FalconClaw

Detective Jon Bones Sullivan, mourning the loss of his partner, Frank Collazo, moves into Frank's old house. Was he looking for a reason to stay close to his old friend? Or was Bones running from his past?

Bones Sullivan's father died when he was only eighteen years old. When he did, Bones and his mother were finally rid of the man who had physically and verbally abused them for years. The death of a husband and father would normally create an unfillable void, but not when the decedent was a monster. Bones and his mother could now move on with their lives and try to forget the man they grew to hate. The man wouldn't forget them, however, and George Sullivan was not done tormenting Bones, who, after the death of his mother, inherited the family home. It was an unforgiving home and, in the case of Bones Sullivan, unforgettable.

Running from the memories of his father, Bones is thrust into a case that would haunt him and release the skeletons that had been hidden in the family closet for years.

Editorial Review: Criminal Activity Blog: Elias J. McClellan - Crime Writer

Detective Jon "Bones" Sullivan fights to simply make it through each day. Recovering from physical and emotional wounds tied to a shootout that left his partner dead, day-to-day is the best he can do. Then he is confronted by the specter of death, another loss in his police family, and the return of a woman he let go. Bones dives head-first back into his job to preserve his sanity.

However, neither Candace Weatherby's return nor the specter of death is a coincidence. Both events are heralds of a killer on a mission of retribution and tribute played out across North Philadelphia.

Bones is Michael Cook's fifth book in the Falconclaw series. In the course of five books, he has explored a range of sub-genres, cozy to mystery to police procedural-and now serial-killer thriller. Book one was Frank and Penny (based on actual North Philly detectives). Then, we met the second generation Frank and Penny (spiritual descendants in contemporary circumstances). Now, the baton has been passed to Bones Sullivan.

"...Sylvia Langham walked down those steps and into oblivion."

On the heels of the aforementioned death in the family, Bones is thrilled to be reunited with Candace, even as she takes on a consulting job that puts her on the streets among the very people Bones chases. All too soon, they are investigating the disappearance of a preschool teacher, snatched off the street.

Then, visions begin to point Bones toward something more than random abductions and subsequent killings.

Only the dead know Brooklyn

Thomas Wolfe wrote his famous commentary on Brooklynites and their borough in 1935. Yet the idea is as fresh as morning coffee in Cook's world. Both cops and robbers, good guys and bad, are directed as much by lessons of the dead as they are by their own mortality.

Only the haunted know the ghosts of North Philly. Haunted by generational abuse and unrelenting loss, Bones knows Philadelphia through and through, which brings us to the star of the story.

The backbone that unites all five books of Cook's Falconclaw saga is the City of Philadelphia. Rustbelt trauma and end-of-the-gilded-age reality dot each characters' emotional landscape and every twist and turn of the undead streets of Philadelphia and the walking ghosts who populate them. History informs day-to-day life for the scrappy survivors in Nicetown and Franklinville. History permeates the 39th District.

Cook's sense of place is only exceeded by his ability to subvert expectations. Place, tone, and tension make for a breakneck pace. Fans of Robert van Gulik's Judge Dee will thoroughly enjoy Cook's work.