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Book Review of Shutter Man

Shutter Man
Linda avatar reviewed on + 770 more book reviews


Seemingly random people are being killed. They are tied to a chair, duct taped, shot in the chest or the head, and then some of them have their faces removed. All are wearing a strange assortment of clothes and birth certificates are stolen.

Billy and Sean are twin brothers, member of a mafia-type crime family in Pennsylvania. Billy suffers from a rare disease that prevents him from seeing or remembering faces..not even his brother's.

Jessica Balzano is now an Assistant DA, after having served 10 years with Homicide, partnering with Kevin Byrne.

I have kept up with this series, always getting excited when a new one is due out. However, I was a little disappointed with this one. The 'sizzle' seemed to be missing. The first part of the book takes the reader back to when Byrne was a youngster on the streets of Pennsylvania and then, even earlier.

There seemed to be a disconnect, but the second half seemed to bloom. Yes! There was the Montanari I loved.

Jessica Balzano is trying a case against Billy's father for several crimes. Byrne is brought in to help with the investigation as they try to find what connects today's victims to Billy's father. It is now that all that information in the first half of the book starts to make sense. It's like playing Connect-The-Dots.

What started out as a bit boring for me turned into another very good addition to the existing series. The story line seems to be better when Byrne and Balzano work together ... they are much more interesting together rather than apart. They feed off each other and it's that interaction that I really enjoy.

Again, this one is fine as a stand alone, but I always recommend starting at the beginning.

My thanks to the author / Mulholland Books / NetGalley who furnished the digital copy in exchange for an honest, unbiased review.