Michael Norman, The Commission

The Commission

Michael Norman

Poisoned Pen Press, Feb 2007, $24.95

ISBN 1590583582

The Chairman of the Utah Board of Pardons and Parole is coming home from a rendezvous with a prostitute that he has been seeing for a year in a happy mood. That feeling is shattered when someone outside his home fires a shotgun killing him. At first it looks like the prostitute's violent boyfriend is the best suspect, but he has an airtight alibi.

Sam Kincaid, Chief of the Special Investigations Branch of the Utah Departments of Corrections, teams up with homicide detective Lieutenant Kate McConnell to work the case. They find an ex-con called Charles Watts who has a grudge against the victim in his car, an apparent suicide, with a note that looks to be in his handwriting. An autopsy proves that Watts was murdered and his death made to look like a suicide. Although they found the man who killed Vogue they don't know who was pulling his strings and when they try to find the forger they discover he is a murder victim as well. It looks like a group of conspirators are tying up all loose ends. They believe the conspirators are part of the system but finding out who they are puts Sam and his family in danger.

This is not a prison drama but a crime thriller about people who use the system and the criminal element for their own gain. Sam and Kate are fascinating characters who have to deal with state politics and criminals in order to find out who are the puppet masters. The author takes the reader through a step by step investigation that feels realistic yet is very fascinating to the layman.

Harriet Klausner