emotionally this book has lots of range, a tonal complexity that keeps the reader intrigued. THE BROTHERS SHAUGHNESSY is a book that's long but hard to put down. Though it creates a resolve for the current case, it ends leaving the reader wanting more (which the sequel will surely provide). This first half of the duology will appeal to people who love mystery, crime, and historical fiction. And who have a weekend free.
James Snyder's THE BROTHERS SHAUGHNESSY: The Shaughnessy Duology (Book 1) is a gripping historical crime-thriller that pulls readers in with a wide emotional range, a relentless pace, and constant dread.
~ Nicci Attfield for IndieReader