Talk about depressing (Dark Lady - Richard North Patterson)

Member Name: LukeCroll

Product:	Dark Lady - Richard North Patterson
Date:	16/09/00 (11 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Totally different from other works by him

Disadvantages: Totally different from other works by him

Steelton is a struggling city in the Midwest where two prominent men are found dead within days of each other. Homicide is suspected but cannot be proven. One man is a company’s general manager and the other the attorney used by drug dealers.

Stella Marz is the Assistant County Prosecutor thinks they are connected and finds her investigation leading her into a world of danger, deceit and evil that involves not only Steelton’s past, but hers as well.

This book is another departure from the norm for Richard North Patterson. With his previous novel, he made a well-received foray into the world of politics and managed to get away from his legal thrillers. Here, it is not exactly a courtroom drama, but more a cross between that and a police procedural.

It does make interesting reading but it is quite depressing. The town of Steelton is a town that is collapsing and its mixture of minorities does not make easy living. Patterson takes pains to develop the characters, although I did not like the fact that we never really got to see the bad guy himself. We heard a lot about him, but there were no real scenes with him.

If you are just starting to read Richard North Patterson, I would avoid this one until you are more accustomed to his writing style. It is not that this is a bad book, but more that it is not an accurate representation what the rest of Patterson’s books are like. It is an enjoyable read and shows that Patterson is not stuck in the rut of only writing legal thrillers.

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