THE FRONT
Patricia Cornwell
Putnam Adult
Thriller
ISBN: 9780399154188

THE FRONT is the second police procedural in Patricia Cornwell’s new At Risk series. It stars Massachusetts state police officer Win Garano and his boss, District Attorney Monique Lamont, a megalomaniac who is always looking for a crisis or a mission that will propel her into the spotlight. Here, she wants to focus on what she perceives is the deterioration of the state’s neighborhoods. And what better way to accomplish all of her goals than to solve a very cold case?

Since she has jurisdiction over all the homicides in Massachusetts, Lamont sends Garano to Watertown, where the rape and murder of a blind young British woman has never been solved. Not only does Lamont expect him to work the 45-year-old case, she wants him to prove her theory: that the Boston Strangler, Albert DeSalvo, killed Janie Brolin. Of course no one ever actually proved he was guilty of any of the murders he was suspected of committing, and while his DNA is available, the woman’s is not. Nevertheless, he makes the trip and learns he will be working with “Stump,” the lead detective in Watertown.

Garano often wonders why she works as a cop when she could retire and run her very successful imported cheese, wine and fresh food culinary boutique. That’s where he finds her when he arrives in Watertown. Stump is furious because she doesn’t want to work this case, much less with Garano, and hates Lamont. But she and Garano have a friendly adversarial relationship, and they retire to the back room of the shop to talk: “Why Watertown? That’s what you should be curious about,” she tells him. The case is “worth more than one thing. She has other agendas. It’s also about the FRONT … Friends, Resources, Officers, Networking Together … a coalition [that is giving law enforcement communities the opportunity to rely] less and less [on] the state police.” Lamont hates these people and figured out a way to diminish what they’re trying to do by making it look as though they can’t solve this or any other cold case.

A short time later at New Scotland Yard, Detective Superintendent Jeremy Killien is ruminating about why “the commissioner [has dropped] a bloody bomb on him. An unsolved forty-five year old murder that didn’t even occur in the UK.” Of course Lamont called London, spoke to the commissioner, and sold him on the idea of shining an international spotlight on the Brolin case. “She already has extravagant publicity planned, including a BBC special that she guarantees would air if [the Brits] participate.” Killien is very skeptical.

In a discussion with his boss, he is told, “When she first approached the Yard … I had the matter looked into, which included finding out something about her. Just the usual checks … and we’ve come up with a disturbing bit of information --- not about the case … but about Lamont herself and cash transactions and donations that have come to the attention of the U.S. Treasury Department. Turns out her name is in the Defense Intelligence Agency’s database…”

While spinning her webs of intrigue from her ivory tower, Lamont is probably unaware that “she is on a no fly list … [also] a sizeable contribution she … made to a children’s relief fund in Romania … is suspected of trafficking in orphans, supplying them to Al-Qaeda so they can be used as suicide bombers,” the commissioner tells Killien. He continues by saying that this is a great opportunity to investigate Lamont without her knowledge.

While these plans are coming to fruition, the investigation into Janie Brolin’s murder is ongoing. Garano and Stump are brainstorming when Garano explains to Stump that the neighborhood where Brolin was killed used to be home to mobsters. He asks her if she ever thought about why no real crime, especially a murder, was committed on those streets. As he’s trying to debunk Lamont’s Boston Strangler theory, he impresses upon Stump that he believes a cover-up was put in place, “a team effort … collusion” to hide the machinations of The Mob and protect their territory. He asks her if, knowing this, she believes that “some Boston Strangler lowlife [would’ve] dared step foot anywhere near Janie Brolin’s apartment.” If, he continues, DeSalvo was so incredibly stupid as to wander into that neighborhood, is it really possible that he would have gotten out in one piece?

As the narrative unfolds and Garano continues his task, he feels as if has entered a maze with no exit. Will he ever find what he is after? How will he know if he does? Nothing in this case seems to be what it appears. Patricia Cornwell, best known for her Kay Scarpetta novels, has turned a new corner in her writing career with these At Risk novellas --- stories scaled back a bit and focused on character as well as plot. She told an interviewer: “…the Garano books, the stories, must have a lot of horsepower but be very tight … no wasted space or weight and an intensely fun ride.” And she’s right. Fans and new readers will certainly enjoy this change of pace.

    --- Reviewed by Barbara Lipkien Gershenbaum

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