Book Review - The Whites

image: amazon.com

Price, Richard.  The Whites.  2015.   Henry Holt and Company, LLC, New York, NY.

Book Review:

I am torn about this book.  It's a new release, and I found it on the recommended reading list from our county library.  This is a crime thriller, and it's outside of the usual genres that I usually read.  It's a very gritty book, with some very gritty details and some very heavy action going down.  This is not a book for the faint of heart.  There were several points in the book where I had to put this down, read another book, or do something else. I thought I'd be finished with it, but the plot was so strong that the story kept calling me back for more.

The book begins with the death of a young man.  When the officers of the night shift arrive, they find out that the young man who died was the main suspect of a vicious murder in the nineties.  The officer in charge (Billy) of the scene was the officer who tried unsuccessfully to build a case against him at that time.

As Billy moves through the investigation into this unusual death, he begins to find that several other perpetrators of violent crimes who were never prosecuted have recently met untimely and unexpected deaths.  How is it that these violent repeat perpetrators are finally meeting their untimely end?

In a secondary storyline, we find officer Milton Ramos, who is haunted by the murder of his brother Rudy at the age of 17.  Within a week of Rudy's murder, his younger brother had met his end, and his mother was dead.  Convinced that a girl, Carmen, who lived in the same building with them was the cause of his brother's death, Milton has nursed a deep hatred and vow to get even with this woman his entire life.  Unfortunately for him, Carmen disappeared shortly after the incident in question, and his hatred for the woman who caused the death of his family has simmered on a slow boil for decades.

In an unexpected twist of fate, Milton suddenly finds Carmen, working as a nurse in the ER.  The years of hatred suddenly boil over and Milton finds himself inexorably drawn towards Carmen - and ending the cause of his family pain.

Carmen - the tortured Carmen, who lives with her guilt every day, the cause of Milton's lifelong pain, and the wife of Billy, and the mother of Billy's children.

The tortured twists and turns of this intertwined story will leave you breathless.