This mystery novel is more about the characters than the crime involved. It begins with a drive-by shooting in a bad Philadelphia neighborhood in which two teenage boys are hit, one dying, the other in a coma at the ER. As a result any number of people want to find out why the two had been shot at.
To begin with there is the father of the slain lad, who seeks revenge. The cop father of the other boy has a drug addict brother, perhaps the only one, including various detectives, who can eventually put all the pieces together, at great personal risk.
The violence throughout the novel, some basically superfluous to the main plot, albeit necessary to delve into the character of the main culprit, is graphic. The story moves along smoothly, with well-written analyses of the relationships among the downtrodden, especially as they grasp for help or love.
Recommended.
