EVERYBODY LOVED ATTORNEY MIKE SAMUELSON. WELL, EXCEPT FOR WHOEVER KILLED HIM AND CHOPPED HIM UP.
The cops are baffled as the killer seems to know all their moves. Mike’s brother, Steve, is a reformed fire-and- brimstone preacher who was just mending their minced relationship, but now he must figure out who minced his brother. A strange little man and a high-school beauty whose false claim of rape may have touched off the murder seem anxious to help, but can this unlikely pair figure out who the killer is before he realizes they’re chasing him?
Leif Wright has created a compelling series of eastern Oklahoma characters and intertwined them in a series of grisly murders centering on the protagonist, who becomes the Minister of Justice. The plot twists will keep readers awake late into the night as they follow each development. The well-written prose gripped me early and remained fascinating.
This novel is full of intriguing characters. Its protagonist, a former fundamentalist minister whose beliefs have become less rigorous with age, questions the murder of his brother, who he considers a better person than himself.
Among the team who help him ferret out the killer are two bright and resourceful high school students, a veteran detective who's seen it all and is showing his age - and my favorite, David, a "Rainman" type whose specific skills of observation and deduction point the path to the climactic scene.
Wright knows his setting, a medium-sized community in northeastern Oklahoma, and portrays it in first-rate fashion.
"Brutal, ritualistic slaying."
The reader is introduced to those words at the beginning of Leif Wright's Minister of Justice and the tension never lets up in this classic page-turner mystery.
Wright crafts the minds and motivations of all his characters artfully that grow in significance and depth as he carries the reader through the novel exploring each of his complex characters. A quartet of unlikely characters pursue the serial killer and along the way discover insights to themselves as well as solve other heinous crimes.
We can only hope we see them together again.
“Minister of Justice is a gritty, revenge-soaked roller coaster of a book. Strong characterizations and clearly detailed scenes made me want to be the one chasing the bad guy! If you like your murder mysteries raw and honest, this is one you'll find hard to put down.”
