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Pine & Merrimac by Kyle Starks

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This was one I ran across at the library and the blurb gave me Scully and Mulder vibes though it turned out to be way less supernatural than an X-Files. Linnea Kent was a homicide detective in some unnamed big city. Her sister had been kidnapped/raped/killed when they were kids (there's some of your content warning right there, I'll add in violence and human trafficking...sort of) So it was that childhood horror that made Linnea want to be a homicide detective but every murder freaked her out into vomit-inducing panic attacks.

She quit and moved to small town USA with her husband, Parker a former MMA fighter (the brawn to her brains) and they set up a detective agency at the corner of Pine and Merrimac (and titling it so). They mostly do cheating partner sort of things, nothing heavy until a set of parents come in looking for their daughter who looks so much like Linnea's sister that she says yes.

This sets them off on a dangerous path of human trafficking for demonic purposes and the high powered group running it. There are themes taken from real life (because I recognize the case because I used it in one of my own stories) with isolated islands, and the movers and shakers of the world using their power and influence and money to do whatever they damn well please.

I really liked Parker and Linnea. It isn't often we see a healthy relationship in a story. It's always enemies to lovers tropes or unresolved sexual tension etc. There's none of that. They're old marrieds and very sweet about it but it's also what gives the biggest gut punch to the story (all I'm saying so it's not spoiled)

The end is...odd but open to a sequel. I'd read that. I thought the story telling was well paced and engaging and I liked the art for the most part.



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