Thank you NetGalley and Deyan Audio for sending this book for review consideration. All opinions are my own.
When a night club owner and one of his employees are found murdered on the floor of the establishment, the town is put on edge. Rumors of a shadowy figure seen leaving the bar and ex-boyfriends with anger issues add to the growing mystery of who committed the crime. With all the attention, you would think only the most senior detectives and officers would be working the leads, but the chief put only two people on the case – himself and one investigator who hasn’t even passed the detective’s exam yet. Will they catch the killer before it’s too late?
Melanie Anagnos’ debut novel Nightswimming follows an investigator from a small department in the 1970’s as he gets pulled into a murder investigation and an even bigger scandal. Anagnos, known for her Substack publication, sets this book in her hometown of Patterson, NJ. She also pulls from her own experience as a lawyer to craft several scenes. Written in a noir style, the police procedural shows the darker side of the legal system when those with power do not also have morals.
I give Nightswimming 3 out of 5 stars. Honestly, 3 is high – it was closer to 2. I struggled with the slow pace of the book and the lackluster characters. It was extremely hard for me to get into the book until the middle section. I also have issue with the plot points towards the end of the book – they felt faster moving than the rest of the book and almost felt like they didn’t belong. Overall, this was just a tough read for me.
If you were a fan of the Dragnet TV show, this might be up your alley – I had Joe Friday’s voice playing in my head throughout reading this. I had selected this book because I was interested in finding a new detective series to enjoy, but this didn’t really fit the bill. Nightswimming released August 19th. You can get your copy today on our Bookshop.org page!
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What I’m Reading
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- Current audio book: The Training Ground, Martin Dugard
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