Frank Nagler is a unique detective whose sleuthing is terrific to follow. This is a very fine mystery that invites the audience to capture the other volumes!
I saw this today and wanted to post it. The reviewer gets to the heart of the Frank Nagler Mysteries.
Author Michael Stephen Daigle is a self-pronounced ‘Navy brat’, explaining why his roots are in both New England and the South. He is a journalist who elects to frame his novels based on places he has lived populated with his fascinating characters. This is the fourth volume of his popular and award-winning Frank Nagler Mysteries – THE SWAMPS OF JERSEY, A GAME CALLED DEAD, THE WEIGHT OF LIVING, and now THE RED HAND – the prequel to THE SWAMPS OF JERSEY. He has also published a short story WHO SHOT THE SMART GUY AT THE BLACKBOARD.
An overview of the Frank Nagler mysteries shares Ironton, New Jersey. Detective Frank Nagler takes on dirty politicians, Internet terrorists and a shady, evil manipulator who deals in death, theft and destruction. To fully appreciate the richness of this book, reading the Anthology of the three volumes assists, but having said that, this novel is so well conceived that it is a stand-alone novel. In a grisly opening Michael offers, ‘Of course they were red, the handprints. The color of blood, re; the color of life, dripping between the hollow cracks of the siding. Leaking, crimson, chosen carefully. I’m here, the killer said, bragging. Try to find me. – Jimmy Dawson.
With that ‘taste’ of content Michael begins this lurid tale: ‘The first mark had appeared after the third death: red handprint dripping paint slapped on a wall of the busted-up hotel where cab driver Felice Sanchez had been found dead. Underneath, “HAND OF DEATH” splotched in an awkward scrawl. Is that a joke? Detective Frank Nagler thought when he saw the mark for the first time. Pretty crude but you might be in a hurry to leave your calling card after you killed a woman. But he wondered: Where were the marks left after the deaths of Nancy Harmon and Jamie Wilson, the deaths that were now believed to be the first in this cycle?’
Bristling and well scribed, the mystery thriller proceeds as the synopsis well describes it: ‘Rookie detective Frank Nagler has barely had time to arrange his desk, when a new homicide case is assigned to him. Could a serial killer be stalking his hometown of Ironton, N.J.? One by one the bodies pile up. Nine victims are killed over several months, all from different walks of life and different parts of Ironton. Each killed in a different way, forming no clear pattern, as might be expected from a single killer. This investigation takes place before economic hard times, political corruption and a government money scandal hit the former industrial center of Ironton, N.J.’
Keen timing of a fast-paced plot introduces the now respected hero of this series: Frank Nagler is a unique detective whose sleuthing is terrific to follow. This is a very fine mystery that invites the audience to capture the other volumes! Recommended. Grady Harp, July 19
Find it here:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/1944653198/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_H1ZgDbQJB259V
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-red-hand-michael-stephen-daigle/1132368097?
Also here’s a link to the trailer created by Anita Dugan-Moore of Cyber-Bytz.com for my publisher: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HJ_SROHO88c
