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Author Raffi Yessayan’s name isn’t as easy to remember as “Robert B. Parker”, but he was named in a Boston Globe article as one of the up-and-coming authors likely to win a place in the hearts of readers who miss Parker’s mystery series starring Spenser, Boston’s favorite private investigator. (Robert B. Parker died on January 18, 2010.)
8 in the Box introduces homicide detective Angel Alves, a family man. He is newly promoted and confronting the case of the Blood Bath Killer, a serial murderer who leaves his female victims’ bathtubs full of their own blood. If you enjoy reading John Sandford’s Prey series or Harlan Coben’s thrillers, this fast-paced story should be a good match for you.
A Massachusetts author, Raffi Yessayan spent 11 years as an assistant district attorney in Boston, and has set 8 in the Box — his first mystery novel — in a fictional South Bay district courthouse where the DAs work closely with police in cracking down on crime on the streets of Boston. (For the sake of the story, Mr. Yessayan has some of the lawyers ignore proper legal procedures. Let’s hope those parts aren’t drawn from his own experience.)
The second book in the series, 2 in the Hat, is already out, and the author will have a chance to develop the character of Angel. Be careful! Don’t read them out of order.