Hooker Avenue Review

Hooker Avenue
By Jode Millman

Reinventing my reading life doesn’t mean throwing everything away and starting from scratch. It’s about reevaluation of what I’ve read before and figuring out what genres appeal to me now. I’m reading more mysteries and thrillers these days. I fell into a rut where I was reading so many procedural thrillers that I lost my Reading Mojo. Now that I stepped away briefly, I missed those books. I’m so pleased that I picked so well, because this book reminded me why I love the genre.

Disgraced lawyer Jessie Martin is driving through the rain when she is distracted by a shiny object. It’s a shiny jacket in a drainage ditch, and the woman wearing it is barely alive.Her childhood friend Ebony Jones is the officer on the case and wants to know how the woman ended up there. Jessie and Ebony want the attacker to pay, but Acting District Attorney Hal Samuels won’t prosecute until there’s more evidence. The victim, Lissie, is a prostitute who wants to get as far away as she can from law enforcement and her attacker, so it’s tougher to get evidence when she keeps disappearing. Add in Hal’s relationship and Lissie’s connection to the police chiefs further complicate matters. Throw Hal’s reelection campaign, stalking, some strange legal pairings, and cold cases in for good measure.

Wow. That’s a lot to pack into one story. It takes a skilled writer to pack so many moving pieces into the plot without it falling apart. Jode Millman manages to layer all of the pieces together in a compelling, satisfying way. At first, I felt like it was a stretch for so many characters connected to each other, but it allowed a familiarity between them that helped move the plot forward quicker. The characters were well-defined and developed reasonably as the book progressed. Seemingly random scenes were reasonably tied together as the story plowed to the finish. Most importantly, the strong finish made sense because of Millman’s sharp writing. 

I enjoyed Hooker Avenue, and I will happily read more of Jode Millman’s books.

Thank you, NetGalley and Meryl Moss Media Group for providing a review copy of the book.