Book Review: ‘Black And Blue’ Is The Next Exciting Doug Brock Thriller

Author David Rosenfelt brings back the popular Doug Brock for his third novel with the detective with the lost memory. This time a killer has returned after eighteen months and resumed killing people. Now Doug must search through old records and go on the offense to find this killer.

Things seem to be going good for Doug these days. He and Jessie (his girlfriend) are still together and making things work. He’s gotten back about half his memories (he was shot and has partial amnesia). He and his fat-ass partner Nate have been solving cases (and this is the way they talk to each other so I am not fat shaming anyone). That is until Nate calls and tells Doug that a killer might be back on the scene when a body is found. Sure enough it matches the man found shot eighteen months ago. And then Doug receives a mysterious letter with a rhyme similar to the popular drinking song 99 bottles of beer on the wall.

It’s a message that more killings are on the way. And more bodies and letters soon appear. They have a suspect but no proof that the person is guilty. He’s also represented by super lawyer Andy Carpenter (in a nice crossover from his own book series which is great by the way). Soon things keep pointing to one suspect and the race is on when other players suddenly enter the race. Doug and Nate now have to break down who is responsible and why and it leads to a twist ending.

These Doug Brock novels are great. It’s all about characters over story. The stories are standard murder mysteries with twists. But the real highlight is Doug, Nate and Jessie. They way they relate to each other and the LOL insult moments between Nate and Doug are awesome. You root for Doug in every way after and hope that maybe one day he will get all his memories back.

Here’s hoping to more adventures with these characters in the future.

You can pick up Black And Blue in stores on Tuesday, March 26 from Minotaur Books.