The Hunter

November 15, 2022
When a disgraced NYPD detective returns reluctantly to her small-town Ohio home, bringing her young daughter with her, she is drawn not only into a possible murder mystery, but also into the long-buried secrets of her own family and of the town's leading citizens. Nobody knows why Leigh O'Donnell pulled her gun on a fellow NYPD officer during a chase, least of all Leigh herself. In those three minutes, she admits, "I had blown up my life." Now suspended from duty and alienated from her husband--who is also her commanding officer--she retreats to Copper Falls, Ohio, where her brother, a cop, invites her to join the local force. There, she begins to investigate what looks like a triple suicide, but it's one that eerily echoes a similar event decades earlier. The recent victims, all 25-year-old White men, were "cleaned in preparation for slaughter. Ritualized." And all three had recently visited an elderly local woman who has mysterious knowledge of ancient shrines hidden in the Copper Falls caves. The ensuing drama unfolds at a brisk pace with just enough suspense to keep the reader jogging along. Tension flags, however, when yet another plot twist materializes--could those maple syrup operations be meth labs? Is that really a twin sister? Is the sacred cave a crime scene?--and when the protagonist's perpetual agonizing--should she stay or go back? Does she still love her husband?--becomes more irritating than engaging. The rural landscape is, however, powerfully evoked. "By now, it was almost ten in the morning," Leigh notes of one outing. "We were driving away from the center of town, toward a blanket of rust red and hunter green and lots of nothing." A competent though clunky thriller and family drama.

COPYRIGHT(2022) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

November 1, 2022
Homicide detective Leigh O'Donnell destroyed her NYPD career by pulling her weapon on her partner for reasons she still doesn't understand. Within weeks, her husband (also her NYPD captain) moved out. So when her brother offers a job with the police in Leigh's hometown, she heads back to Copper Falls, Ohio. The bodies of three men have been discovered at the bottom of the falls; they drowned, but a trip over the falls seems unlikely since the bodies are uninjured. Copper Falls is a picture of Rockwellian bliss on the surface, but secrets surrounding a shady meth bust, a decades-old arson, and an ancient sacrificial alter fester, and the police chief seems determined to derail Leigh's investigation. On the hunt for career redemption, Leigh finds more than she bargained for as she's forced to confront the painful family past that kept her away from home and the fallout for blowing the lid off of Copper Falls' sparkling image. Leigh's process of self-actualization makes a satisfying parallel to the unveiling of Copper Falls' dark side. A thriller with depth.

COPYRIGHT(2022) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Starred review from November 21, 2022
“I would not have pulled the trigger,” declares Det. Leigh O’Donnell of the NYPD in the opening sentence of Herrera’s stellar debut. Leigh was suspended from the force after she aimed her Glock at her police partner, enabling a criminal to escape. Even Leigh isn’t sure why she reacted that way. Since her actions imperil her career, she decides to accept a lifeline from her cop brother, Ronan, who has stayed in their hometown of Copper Falls, Ohio, and has persuaded his boss to offer Leigh a job. Leigh finds the community roiled by the bizarre deaths of three unemployed 25-year-old men, who were found drowned together in the town’s waterfalls. The deaths echo a tragedy from seven years earlier; three high school seniors died by suicide there the night before their graduation. Given that the current victims died at the very age the high schoolers would have been had they not jumped to their deaths, Leigh suspects a connection. The tantalizing question of why Leigh pointed her gun at her partner helps drive the complex plot, which is matched by thoroughly realized characters whose actions are anything but predictable. Herrera is a writer to watch. Agent: Heather Jackson, Heather Jackson Literary.