DON’T LOOK TWICE
Andrew Gross
William Morrow
Thriller
ISBN: 9780061143441
Andrew Gross’s new novel features the welcome return of Greenwich, CT Police Lieutenant Ty Hauck. Introduced in 2008’s THE DARK TIDE, Hauck is a driven and troubled cop whose personal life all too often intersects and interferes with his professional life. The book begins --- and ends --- with a case that cuts a wide swath through Hauck’s family in ways he never could have predicted.
DON’T LOOK TWICE finds Hauck somewhat predictably at loose ends. It all begins with a simple trip for him and his teenage daughter to a gas station convenience store. They narrowly escape a gangland-style execution that takes the life of a man standing in line behind them. Hauck wonders if he himself was the target, until he learns that the victim was David Sanger, a federal prosecutor. His investigation would seem to be over when the shooter himself is subsequently murdered.
Yet Hauck is troubled by the motive behind the hit, and despite being warned off by several people, including the chief of police, he continues to dig into Sanger’s life. His pursuit of the truth leads to an upstate gambling casino where Sanger apparently was a frequent and quite successful visitor. The casino, though, is only one element of a plot that uncovers corruption at the local, state and national level and that also appears to lead to Hauck’s brother, a successful attorney who has long-buried ties to the casino as well.
At the same time Hauck is slowly becoming involved with Annie Fletcher, a local restaurateur who inadvertently witnessed the disposal of the murder weapon involved in the Sanger killing and who is seeking police protection. The relationship with Karen Friedman, which seemed so promising at the end of THE DARK TIDE, is floundering, so that the possibility of new romance is one of the few bright spots on Hauck’s horizons. When an attempt to take him out of the investigation misfires with tragic results, however, Hauck pursues a scorched earth drive to bring the murderers to justice, no matter what degree of power they exercise.
Gross’s narrative pacing here is superb. In lesser hands this story would be a complicated one, but he is careful to reveal bits of the mystery and its resolution gradually so there’s little chance of the reader losing the thread of what’s occurring. Gross is also unafraid to tinker with his primary and secondary characters, changing their circumstances or even taking them off the board altogether to move his story along. As was the case with its predecessor, DON’T LOOK TWICE promises to be a fine spring break companion, one that is worthy of more than a second look.
--- Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub
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