Pepperfish Keys Book

RATING: 3.0

Have you ever had the experience of reading an author's debut novel and saying to yourself, "Now, THAT'S talent!" That was my reaction to the first book in the Barrett Raines series, A ROCK AND A HARD PLACE, which I found to be a very powerful book. Wimberley unflinchingly dealt with ugly racial attitudes and complex relationships without falling into clichés. Consequently, I had high expectations for the books that followed which, unfortunately, have not been met. Initially, special agent Barrett "Bear" Raines was the first African American investigator working for the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and faced many instances of discrimination and prejudice. Three books later, it doesn't feel like we've moved forward one foot as far as those attitudes go, which I found rather unbelievable.

As PEPPERFISH KEYS opens, Bear and state attorney Roland "Fountain Pen" Reed are smarting after mishandling an investigation of Florida Senator Baxter Stanton. That has caused a lot of embarrassment for the department and governor, and Bear and Fountain Pen have been warned to treat Stanton with kid gloves. The flames of the issue are being exacerbated by the local press, most particularly an ambitious television reporter named Sharon Fowler who has her eye on moving up to a national market. When Stanton's wild daughter, Beth Ann, is brutally murdered, Sharon reveals that she witnessed a scene with Beth Ann and her criminally twisted lover, Eddy DeLeon. Eddy is the obvious suspect, and Sharon is willing to wear a wire to trap him into a confession.

The evidence against DeLeon is quite convincing until a tape surfaces with a shocking revelation that points the finger at an entirely unexpected target, the victim's father. And then Bear stumbles upon another piece of evidence, and the tables turn yet again.

The situation wherein Bear discovers this damning evidence was completely preposterous. Any momentum that the book had was totally destroyed by the ridiculous contrived way that the author had him find this material. As a reader, I felt completely cheated by the way this was developed.

In the earlier books, Wimberley took pains to show Bear's personal life, his pride in his family and his adoration of his wife, Laura Anne. In PEPPERFISH, Laura Anne is suffering from a deep and dark depression, barely functioning at all, withdrawn from her husband and two sons and only marginally running her restaurant business. If you have not read STRAWMAN'S HAMMOCK, you will not be able to figure out what has caused her to be acting in this way, other than she seems to have been a victim of an assault that Bear was unable to prevent. Many pages are devoted to painting a picture of Laura Anne's gloom and its impact on the family. Then for some unknown reason, she decides to go to a doctor, and voila!—that evening she is acting just like her old self again! That facile treatment of her mental and emotional issues was very disturbing and another big implausibility for me.

Although Wimberley has a smooth prose writing style and does an excellent job of establishing the setting, PEPPERFISH KEYS was not a book that I enjoyed. The promise that I saw so long ago has not been fulfilled.