Murder in Missoula starts off with a bang. We are with Charles Durbin, loner, dog groomer, obsessed with Marie-Justine, as he sneaks into her home for erotic fantasies. He has stalked her for weeks, trying to decide whether he prefers her or her best friend Anne. Now he has decided.
Meanwhile former DEA agent Joe Nicoletti is in town interviewing for a professorship at the university. Nicoletti is a widower and lonely. He meets Marie-Justine at a faculty gathering and the two connect immediately. Durbin sees them together and decides he must make sure that Marie-Justine is his and kills her.
Of course the police find evidence that Nicoletti murdered her, though he is grief-stricken. He must clear his name and find the real killer before other women die.
What Works
Murder in Missoula is at its best when we follow Durbin through his fantasy love life, but I felt the last third, where we tag along with Nicoletti as he ties Durbin to other murders in Colorado was weaker. The novel went from the suspenseful stalker to a more traditional whodunit, where Nicoletti uses his intuition, connections and plain old luck to solve the crime.
The novel remained well written even after we took a left turn from the serial killer to the detective, but it lost some of the suspense.
Author Laurence Giliotti did a fine job showing us the real person inside the evil killer, as Durbin interacts with others in a more-or-less normal fashion while he grooms dogs, chats up the realtor (in order to get to the pass key on Marie-Justine’s new house). Even serial killers need to eat and need an income, so why not groom dogs while you stalk the ladies? Giliotti intermixed horror with the normal day-to-day, as when Durbin made sure to keep the realtor from seeing his kitchen that recreated Marie-Justine’s.
The police chief Garland is an interesting character as he moves from Nicoletti’s adversary to his ally, from political to professional. We didn’t see much of Garland, too bad as he could be an interesting lead character.
What Didn’t Work So Well
Nicoletti is more of a stock character than is Durbin. Obviously smart, well-schooled in handling evil men, not looking for but delighted to find possible love. He seems more in the book to provide a counter to Durbin, there to fill a role.
Setting was a little weak too. The action took place in Montana with brief trip to Colorado Springs but there wasn’t anything to tie the story to either locale. It could have happened anywhere.
Summary
Overall this is a fine novel if you enjoy mysteries with a bit of suspense and like to get inside the mind of a killer. 4 Stars
I received a free copy through NetGalley in expectation of an honest review.
Leave a Reply