RAIN WILL COME

4 stars out of 5

Virtually every character in this fast-paced game of cat-and-mouse between a serial killer and the longest-tenured detective in the Illinois Bureau of Judicial Enforcement is seriously flawed. Killer Daniel Longdon, a self-ascribed avenger of injustice, is dying of a glioblastoma and hoping to get to the last person on his hit list before the tumor gets him. Detective Paul Czarcik, a basically good cop, struggles with injustice as well; but his method of dealing with it is through smoking, alcohol and, in a pinch, snorting drugs. On the other hand, he tends to experience real physical reactions to certain words and phrases (perhaps as a result of his drug habit, perhaps not) that turn out to be helpful investigative clues.

Czarcik, who isn't on the best of terms with his superiors, is called to the scene of a double homicide in which the male victim's head is missing. Sensing that the scene may have been somehow staged, he notices a clue he suspects may tie in with a previous case - and turns out he's right. But when a man confesses to the double homicide, the police powers-that-be are satisfied and want the investigation to go away; not so Czarcik, who's certain this is the work of a serial killer who isn't likely to stop. Off he goes on his own, then, to get to the truth.

Along the way, he gets help from an unlikely - and potentially untrustworthy - source. Readers, meanwhile, get a glimpse of what's in the killer's mind (besides the tumor) through interspersed chapters that shift to his perspective. All told, it's an exciting - and for whom it may make a difference - and fairly gory game of who will win the chase that's being played out in both psychological and physical ways; can Czarcik out-think Longdon and track him down before Longdon does the same to him?

 Overall, it's entertaining and well worth reading, and I'm looking forward to the next one. But note to myself: next time, be sure to check the stack of pre-release review books from publishers before coughing up a couple of bucks for an Amazon First Reads book that turns out to be already in said stack from NetGalley!

Rain Will Come by Thomas Holgate (Thomas & Mercer, April 2020); 301 pp.