Paperback Reader

Marty Hogan, the heroine in Linda Castillo’s newest release Overkill, understands hard. As a police officer in Chicago she made a decision that ruined her career. Instead of just arresting a suspect who murdered a child, Marty lost her cool and beat the guy senseless. Since a cameraman happened to catch the entire episode on film for the country to see…over and over again…Marty’s life and ethics came under scrutiny. She lost her job, became the poster child for inappropriate police behavior and faced criminal charges.

Having made a hash of her life and career, Marty is forced to take the only job offer she can get. It’s in Caprock Canyon, Texas, population 3500. The step from Chicago to a place Marty describes as “Bumfuck, U.S.A.” is a steep one. Even if you did not know your geography, you would know how bad this move is by Marty’s sour disposition. She’s frustrated, humiliated and bitter. She doesn’t have so much a chip as an apartment building on her shoulder. And she dares everyone and anyone to knock it off.

What keeps Marty from straying into heroines-with-attitude-for-no-reason territory is the fact she has reason to be angry. She never expected to become the bad guy when she beat up a child killer. Now that she has, she’s disgruntled and guilty. She feels betrayed even as she knows she created her own mess, and dives deep into a bottle of booze to numb the pain. Marty is a woman on the edge. She refuses help. Seeks refuge in alcohol, smokes to calm her nerves and picks fights. Not the best cop, maybe, but a realistic heroine. One who made her bed and now tosses and turns in it. One filled with angst who is not let off the hook or forgiven by Castillo. To the contrary, Castillo makes poor Marty suffer. The choice not to deify Marty is a good one. The unspoken message being that Marty deserves some of the bad things that come her way.

When Marty’s former Chicago partner is kidnapped, tortured and murdered, Marty is despondent. When someone then comes after Marty, she is both panicked at the idea of dying the same gruesome death as her former friend and desperate to find the killer. Here, as with the rest of Overkill, Marty keeps paying a price for her previous actions in that no one wants her help and no one quite believes she is in danger. Through her competing fears and with her anger rising, Marty’s complexity reaches even deeper. She is a heroine who is pounded to the ground by adversity and who gets up as a real person would – slowly and imperfectly. For that reason, despite the self-indulgence, liquor and complaining, Marty remains likeable, or at least identifiable.

Those around Marty remain nsure of her. Castillo does not cut Marty any breaks on that front either. One place Marty does find solace is with Police Chief Clay Settlemeyer. He is a man with a haunted past of his own. An alpha hero without a deep love for his daughter who does not suffer from the grumpy-for-the-sake-of-being-grumpy problem. Clay gives Marty a chance at a new career and then doubts his decision and Marty thereafter. He does not fall immediately and unrealistically in love with Marty. Rather, their romance builds over time and as tensions rise. Despite his concerns about her, he is attracted and he fights it. Clay sees what the rest of us see in Marty – a mess with potential.

When the romance does take off, it starts mostly with heat and adrenalin. The smart choice mixes with the tension of the story. Marty likely is not the woman you rush home to meet mom. Castillo recognizes this fact and lets the romance side of the story unfold as and when it should. The result is a hot, sexy force to offset a suspense portion of the plot that is anything but tame.

Just as Castillo does not take the easy way out with Marty, she does the same with the suspense here. While the first five pages of Overkill amount to little more than an information dump that should have been told more effectively, that negative is overcome by the fast pace and better storytelling that follows. The identity of the bad guys is never in question. The Russian Mafia - specifically the siblings of the suspect Marty beat up - is behind the torture murders and threats to Marty. They are brutal and nasty. Overkill does not shy away from this. Instead, Overkill plays up this fact without overplaying it.

In an ending ripped straight from the headlines and guaranteed to cause shivers, Castillo once again does not shrink from the path she has chosen. The scenes are raw, horrifying in detail, well written and emotionally draining. And this is part of the book's strength. Overkill is smart in its ability to take a fractured heroine and let her be harsh and broken. Overkill is equally compelling in its portrayal of shocking and somewhat unseemly incidents in a real-life, true-to-the-plot way. There is a happy ending here, but Castillo makes them work for it. So when it comes, it's worth it.

You can visit Linda Castillo here and buy the book here or here.