The First Victim (Lou Boldt/Daphne Matthews)

by Ridley Pearson

Other authorsScott Rosema (Reader)

2003

Status

Available

Publication

Brilliance Audio on CD Value Priced (2003), Edition: Abridged

Description

In this gripping novel, Lou Boldt is back and entering dark territory. A shipping container washed ashore leads Seattle television news anchor Stevie McNeal and reporter friend Melissa on the trail of a scam involving the importation of illegal aliens. A career stepping-stone for McNeal, the investigation puts her at cross-purposes with the Seattle Police Department's Lou Boldt and Sergeant John LaMoia.When Melissa disappears, perhaps at the hands of the Chinese Triad, McNeal turns from foe to ally and teams up with the detectives on an investigation that takes them from Seattle's docklands to the offices of the Immigration and Naturalization Service.

Media reviews

Publisher's Weekly

Impeccably paced, beautifully observed and moving with a crescendo of suspense, this is another thoughtful and exciting Seattle-based police thriller from Pearson (The Pied Piper), whose skill at maintaining a balance between the narrative thrust of his plot and the personal lives of his characters

makes him a top-notch practitioner of the genre. We learn just enough about Lt. Lou Boldt's current situation to realize that his recent promotion has had mixed benefits: he misses street work and bends the rules to get out from behind his desk. We also discover that his wife Liz's apparent remission from cancer has created some domestic tensionAshe credits her good results to faith; he can't quite make the same leapAand that financial pressure caused by the loss of her income has made him think about leaving the police force. We acquire this information gradually, as naturally as we would in real life, while being swept along through a heartbreaking narrative that involves illegal Chinese immigrant women being smuggled into Seattle in cargo containers. The story becomes a crusade for two sharp and ambitious female journalistsAlocal TV superstar Stevie McNeal and Melissa Chow, the young Chinese woman McNeal's father adopted, and whom Stevie calls "Little Sister." Lieutenant Boldt and his unusually well-defined team become involved when Melissa goes underground as an illegal and then disappears. Bodies of several Chinese women are found in a public graveyard, the "first victims" of a particularly vicious gang of smugglers. As one of Boldt's colleagues explains to McNeal, "The first victim is generally the one that is handled carelessly." Like all of Pearson's insights into the minds of criminals, cops and citizens, this one is strong, subtle and full of resonance. Atmospheric descriptions of Seattle and some fascinating forensic evidence add texture to a riveting story.

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User reviews

LibraryThing member DomingoSantos

Mildly entertaining; however, the ending seemed a bit contrived and "hurried" and less than satisfying to this reader.

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LibraryThing member gypsysmom

Having read, and really enjoyed, Pearson's first book The Pied Piper, I was prepared to enjoy this one as well. And I did but I didn't think it was as well-written as The Pied Piper so I was a little disappointed. There were a couple of occasions when I thought "In real life this wouldn't happen."

Nevertheless it is a suspenseful story and the issue deserves some exposure.

The police officers from The Pied Piper are back in this story (Lou Boldt, now a lieutenant, and his crew). The story opens with a container ship trying to transfer a container to a barge during a fierce storm. The container falls into the water and when it is opened by the Coast Guard there are a number of young Asian women in it but three of them are dead. A local TV anchorwoman is one of the first media people on the scene and she decides there is more investigation needed. She asks her adopted sister, Melissa, a free-lance reporter to follow up on the story. Melissa is Chinese so she is perfect for the assignment. Meanwhile Boldt and his crew are trying to find the people responsible for the deaths of the three women in the container. Everytime they home in on a suspect, such as the ship captain or the owner of the crane, that person ends up dead. Boldt thinks someone is leaking information from their investigation. Then Melissa disappears and her sister is frantic.

The details about the people smuggling are probably authentic and they are certainly disturbing. This book made me thankful that I can live and work in comfort and prosperity in my own country. Spare a moment to think about all those people who cannot.

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LibraryThing member susandennis

Lou Bolt (Seattle Homicide) is at it again. This time trying to track down the scum that is importing Chinese women for slave labor. I love mysteries set in Seattle and I have enjoyed Ridley's Bolt series. But he's gotten married and had children, and that has changed the action of the character.

I'm increasingly annoyed by characters who do or don't do things because of what might happen to their children. I understand it is a fact of life, but it's a cheap way to direct action and I don't like it.

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