Gone To Dust
Summary:
A brutal crime. The ultimate cover-up. How do you solve a murder with no useable evidence?
Private detective Nils Shapiro is focused on forgetting his ex-wife and keeping warm during another Minneapolis winter when a former colleague, neighboring Edina Police Detective Anders Ellegaard, calls with the impossible.
Suburban divorcee Maggie Somerville was found murdered in her bedroom, her body covered with the dust from hundreds of emptied vacuum cleaner bags, all potential DNA evidence obscured by the calculating killer.
Digging into Maggie’s cell phone records, Nils finds that the most frequently called number belongs to a mysterious young woman whose true identity could shatter the Somerville family–but could she be guilty of murder?
After the FBI demands that Nils drop the case, Nils and Ellegaard are forced to take their investigation underground, where the case grows as murky as the contents of the vacuum cleaner bags. Is this a strange case of domestic violence or something with far reaching, sinister implications? [summary from https://us.macmillan.com/books/9780765391285]
Group Reviews/Comments
Note: this month we did not use a rating scale. I just kept track of the comments, some of which contained a rating determined by reader.
- Dialogue smooth and well done, professional obviously.
- Liked Shap, the Scandinavian Jew nice and original.
- I would read the next book.
- Thumbs up
- Enjoyed the writing, author had good observations without being too preachy or boring. Couldn’t guess the murderer. Too many one sided-romances. Enjoyable.
Didn’t like involvement of daughter—didn’t add to anything. - Would read the next book, and thumbs up.
- Quick read, didn’t guess the ending.
- Easy read. But too many romances. When I read a mystery, I want a mystery not a romance. Guessed right away.
- Thumbs up, even with the sex scenes…. just don’t fit sometimes. But too much.
Loved dialogue. Really well written. Easy to read. The weather was the character. - Thumbs in the middle
- Loved the dust jacket—had dust! Super easy read, went really quickly. Really appreciated using modern devices as real issues that had to be dealt with. Truly modern mystery. Liked the non-romantic relationships. He was a very modern male protagonist. Necessary clues laid to out if you wanted to tried to solve it. Would read the next one!
- Very quick read. Mystery reasonably well structured. But wouldn’t re-read. It was fine. The invasion of privacy stuff disturbing.
- Thumbs in the middle. It was fine. Wasn’t impressed. It was a quick read.
- I liked it. Easy read. Liked relationship between detective and cop, which is often not a positive one. Liked moving through all the suspects…liked the writing. Good flow.
- Loved snappy, witty dialogue. Thumbs in the middle.
- Thumbs up. “tour of the imagination.” Super enjoyable, and really liked the winter season/setting.
- Thumbs in the middle…mostly thumbs down…kind of boring…but appreciate the humor. Didn’t like Nils. Didn’t make sense why he was so argumentative. But you really need to like the character, especially when it’s first person.
- I liked book, easy read. Couldn’t figure who did it. But it was really believable. Liked the detailed street names and locations. The casual relationships not appreciated.
