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The Survivor by Sean Slater
The Blurb On The Back:
The truth lies behind the mask.
In his first hour back from a six-month leave of absence, Detective Jacob Striker’s day quickly turns into a nightmare. He is barely on scene five minutes at his daughter’s high school when he encounters an Active Shooter situation. Three men wearing hockey masks – Black, White and Red – have stormed the school with firearms and are killing indiscriminately. Striker takes immediate action.
Within minutes, two of the gunmen are dead and Striker is close to ending the violence. But before Striker can react, Red Mask flees – and escapes. Against the clock, Striker investigates the killings for which there is no known motive and no suspect. Soon his investigation takes him to darker places, and he realizes that everything at Saint Patrick’s High is not as it appears. The closer he gets to the truth, the more dangerous his world becomes.
Until Striker himself is in the line of fire.
When Detective Jacob Striker returns to Vancouver’s police department after 6 months off following the death of his wife, the last thing he expects is to be pitched headfirst into a high school shooting. Striker and his partner, Felicia Santos, find themselves up against 3 shooters wearing hockey masks – Black, White and Red – but while they take down two of the gunmen, the third – Red Mask – escapes. Striker and Santos must work out who Red Mask is and – more importantly – why he was shooting up the school. But their investigation will take them to Vancouver’s seedier elements and the truth will hit closer to home than he could possibly imagine …
Sean Slater’s debut police thriller is a disappointing story with an 80s vibe that features a rule-breaking cop who has to push against his pencil-pushing superior in order to do what he does best. I picked it up because I hadn’t read any detective thrillers set in Canada and because Slater himself is a serving police officer, which I thought would add some realism to the story. I was wrong. Striker comes from the Lethal Weapon school of policing – running around a lot, shouting and making out with his obligatory hot partner/ex-girlfriend. The death of his wife and emotional estrangement from his daughter is written like a soap opera (the daughter in particular coming across as a stereotype petulant teenager) and the love scenes with Santos (who isn’t really given much agency and is stuck as Striker’s emotional support) made me cringe. What really made me uncomfortable though was the slow reveal of Red Mask’s motivation and back story, which takes in Cambodia’s Year Zero in a way that seems intended to be sympathetic but which, for me, strays pretty close to racism. The antagonist’s plot actually doesn’t make a huge amount of sense and the pay off lacks lustre. I also found myself rolling my eyes at the two-dimensional caricature of Striker’s pencil pushing boss Laroche, a media-hungry hound who prefers to make press statements than do the job and who has a personal vendetta against Striker. Ultimately, as a fan of the genre, there wasn’t anything new or nuanced enough for me, which is why I won’t be reading on. However, if you’re looking for a new square-jawed hero to blow away punks and keep the streets safe, this might be worth a look.
The Verdict:
Sean Slater’s debut police thriller is a disappointing story with an 80s vibe that features a rule-breaking cop who has to push against his pencil-pushing superior in order to do what he does best. I picked it up because I hadn’t read any detective thrillers set in Canada and because Slater himself is a serving police officer, which I thought would add some realism to the story. I was wrong. Striker comes from the Lethal Weapon school of policing – running around a lot, shouting and making out with his obligatory hot partner/ex-girlfriend. The death of his wife and emotional estrangement from his daughter is written like a soap opera (the daughter in particular coming across as a stereotype petulant teenager) and the love scenes with Santos (who isn’t really given much agency and is stuck as Striker’s emotional support) made me cringe. What really made me uncomfortable though was the slow reveal of Red Mask’s motivation and back story, which takes in Cambodia’s Year Zero in a way that seems intended to be sympathetic but which, for me, strays pretty close to racism. The antagonist’s plot actually doesn’t make a huge amount of sense and the pay off lacks lustre. I also found myself rolling my eyes at the two-dimensional caricature of Striker’s pencil pushing boss Laroche, a media-hungry hound who prefers to make press statements than do the job and who has a personal vendetta against Striker. Ultimately, as a fan of the genre, there wasn’t anything new or nuanced enough for me, which is why I won’t be reading on. However, if you’re looking for a new square-jawed hero to blow away punks and keep the streets safe, this might be worth a look.
