A solid police procedural thriller with some flair.
A COIN FOR CHARON is a rather interesting thriller. Fundamentally a police procedural, we follow Marlowe Gentry, a detective with a hard past with haunting demons, as he pursues a serial killer known as The Seraphim, who is both gentle and brutal with his victims. Choosing them because of their sadness or suicidal state, he puts them to sleep before dispatching them, then arranging their innards in a brutal religious ritual, one meant to bring the victim peace so they may go on to Heaven.
On the periphery of this main plotline, we have Max–a dying cancer patient who hasn’t told his family of his ailment, even after they leave him–and Becca–a psychiatrist who treats people like Max to cope with what they’re going through. At first, as the story is still in the early stages, I had no idea how Max of Becca’s story arcs fit into the bigger picture. I was thrown for a bit because we switched from the procedural to Max, and it seemed completely unrelated, and then Becca, too, seemed out of place. I started to wonder if I had accidentally picked up the wrong book, but as the story continued to unfold, we see how first Becca is drawn into the story from the periphery, and later, Max. It was THIS aspect of the novel that set it apart for me. The procedural plot was all solid, but it wasn’t anything particularly new. However, the powerful moments of Max’s emotional struggles were charged with heartache and desperation, and it was very compelling. In fact, I found myself tearing up a time or two as his situation becomes more and more dire. I cared about Max more than any other character in the book.
The prose is neither over the top nor is it simplistic. It services the genre very well without being devoid of flair. Very straightforward for the most part, but touching on some more poetic moments in some of the softer parts of the novel. The dialogue was believable and helped drive the narrative forward. All in all, this is a solid read that left me curious to see more from Mullican.
If you’re a fan of Michael Connelly type police procedural thrillers, you should give this one a chance. The orbiting stories around the main plot that ultimately come crashing into the forefront of the narrative help set this one apart as something that stands solidly on its own, and I think anyone looking for a good mystery-thriller will have a good time with this one. Well done.
Find it in print, digital, and audio here.
Chris Miller 