Monday, April 15, 2013

DEAD WRONG by Connie Dial

This is Dial's second book in the Josie Corsino series.  The first one, Fallen Angels, was a book I enjoyed a year ago.  LAPD Capt. Josie Corsino is a character who embodies all of women's torn emotions about job v. family.  She has worked hard to reach the rank of captain and loves her job despite some of the other officers she has to deal with daily.  For instance, her boss who demands daily reports but never reads them.  She then calls Corsino to tell her off for not notifying her of things that were in that daily report.  Definitely frustrating.

Corsino has been married for years to a man she still loves and they have a grown son who is the cause of most of the strife in their marriage.  Said son lives off of handouts from dad.  Then he brings home a woman he's serious about who happens to be about 20 years older than he is.  Corsino isn't happy with either situation but between that and her irregular hours for her job, she and her husband are growing apart.

The plot of this book involves a cop shooting a suspended cop in a dark alley.  The dead cop had aimed a gun at the cop on duty.  The investigation into this shooting uncovers corrupt cops and a hornet's nest of problems in the LAPD.  It's a believable scenario starring excellent characters and it kept me turning pages, although I must admit I knew who the bad guys were early on.

My one complaint about Dead Wrong is that Corsino's best friend on the force is a lieutenant who couldn't put a short sentence together without offensive profanity if she had to.  Yet not one other character in the book cusses.  If Dial has managed to portray various types of characters including street savvy cops without having them swear, why does she have to write in a woman who can't talk without swearing?  The lack of profanity in other characters didn't deter Dial from describing them well.  Each was unique and well-drawn and this woman's personality alone would have made her sufficiently her own person.

Recommended reading
Source:  LibraryThing win


1 comment:

  1. I could see some swearing in a book with cops as characters but I would think it would be spread out over all the characters.

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