Review: Third Rail by Rory Flynn

A Mysterious Review of Third Rail by Rory Flynn. An Eddy Harkness Mystery.

Review summary: This novel is centered on a seriously flawed cop, an overused plot device if ever there was one. But the storyline is rather good, unfolding in a not quite predictable manner. A first in series mystery with a number of familiar elements, yet a series with the potential to distinguish itself in the future. (Click here for text of full review.)

Our rating:

Third Rail
Rory Flynn
An Eddy Harkness Mystery
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (June 2014)

Publisher synopsis: At crime scenes, Eddy Harkness is a human Ouija board, a brilliant young detective with a knack for finding the hidden something — cash, drugs, guns, bodies. But Eddy's swift rise in an elite narcotics unit is derailed by the death of a Red Sox fan in the chaos of a World Series win, a death some camera-phone-wielding witnesses believe he could have prevented. Scapegoated, Eddy is exiled to his hometown just outside Boston, where he empties parking meters and struggles to redeem his disgraced family name.

Then one night Harkness's police-issue Glock disappears. Unable to report the theft, Harkness starts a secret search — just as a string of fatal accidents lead him to uncover a new, dangerous smart drug, Third Rail. With only a plastic disc gun to protect him, Harkness begins a high-stakes investigation that leads him into the darkest corners of the city, where politicians and criminals intertwine to deadly effect.