Fast-paced action, unexpected twists and a strong, tortured hero: It’s the perfect recipe for a great thriller. Reed Arvin mixes these ingredients to perfection and delivers a legal roller-coaster ride in “Blood of Angels.”
Thomas Dennehy is a senior prosecutor in the office of Nashville’s district attorney, and he’s sent more than his fair share of criminals to their executions. He’s good at his job, not because he thrives on death but because he believes in the rights of the victims and he knows that doing his job well will protect the public. It’s a focus that has earned him a sterling reputation and one that cost him his marriage.
He is preparing to prosecute what looks to be another slam-dunk case when his reality takes an unexpected turn. Moses Bol, a Sudanese refugee, is accused in a rape and killing. The crime took place in a racially charged section of Nashville known as The Nations.
The Nations once had been a section of town reserved for poor whites. But urban flight and the influx of immigrants from across the world have made it an area of many nationalities, and anything but a melting pot. Many of the whites resent the other races in their midst. That a black immigrant is accused of killing one of their own whets a simmering appetite for revenge.
And as though handling a case that could ignite a major race conflagration isn’t dicey enough, the district attorney’s office receives information that it might be responsible for the execution of an innocent man. Wilson Owens was given the death sentence for killing two people in a convenience story robbery. It is a case for which Dennehy is particularly known, as Owens’ second victim died after a paramedic, high on methamphetamine, incorrectly inserted an esophageal tube. Dennehy obtained a wrongful death conviction on the paramedic as well as a the conviction on the robber, earning himself the recognition of having convicted two men for the same crime.
Setting aside the horror of possibly executing an innocent man, the political reverberations if the accusation is found to be true are nightmarish. The white community is clamoring for a tough prosecution of Bol, while the black community isn’t going to sit still for what it sees as a case of judicial racial profiling. And just when it seems that things can’t get much worse, a minister steps forward, claiming that Bol was with her at the time of the slaying.
It is a convoluted set-up, but Arvin weaves the strands together with fine skill. The story moves swiftly, and issues are explained succinctly. What if Bol isn’t the perpetrator? And even if the wrong man was executed for the convenience store crime, backing off this case won’t keep the peace. The right answer must be found, or The Nations will explode.
There are enough threads that pulling too hard on one could unravel the story. If Owens’ conviction stands, then there is no worry about the case against Bol. If Bol is found to be innocent, as he claims, then even the wrongful execution of Wilson becomes a different problem. Arvin has found a third alternative that keeps all the assumptions in play, though, and it’s an unexpected one.
When all starts to play out, the climax builds with nearly unbearable tension. Arvin doesn’t telegraph his moves, so each chapter brings an unexpected turn that only makes the ending more delicious. “Blood of Angels” isn’t high literature, nor is it meant to be. It’s simply a good thriller, well-told, one that keeps the attention tuned and the pages turning until the end. And that’s all it needs to be.
Robin Vidimos is a freelance writer who reviews books for The Denver Post and Buzz in the ‘Burbs.
Blood of Angels
By Reed Arvin
HarperCollins, 354 pages, $16.95
