MURDER IN CONCRETE

In Coburn’s mystery novel, a young woman dedicates her life to solving her mother’s murder.

In 1986, when good-natured graduating high school senior Charlotte “Charlie” Purdue comes home from school one day, her world is forever changed. First, her father, a local log cabin contractor, speeds out of town after telling his daughter that “leaving now is the only way I know to keep you safe.” Then, she discovers her mother’s murdered corpse, and things begin to spin out of control. The police of Concrete, Washington, have no leads, and when local boys find evidence that her father drowned in a local river, Charlotte accepts her fate as a grieving daughter but vows to find out what happened—despite small-town Concrete’s local gossipmongers, who’ve drawn their own conclusions. When Charlie thinks she sees her father in a low-budget movie, she immediately heads off to Hollywood to investigate. Things get murkier once she arrives and insinuates herself into the windswept desert set of a low-budget “zombie epic,” edging ever closer to finding her father while encountering a “cauldron of intrigues” blocking her path, including fake priests, seasoned actors, and a math whiz who writes in Russian Cyrillic text. The author is exacting in his depiction of Charlie, a gun-toting girl who exhibits the tenacity and diligence of a seasoned police investigator; as the story grows darker and more suspenseful, Charlie emerges as rock-solid in her determination. Gritty and immersively entertaining, Coburn’s novel draws readers into the movie-set melodrama as the book’s narrative momentum consistently picks up speed. The author has some difficulty with scene transitions, which can be jarring, but he makes up for these rocky shifts with convincing, authentic emotional nuances and dangerous situations that establish Charlie as a fierce protagonist.

A compelling, action-packed thriller simmering with intrigue, suspense, and twisty mystery.