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A Voice from the Field

Review

A Voice from the Field

Neal Griffin is the real deal. He is a law enforcement officer who is beginning his second quarter-century of active duty. He can also write, as conclusively demonstrated in BENEFIT OF THE DOUBT, his 2015 debut. Griffin returns in less than a year with A VOICE FROM THE FIELD, which meets and exceeds the promise of his introductory work and is certain to expand and cement his fanbase.

As with his first novel, this one is set in Newberg, Wisconsin, a small municipality with major crime and big secrets. Detective Tia Suarez, who was introduced in BENEFIT OF THE DOUBT, is featured front and center from beginning to end here. An ex-Marine, Suarez doesn’t have the word “quit” in her vocabulary and has little respect for anyone who does. As A VOICE FROM THE FIELD begins, she is assisting the Milwaukee police department in a prostitution sting that results in her making what initially seems to be a righteous bust but almost inexplicably gets reduced to the equivalent of a wrist-slap charge. Suarez is troubled by the event on several grounds. During the course of the operation, she was almost abducted by the defendant, a bad penny named Gunther Kane. As if that wasn’t bad enough, Suarez caught a glimpse of a Hispanic teenage girl bound and gagged in the back of Kane’s van. While Kane was captured, the driver got away.

"A VOICE FROM THE FIELD will convince you that Neal Griffin is a gem. He combines firsthand experience with a storyteller’s voice and a small-town America setting to create a book that you will be compelled to read in one sitting..."

Suarez cannot get anyone to believe her about the presence of the girl, and is frustrated that no one seems interested in even investigating what she saw. Still feeling the emotional sting of a gunshot wound sustained in the line of duty, there are some who believe that Suarez has gone back to work too soon, a feeling that she herself occasionally shares, however briefly. Kane has no limits to the depths of the abyss of his character. He is involved in human trafficking and illegal gun running, and is seemingly impervious to the law, operating in what almost seems to be plain sight with impunity. Suarez’s only supporter, interestingly enough, is a wounded veteran of the Afghanistan war who wants justice done as badly as she does.

As it develops, Suarez soon discovers that there is much more involved with Kane than she could have imagined. Her investigation has become impeded by orders emanating from the highest levels of law enforcement. Suarez doesn’t much care. She is more concerned for the women who are being trafficked by Kane and casually disposed of when they have reached their “used by” date. When the dust settles and the smoke clears, Suarez wants Kane and his associates --- who stretch far beyond the confines of Wisconsin --- taken down for good, and she doesn’t care what it costs her to do it. And it will cost her, by the time the story is told.

If you didn’t know it by now, A VOICE FROM THE FIELD will convince you that Neal Griffin is a gem. He combines firsthand experience with a storyteller’s voice and a small-town America setting to create a book that you will be compelled to read in one sitting and will make you impatient for the publication of his next effort. It doesn’t get any better than that.

Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub on February 19, 2016

A Voice from the Field
by Neal Griffin

  • Publication Date: January 3, 2017
  • Genres: Fiction, Suspense, Thriller
  • Paperback: 352 pages
  • Publisher: Tor Books
  • ISBN-10: 0765389495
  • ISBN-13: 9780765389497