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Resolve (2013)

by J.J. Hensley(Favorite Author)

4.16 of 5 Votes: 2

ISBN

1579623131 (ISBN13: 9781579623135)

languge

English

genre

Mystery & Thriller

publisher

The Permanent Press

review 1: March 15th was the publication date for this debut novel and I just couldn't wait to review it. It's a different type of plot than I've ever read, set during the Pittsburgh Marathon with flashbacks to fill in the storyline.Each chapter is a mile of the marathon. Protagonist Dr. Cyprus Keller is running the race. He explains that 18,000 people are participating. Some will drop out for various reasons, others are running relays or just a half-marathon, and one person won't finish the race because he will die before the finish line. Dr. Keller knows this because he is going to kill him.Keller is a professor who teaches criminology at a small college. He innocently finds himself involved in a mysterious plot after a young coed unsuccessfully tries to seduce him. Actuall... morey she is conducting a study and seeing how many professors are willing to take her up on her flirting is the meat of the research. She doesn't go through with any offers, but meanwhile she stirs up a hornets' nest. The girl is found murdered in a part of town she would never visit. After that, Keller's teaching assistant tries to murder him and Keller kills the T.A. as he defends himself. Coincidentally, the police view Keller as a prime suspect in the girl's murder.We meet intriguing characters such as the college president who for some reason has a grudge against Keller, two policemen who are wise to the world, and other professors who are running partners of Keller's. Best of all, we meet Keller's wife, who is a psychologist, a fact which is both a blessing and a curse to her husband. Since he can't ever pull the wool over her eyes, he has stopped even trying. Theirs is a beautiful marriage.Despite the killings and seriousness of the plot, I laughed all the way through this book. Hensley is a very funny writer and Dr. Keller's wit sets this book above other mysteries in my opinion. I do hope Hensley is currently hard at work on his second novel. I'll be first in line to buy it.Recommended readingSource: LibraryThing win
review 2: It takes serious resolve to run a marathon, to solve a crime, or to kill someone, and the 26.2 miles of this Pittburgh race provide a perfect framework for the murder to come in J. J. Henlsey’s Resolve. But what drives a runner to push his body so far? And what makes a former police officer turned criminology professor turn so far from the rule of law?The route twists and turns through wide streets of clean modernity down into poverty and shame. Meanwhile the plot twists through Dr. Cyprus Keller’s memories, giving both race and mystery a taut immediacy. Helpers offer water, but even drinking is a complex operation while miles stride by. Even walking from office to car is complex when a web of deceit binds killer to victim. But Cyprus finds himself as compelled to complete his investigation as he is to complete the marathon’s 26 miles. Shifting from suspect to victim to stranger to suspect to victim again, he strides where straight paths give way to ugly secrets, and he gathers his clues.The author spreads hints throughout this story, letting them fall lightly like a marathon’s detritus at the side of the road, leaving reader and protagonist to remember and snatch at grains of truth. Perfectly paced like the runner’s tread, cleverly revealed in natural investigation and plausible action, tautly plotted and convincingly woven, Resolve by J. J. Hensley brings vivid excitement and complex drama to marathon running, murder and investigation. Authentic, compelling, gripping and impossible to put down, this pleasingly different mystery novel is highly recommended.Disclosure: I received a free bound galley of this novel from the publisher, the Permanent Press less

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