The Last Dead Girl by Harry Dolan

David Malone is driving the back country roads of Rome, NY at night when he met Jana Fletcher. A deer had attempted to jump over the hood of her car and didn’t quite make it. It was lying on the road in front of the car and Jana was kneeling by it, trying to comfort it. David stopped his truck to help and as they attempted to lift the deer into his truck to take it to a veterinarian, it came back to life and bounded away. That was 10 days ago and they spent those 10 days together. However, today David arrives at Jana’s apartment, to find her sprawled across the floor, stabbed to death.

The Last Dead Girl by Harry Dolan, author of Bad Things Happen (of which The Last Dead Girl is a prequel) and Very Bad Men, opens with David in the police station answering questions. A home inspector by trade, David, once released, begins to investigate Jana’s life and death. His investigation leads him on a trail of perversions, drugs and ruthless murder.

I like the way Dolan writes. As with his other books, David’s story is told in the first person and everyone else’s in third person. He’s got the right balance of action, plot, thought, etc. His characters are vivid. You know Jana and David and the other protagonists. There are twists and turns that I certainly didn’t see…but then again, there are many I don’t see.

The one thing I don’t like in my mysteries is sexual brutality specifically and brutality in general and there was a lot of it. This doesn’t mean I like cozies, because, if you’ve read this blog, you know I don’t. However, I just don’t like to read about brutal stuff. That being said, I still really liked The Last Dead Girl. With three books to his name, Harry Dolan’s an easy author to catch up on.

P.S. Somewhere along the way, David Malone becomes David Loogan, living in Ann Arbor, Michigan. I wasn’t curious enough to go back to Bad Things Happen to find out if there is a flow to the name change. Maybe one day.