Beat Book

Let me first say this -- you have to have thick skin to deal with this book. It's laden with sexually graphic detail and language since the primary character is a homicide detective with an addiction to sex. Generally speaking, he's not opposed to internet porn, prostitutes, and the like. (Is this a trend for what I've been reading this week...?)

Hayden Glass is an LAPD homicide detective and in the prior book, he's encountered some fairly gruesome situations in which he's looked at as a hero by the public, but his file is completely sealed. Only he and a few others know what he really did. He's got some time off right now (forced medical leave), and he's making use of it by finding someone he really likes...who he happens to have met through an internet porn site, and then met in real life after obsessively traveling to San Francisco. He is a "recovering" sex addict, after all.

Cora is the girl he's met online, and he likes her a lot. He thinks there's more between them, and maybe so. Not only does he like her, but she happens to be a primary link to a sex slave trade that's run by the Russian mafia. But right now, she's gone missing after being brutally taken from Hayden right in front of him, and he wasn't able to do anything about it.

If you can get past the graphic subject matter and those first few pages particularly (literally, page two would make Tiger Woods blush), then you're in for a well written mystery/suspense/thriller. Although it's gritty and disturbing, Stephen Jay Schwartz finesses the images to keep you thoroughly unsettled but racing to find out who's behind the corruption supporting the sex slave trade, and more importantly, where Cora is. It's also a fascinating portrayal of a character who has a debilitating and ruling addiction that he's at the early stages of overcoming. Fans of Stephen Jay Schwartz and his character, Hayden Glass, won't be disappointed.

This is the second book for the Hayden Glass character, but you can read this as a stand alone. There's enough references and background provided to not make you confused and wonder what happened in the first book, but only enough to make you want to go pick it up and read it.