Thanks to Simon & Schuster for the review copy of this book.
In his first hour back from a six-month leave of absence, Detective Jacob Striker’s day quickly turns into a nightmare. He is barely on scene five minutes at his daughter’s high school when he encounters an Active Shooter situation. Three men wearing hockey masks – Black, White and Red – have stormed the school with firearms and are killing indiscriminately. Striker takes immediate action.
Within minutes, two of the gunmen are dead and Striker is close to ending the violence. But before Striker can react, Red Mask flees – and escapes. Against the clock, Striker investigates the killings for which there is no known motive and no suspect. Soon his investigation takes him to darker places, and he realizes that everything at Saint Patrick’s High is not as it appears. The closer he gets to the truth, the more dangerous his world becomes.
Until Striker himself is in the line of fire.
When Detective Jacob Striker returns to Vancouver’s police department after 6 months off following the death of his wife, the last thing he expects is to be pitched headfirst into a high school shooting. Striker and his partner, Felicia Santos, find themselves up against 3 shooters wearing hockey masks – Black, White and Red – but while they take down two of the gunmen, the third – Red Mask – escapes. Striker and Santos must work out who Red Mask is and – more importantly – why he was shooting up the school. But their investigation will take them to Vancouver’s seedier elements and the truth will hit closer to home than he could possibly imagine …
Sean Slater’s debut police thriller is a disappointing story with an 80s vibe that features a rule-breaking cop who has to push against his pencil-pushing superior in order to do what he does best. I picked it up because I hadn’t read any detective thrillers set in Canada and because Slater himself is a serving police officer, which I thought would add some realism to the story. I was wrong. Striker comes from the Lethal Weapon school of policing – running around a lot, shouting and making out with his obligatory hot partner/ex-girlfriend. The death of his wife and emotional estrangement from his daughter is written like a soap opera (the daughter in particular coming across as a stereotype petulant teenager) and the love scenes with Santos (who isn’t really given much agency and is stuck as Striker’s emotional support) made me cringe. What really made me uncomfortable though was the slow reveal of Red Mask’s motivation and back story, which takes in Cambodia’s Year Zero in a way that seems intended to be sympathetic but which, for me, strays pretty close to racism. The antagonist’s plot actually doesn’t make a huge amount of sense and the pay off lacks lustre. I also found myself rolling my eyes at the two-dimensional caricature of Striker’s pencil pushing boss Laroche, a media-hungry hound who prefers to make press statements than do the job and who has a personal vendetta against Striker. Ultimately, as a fan of the genre, there wasn’t anything new or nuanced enough for me, which is why I won’t be reading on. However, if you’re looking for a new square-jawed hero to blow away punks and keep the streets safe, this might be worth a look.
The Verdict:
Sean Slater’s debut police thriller is a disappointing story with an 80s vibe that features a rule-breaking cop who has to push against his pencil-pushing superior in order to do what he does best. I picked it up because I hadn’t read any detective thrillers set in Canada and because Slater himself is a serving police officer, which I thought would add some realism to the story. I was wrong. Striker comes from the Lethal Weapon school of policing – running around a lot, shouting and making out with his obligatory hot partner/ex-girlfriend. The death of his wife and emotional estrangement from his daughter is written like a soap opera (the daughter in particular coming across as a stereotype petulant teenager) and the love scenes with Santos (who isn’t really given much agency and is stuck as Striker’s emotional support) made me cringe. What really made me uncomfortable though was the slow reveal of Red Mask’s motivation and back story, which takes in Cambodia’s Year Zero in a way that seems intended to be sympathetic but which, for me, strays pretty close to racism. The antagonist’s plot actually doesn’t make a huge amount of sense and the pay off lacks lustre. I also found myself rolling my eyes at the two-dimensional caricature of Striker’s pencil pushing boss Laroche, a media-hungry hound who prefers to make press statements than do the job and who has a personal vendetta against Striker. Ultimately, as a fan of the genre, there wasn’t anything new or nuanced enough for me, which is why I won’t be reading on. However, if you’re looking for a new square-jawed hero to blow away punks and keep the streets safe, this might be worth a look.
Thanks to Simon & Schuster for the review copy of this book.