Steve Gannon's KANE series has long been one of my favourite police procedural series as it combines exciting and gripping police action with a background of family love and tragedy. The fourth in the series, Blood Moon, has been 4 years coming, but the wait has been worth it.
The series focuses on Dan Kane, a top LAPD homicide detective who gets results, sometimes by doing his own thing upsetting his superiors and brings danger to his family. Dan Kane is still recovering from the shock of his wife's death from a sniper which has gutted his family especially his youngest son Nate.
When he is on vacation with his son following his former FBI partner Sara Taylor as she competes in a top white-water kayak race he takes 2 phone calls. One is an unknown caller using voice-changing software, quickly followed by a call from his Lieutenant who wants him back immediately to lead an investigation into a gruesome, sexually related and sadistic murder of a young woman found on the UCLA campus.
Kane is soon immersed in the chase for a possible serial killer who captures and imprisons his next victim just before killing his last one. This time the victim is the daughter of Lieutenant Sneed, Kane's long-term nemesis. The fact that Sneed has asked for Kane's help, despite their normal enmity, is emotionally realistic.
Gannon weaves an intricate description of the police chase with a chilling description of the serial killer, his depraved treatment of his victims and stalking his next victim at the time he is torturing his last victim. At the same time, he delves into Kane's painful revisiting of his wife's death and its impact on his life and that of his youngest son.
As usual, this is an emotional and vividly accurate police procedural. I have just finished reading Michael Connelly's latest book - "Dark Sacred Heart". As usual, this was a top quality police procedural, but my general conclusion is that compared to this book it was boring.
Thank you Steve for another exciting and emotionally gripping book. Highly recommended.
While you can read this book as a stand-alone story, you will appreciate it more if you read the earlier books in order because the Kane family details are so important.
This is an honest review of a book that was gifted to me by the author.
