Book Review: The Violated by Bill Pronzini

The Violated
Bill Pronzini
Bloomsbury, March 2017
ISBN: 978-1-6328-6600-8
Hardcover

From the publisher:  The novel begins with the body of a dead man lying “face up on the grassy riverbank, legs together and ankles crossed, arms spread-eagled above his head with palms upturned and fingers curled, in a grotesque parody of the crucifixion.”  The victim, Martin Torrey, according to public opinion, is not a victim but instead the lead suspect in an on-going investigation of four brutal rapes and assaults against four women taken place in the span of four months, each more violent than the last.  Tasked with solving the rapes and finding the murderer of Martin Torrey, chief Griffin Kells and detective Robert Ortiz are placed under increasing pressure from the public at large and from an over-ambitious Mayor. As a result, everyone is a suspect. As the story unfolds, readers find themselves in a guessing game trying to deduce who done it?  Was it one of the rape victims or was it one of their friends or family member?  Told in multiple perspectives, everyone is a suspect.  Everyone had opportunity, and everyone had motive, even Martin’s widowed wife.

From the author of more than eighty novels, this most recent standalone from Mr. Pronzini is right up there with the best of them.  The p.o.v. changes from chapter to chapter, e.g., Chapter I of Part I is told in first person by Liane Torrey, the wife and now widow of the murdered man, the next chapter by the police chief Kells (only the 2nd homicide during his seven-year tenure as chief), the next by the politically ambitious Mayor Hugh Delahunt, the next by Ione Spivey, one of the rapist’s victims, and on and on – – I must say that each was  conspicuously in the believable voice of the speaker, not an easy task!

There had been four assaults in four months, “despite increased police patrols, stepped-up neighborhood watches, public warnings to women not to go out alone at night and to take security precautions when home by themselves.  And each one committed without leaving a single solid clue to his identity.”  The cops obviously have their work cut out for them, their job made that much harder with the firestorm of negative media coverage seeking to oust the chief.

A subplot concerns Robert Ortiz, who admittedly has “no difficulty commanding men, but no aptitude for administrative duties and little for public relations, and I do not suffer fools well,” whose Hispanic heritage does not help his “goal is to become a high-ranking detective with the state police or the police department of one of the larger cities.”

The multiple p.o.v. chapters include other victims and their spouses, each one entirely true to their characters (as I’ve already mentioned), and the case becomes dramatically more difficult with another attack, making it rather obvious that the dead man was surely not the man responsible for the first four.  The entire tale takes place in just over a week, the suspense rising as the hunt for the attacker/murderer goes on.  An excellent addition to this author’s oeuvre, it is highly recommended.

Reviewed by Gloria Feit, March 2017.