Book ~ "The Silent Hour" (2009) Michael Koryta

From Goodreads ~

Whisper Ridge
Home to Dreams
October 2, 1992--April 12, 1996

So reads the strange epitaph carved beside the door of the home called Whisper Ridge, a multimillion-dollar piece of architectural majesty that once housed the beginnings of a unique program for paroled murderers. The program never got off the ground, however, despite how passionate a woman named Alexandra Cantrell, daughter of a notorious Mafia don, and her husband, Joshua, had been about it. Still uninhabited twelve years later, the house remains as a strange monument to dangerous secrets, falling into ruin as the forest grows up around it.

While the couple’s abrupt exit was unusual, it was also not regarded as suspicious - until the bones of Alexandra’s husband are found buried in the woods.

Private investigator Lincoln Perry isn’t thrilled about the situation or his client: Parker Harrison served fifteen years for murder but claims Alexandra’s intervention saved his life. Now he wants to find her - and he’s not the only one.

What seems at first like the simplest of jobs proves to be an undertaking that will challenge both Perry’s abilities as a detective and his commitment to that calling. With a new partner to train and a case that leads straight to the heart of the Cleveland organized crime scene, Perry finds himself glancing over his shoulder at every turn, pushing the bounds of safety even as he backs away.

Lincoln is a private investigator who starts getting letters from an ex-con named Harrison who wants his help to find a woman named Alexandra.  Alexandra's father and brother were part of the mafia and when her father died, he left her a lot of money which she eventually used to build a house to start a program for paroles ... Harrison was one of those paroles.  Twelve years ago she and her husband, Joshua, disappeared.  Then Joshua's bones are found.

Ken, the private investigator than Joshua's parents had hired to find him, shows up and asks Lincoln to help figure out what happened.  It's a case that Ken hadn't been able to solve and it's bothered him ever since.  Working together, they investigate to figure out who killed Joshua and where is Alexandra.

I enjoyed the writing style of this book.  It is the fourth and last in the Lincoln Perry series and it's been about eight years since I read the first three.  Though it is part of a series, it does work as a stand alone.  It's been seven years since this was written ... I wonder if the author has decided that he won't continue with this series.  The book didn't end as if there wouldn't be any more.  As a head's up, there is swearing.

I liked Lincoln.  As much as he doesn't want to, he can't help pitching in to help.  I found that there were quite a few characters (the paroles and the bad guys) and I had a bit of a hard time keeping them straight.

Book ~ "Sorrow's Anthem" (2007) Michael Koryta

From Goodreads ~ In the beginning it was all about money. Then things got personal.

This is the story that Ed Gradduk tells his best friend and private investigator, Lincoln Perry. Ed is on the run, hiding from the police who intend to arrest him for arson and murder.

When Gradduk is killed in a violent confrontation with police, Perry cannot shake his friend's death and vows to understand the forces that brought him down.

This is the second book in the Lincoln Perry series.

I enjoyed this book, as I did the first and third one. We learn more about Lincoln and his relationship with his dad.

I like the writing style and cared about the characters.

Book ~ "Tonight I Said Goodbye" (2005) Michael Koryta

From Goodreads ~ Investigator Wayne Weston is found dead of an apparent suicide in his upscale Cleveland suburban home. His wife and six-year-old daughter are now missing. The police think the former Marine murdered them. Hoping to exonerate his son, Weston's father hires PIs Lincoln Perry and Joe Pritchard.

Perry and Pritchard soon discover there is much more lying beneath the surface, including rumors of gambling debts, extortion, and a Russian mob that likes to wield baseball bats. But just when Perry and Pritchard believe they are making swift progress, a millionaire real estate tycoon and the FBI advise them to back off of the investigation.

Then without warning, another murder suddenly forces them to change direction in the case as they uncover a trail of deadly twists - but the most shocking secret of all has yet to be unraveled.

I had read A Welcome Grave, the third book in the series, last month and enjoyed it so wanted to go back and catch up with the first two.

As with A Welcome Grave, I enjoyed the writing style. It's fast paced, funny and sarcastic at times. I liked the characters, especially Lincoln and Joe. It's interesting to see how they have developed since I've read the third book.

The ending took a twist I hadn't expected, which was a nice surprise.

I'm looking forward to reading the next one (which is the second one)!

Book ~ "A Welcome Grave" (2007) - Michael Koryta

From Goodreads ~ Once a rising star on the Cleveland police force, private investigator Lincoln Perry ended his career when he left one of the city's prominent attorneys, Alex Jefferson, bleeding in the parking lot of his country club - retribution for his affair with Perry's fiancée.

Now Jefferson is dead, the victim of a brutal murder, and his widow has called upon Perry for a favor he knows he shouldn't accept but can't turn down: to find Jefferson's estranged son, partial beneficiary of the dead man's fortune. The case is simple enough, a routine "locate," and he'll be paid plenty of money for the work. The encounter should be simple, too: a brief exchange of information and maybe an empty condolence before Perry gets back into his truck and returns home. Instead, he's loaded into a police car and taken to a rural jail while Jefferson's son is zipped into a body bag.

Perry soon learns that Jefferson's millions are the target of a thirst for revenge that hasn't been satisfied by blood. As a pair of deadly assailants push deep into the investigator's life, they bring with them police from two states who are determined to see Perry in jail.

This is the first novel I've read by Koryta and I enjoyed it.

Lincoln Perry is a likeable character. I liked the writing style. I wasn't all that crazy about Karen and hoped that she was involved in the crimes.

I'm looking forward to going back and reading first two books in the series.