Dangerously Innocent

Nesrine Joseph

Review is by Molly

Nesrine Joseph’s Dangerously Innocent opens with a prologue.  Showering, Jo Beth Eaton is calling through the door to her husband Mitch to hurry and dress.  She does not like to be late.  Stepping into the bedroom to put on the suit Jo Beth had laid out for him to wear was the last thing Mitch was to do.

Thursday, 1 June 2006, Detective Senior Sergeant Luther James eyes the autopsy report tossed onto his desktop by Detective Sergeant Rochelle Trevelyan. 

The pair has another homicide to consider, this one died about 3 hours before his body, sans hands, was discovered.

Bill Edwards is the third in the string of Slicer cases the pair have before them.  The ringing of the telephone brings the number to four.

First to die was an Asian immigrant, 2 blows to the head, his heart had been removed, second was Paul Davidson.  Smashed in the face the university student’s tongue had been ripped from his mouth. Next was photographer Edwards who was missing his hands.   Mitch Eaton’s body was missing; his head was left in the trunk of his wife’s car.

Children playing in the park make a horrible discovery after two people wearing long coats and gorilla masks throw something into dumpster.

From that point both detectives find themselves hurtling forward as the baffling case becomes a little stranger, a little more baffling.

Four people dead, nothing to link one to another, a nosy neighbor, an affair, a man who wants to tell his wife about the affair, and the amour who thinks that is a bad notion, a newly minted surgeon, one possible suspect, perhaps two, an uneasy feeling about who the murderer might be, nothing to tie the murder victims, motive hazy at best keeps the detectives up at night puzzling over the case, and during the day questioning those involved with the case.

And, another body is found, this one appears to be a priest, identification will be difficult, part of his face seems to be ripped away.  Luther and Rochelle now find themselves facing a deadline, the Police Commissioner wants results, he leans on the Inspector in charge, Chuck Collins lays down the ultimatum, the detectives have a week to find the killer.

It does get worse, not only was Father Andre’s face hacked away, closer examination reveals his genitals too are gone.

On the pages of Nesrine Joseph’s Dangerously Innocent we follow a treacherous pair and the police detectives who are trying to track them down through a murderous psychodrama overflowing with out of the ordinary, often astonishing characters, meticulously detailed backdrops, milieu and settings, enough slaughter, mayhem and gore to satisfy the taste of those who want their serial killers seriously deranged. 

Spanning a time period between 1 June and 5 June the murders continue to mount, both Rochelle and Luther are captured by the duo of demented slayers who are planning the pair will be added to their growing list of prey.  Before carrying out their maddened plan; the killers will explain their motivation, it does make sense in a warped psychosis driven sense.  And, despite the seeming dissimilarity of the victims there is a link tying them not to each other, but to the murderers themselves.

Dangerously Innocent is a fast paced, well written tale presented with skill by a talented writer.  I can see this one becoming a CSI type episode on television.

Nesrine Joseph’s Dangerously Innocent is for readers who enjoy unraveling a thorny situation as it unfolds on the page.