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One cannot read the first few pages of KILL THE MESSENGER without feeling sorry for bicycle messengers. I know, I know; I myself, a gentle soul with no hatred in his heart for anyone, have had to, on more than one occasion, restrain myself from clotheslining one of these fellows when I see them barreling down a sidewalk at a speed of warp Factor 6, playing a two-wheeled variation of the old "We Don't Stop For Nobody" game popular on grade school playgrounds or union picket lines. But just read the first few paragraphs concerning a late afternoon in the life of Jace Damon, bike messenger for a courier service on the wrong end of the feeding chain, and I promise you that the next time one of those guys comes flying past you, it will be hard to resist the urge to buy him lunch.
Keep reading KILL THE MESSENGER, though, because his life just gets worse and worse as this new novel by Tami Hoag progresses. Damon is not only given a lousy after-hours assignment --- picking up a package from Lenny Lowell, a bottom-feeding defense lawyer --- but soon finds himself being attacked and blamed for the brutal murder of the selfsame lawyer. So far as the Los Angeles gendarme can tell, Damon was the last one to see the counselor alive. Damon's fingerprints are all over the murder weapon, the lawyer's safe is open...things don't look good for our impoverished bike messenger.
Add the fact that Damon is the sole support of his little brother and that a middle-aged Japanese couple are the only people standing between the Damons and a Dickensonian existence, and you get the sense that Damon is in desperate straits indeed --- especially when it seems that half of the L.A. Police department is looking for him, along with a killer, the guy who really offed Lowell and who is trying to get that package to which Damon is clinging so desperately.
The only authority figure who feels as if something is wrong with the whole bike-messenger-as-murderer scenario is Kev Parker, an unorthodox LAPD detective who is clinging to his job by his hangnails. Parker thinks that the scenario of Damon --- who, by the luck of the draw, was sent to Lowell's office --- as murderer and robber makes no sense. Parker soon comes to believe that the murder of Lowell, and the package that is causing Damon so much trouble, is tied into a high-profile murder trial that is taking up most of the daily newspaper headline space. What Parker knows, however, is more than he is able to prove. Unable to trust anyone in his own police department, Parker goes it alone in an effort to get to the bottom of two murders and save Damon's life.
Hoag almost succeeds too well in KILL THE MESSENGER. The opening of this book is literally breathtaking --- and this before any crime is committed! --- and while it remains high on drama throughout, it saves the resolution of far too much for the last few pages. This is not to say that there aren't huge surprises in KILL THE MESSENGER, including a huge one that caught me napping. It's just that there seemed to be too many of them crammed into too few pages. KILL THE MESSENGER is certainly worth the ride, however, and Hoag's legion of long-time fans, as well as anyone reading her work for the first time, will not be disappointed.
--- Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub
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