Never Fear

NEVER FEAR

Scott Frost

Headline £19.99 (Hardback) ISBN 0755333837 /£11.99 (Trade paperback)

August 2005

Matt Craig

Never Fear is an interesting experiment on the part of Headline. The second book in Scott Frost’s series starring Pasadena PD lieutenant Alex Delillo, it’s the first book in the series to be published in the UK.

When Alex Delillo receives a partial fax from a man who later turns up dead on the banks of the LA river, her curiosity is peaked. When it later transpires that the dead man is her half-brother, a man she never knew existed, Alex decides to take a more active role in the investigation, a move that does nothing to endear her with the investigators of the LAPD. As she digs, Alex is reminded of the River Killer slayings which plagued the city almost twenty years previously and it doesn’t take long before she discovers that the main suspect in those murders was her father.

Headline’s experiment seemingly fails within the first page, and continues to do so for the next twenty or so – constant references to events that happened in the first book are vague enough to be confusing to the reader, but at the same time spoiler-filled reasons to possibly wait for Run The Risk in January of next year.

When the story takes off, though, it’s definitely worth the read, especially for fans of the James Patterson style of story-telling. Fast-paced narrative in short, action-filled chapters draws the reader into a story that is part mystery, part Los Angeles travelogue. It’s a fast read and Frost has definitely set himself up to become the next big thing in action thrillers…but it may be worth waiting until January and reading them in the order the author originally intended.

NEVER FEAR

Reviewed by Catherine Hunt

This is the first book I have read by Scott Frost but the notes inside the cover tell us that he is the author of Run The Risk which introduced Pasadena detective Alex Delillo and was nominated for a 2006 Edgar for Best First Novel.

The vilains in crime novels are usually so nasty that they are easy to identify or they masquerade under a harmless exterior and tease the reader right up to the last page but Frost seems to be saving all his venom for the entire Los Angeles police department . Delillo and her Pasadena colleagues refer frequently to the violent history of the LAPD, are threatened by them, tailed and warned off the case. Goodness knows what Bosch would make of this uneasy rivalry. The other force frightening Delillo is the terrifying summer fire burning whole neighbourhoods, lighting the sky with dreadful scarlet flames and creeping ever nearer her home.

Its an interesting and original story. Alex receives an incomplete fax from a man who turns out to be her half brother. When she is called to see his body she refutes the LAPD claim that he has committed suicide and sets out to seek his murderer. When she finds that his death is linked to the long unsolved case of the River Killer slayings in which three young women were found murdered , their bodies lying on the river bank, a further shock almost unbalances her for the prime suspect in those serial killings was her own father. A bit part Hollywood actor, he left home when she was barely five but she has some photographs and the memory of his voice. Gradually these sparse memories are drowned by others, each more terrible than the last.

In spite of this twisted plot its more an action novel than a suspense novel and the tone is the laconic voice of the mean street genre. I would have liked to know more about Alex Delillo than the few details given away. Perhaps, next time, the author will let her take some time between chasing around the city for some reader-friendly introspection and much needed back story.

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