Original Sin (A Colton Parker Mystery)

Brandt Dodson
Harvest House Publishers (2006)
ISBN 0736918094
Reviewed by Kim Peterson for Reader Views (1/06)

Former FBI agent Colton Parker lost his job with the feds and sets himself up as a private investigator. His first case walks through the door in the form of a distressed female. Predictable.

Angie Howe hires him to prove her boyfriend Billy Caine did not murder his aunt. He has been arrested and the police are certain he did it. Predictable.

Parker takes the case and begins investigating the murder of Emma Caine, respected high school guidance counselor. As he probes into the seamier nooks and crannies of Indianapolis, he learns Emma isn’t the upstanding citizen many believed her to be. He charges ahead using brain and brawn and clashing with nearly everyone he meets—public officials, organized crime, and the FBI. He soon enlists the help of former colleague Mary Christopher to help him take down an Internet pornography operation. Also predictable.

Dodson follows a lot of the classic whodunit structure: Hard-boiled former cop, damsel in distress, an open-and-shut case that turns out to be bigger than anyone expected, all told in a fast-paced story. But once the author assembles the classic elements he pulls together some surprisingly unpredictable twists.

Parker, the edgy tough guy, turns out to have a heart. He cares about justice and the people he helps. He doesn’t fall for the damsel. Instead he grieves the wife who died six months ago and left him fumbling to be a good father to their grieving thirteen-year-old daughter. His budding faith experiences a crisis as he wrestles with how his wife’s God could let him lose everything. He feels troubled and ill-equipped to handle his human frailties and failings.

This first of the Colton Parker mysteries is a well-written debut novel. Mystery readers will enjoy this character armed with dry humor and dogged persistence. Dodson also delivers a believable supporting cast and a plot filled with unexpected turns. Some readers will find a few segments of the book a bit too preachy, but the rest of the story overcomes that weakness. Christian readers will appreciate the rough and tumble mystery not enmeshed in the gruesome details of the sins involved. This intriguing whodunit beckons readers to follow Colton Parker on his professional and personal quest in “Original Sin” and the rest of the series.

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