Evil Hours

If you like Michael Connelly, you'll enjoy Raymond Benson's Evil Hours. Unresolved questions about her mother's murder lead Shannon Reece to explore the seamy secrets of her home town. Along the way, Shannon must come to terms with her personal demons as she questions just how much she really needs to know.

Raymond Benson is known for writing the continuation James Bond novels, so when I picked up this, his first non-Bond book, I expected a tightly crafted fast moving mystery thriller. I wasn't disappointed. But what did surprise me was how darkly moving EVIL HOURS was as a neo-noir crime drama. I've heard other reviewers liken this book to Twin Peaks, and while I do see similarities, I think that's selling this book a bit short. I was reminded more of intense real-life crime dramas like The Onion Field and The Thin Blue Line. Benson's masterful use of detail makes the book so believable that, by the end, it has evolved from a mystery thriller into something that's very tragic and profound. And darn right creepy in a "this-only-happens-in-real-life" sort of way. The emotional reality of the book is what sets it apart from other thrillers by better-known authors, and what makes it surpasses even Benson's Bond books as a work of fiction (suggesting a bright future for Benson after Bond). By the end of this book -- with the ultimate revelation and CHILLING reenactment of the crime -- I found myself creeped-out and moved at the same time. Wild. This book was a real experience and one I would recommend highly, especially if you're a fan of character driven true-life crime. It would also make a terrific film.

Raymond Benson, author of the recent James Bond novels, has given us something completely different: a novel that reminds me of that movie "Lone Star" or similar-- it takes place in a small Texas town and is the story about a murder, or a mystery of a murder, and how one woman searches for the truth about what happened. The narrative is interesting, moving back and forth from the present to the past, and slowly revelations are unravelled. I found it to be haunting, moody, and compelling.