City Of Saviors is the fourth book in the Detective Elouise Norton Series by Rachel Howzell Hall and has the hoarder problem as a key part of the case. As such there are graphic descriptions of the house where a hoarder has died. If, like me, you quickly flip the channel when the ad for a show on the topic comes on the television as it makes you sick, this is a read that you may want to skip a few pages here or there. You can do that and not lose the story. While you can skip the graphic and frequently gross descriptions of the house in this one, you should be aware that this is also the fourth book in a series that builds substantially on the earlier books in the series and therefore should be read in order.

It is September 1st as the novel begins and Detective Norton is back on the job after the violent events at the conclusion of Trail of Echoes. She hurts and has numerous issues going on, but is faking things fairly well so those in charge have no actionable reason to put her back out on medical leave. The heat is on in Los Angeles in a big way and the dead man in the house at 8711 Victoria is awaiting them in all his glory. She knows the scene is bad when firefighters are being sick out in the trash strewn yard and her fellow officers are standing outside as far away from the house as possible.

Eugene Washington lived alone in the house and was found deceased by Bernice Parrish who claims to be his girlfriend. Beyond the fact that she is far younger than the deceased, the fact that EMTs found a gun near the body is a concern. While the body is in slightly worse shape than the house so the detectives and others can’t see signs of a gunshot, at least they got there before the cats that are everywhere started working on him.

A former Vietnam vet who just turned 73, Mr. Washington deserved far more than to be living his last days this way. Detective Norton has nothing more than her currently very shaky gut feeling that it is a murder, but that is enough for her to treat the case as a murder case. A feeling that is reinforced by the behavior of one Bernice Parrish as well as numerous others in the police procedural, City Of Saviors: A Detective Elouise Norton Novel.

Very graphic at times in terms of the hoarding problem, overall City Of Saviors is a good read though a tough one in spots. Story arcs from the first book in the series have made their way through the preceding ones and continue here. Those various situations have a tendency to dominate the current case at times resulting in a book that is not quite at the same enjoyment level of the proceeding book. Thrown in the subject of hoarding and the very graphic living conditions and it would be a mistake to read much of this book anywhere in proximity to food or meal planning.

Good, but not great, City Of Saviors: A Detective Elouise Norton Novel seems to tie up various loose ends to a certain extent while also serving as springboard for the next one. It will be interesting to see how author Rachel Howzell Hall will solve the cliffhanger problem she left readers with here how she will send Detective Norton forward.

City Of Saviors: A Detective Elouise Norton Novel
Rachel Howzell Hall
http://www.rachelhowzell.com
Tom Doherty Associates, LLC
http://www.tor-forge.com
August 2017
ISBN# 978-0-7653-8119-4
Hardback (also available in paperback and digital formats)
302 Pages
$26.99

Material supplied by the good folks of the Dallas Public Library System.

Kevin R. Tipple © 2019 ( )

Here Lou investigates the death of a hoarder found with a gun by his side. The descriptions of the house and the reactions of the police and forensic scientists who had to enter it were well done.

I found this a page turner, although it got a little extreme by the end

SPOILERS

serial killing, fraud, adultery, cannibalism, impersonation etc etc. I hope that Lou is back in full physical health in the next instalment; I find novels where the female lead is under siege from her colleagues stressful and depressing. ( )

'City of Saviors' is Rachel Howzell Hall's latest crime novel starring homicide detective Eloise 'Lou' Norton. It's a competently executed 'whodunnit & why' with an interesting twist at the end. Lest you miss the constant reminders throughout the story (and all previous ones in the stack as well), Lou is African-American.

It begins with a 'hoarder' found dead in his severely overstuffed home. It appears to be by natural causes, but something doesn't look right to the detectives so they begin to poke around. What appears to be a fairly straightforward investigation in the beginning quickly morphs into something much messier, as the victim's strange eating habits and other anomalies pop up. In the midst of all this, Lou continues to have physical problems related to her last case that threaten to limit or stop her participation in the activity. Throw in a megachurch, various other parties interested in what the police are finding, and internecine conflict among the investigators and it becomes a tough nut to crack. They eventually figure it out, though, and Lou's able to take some time off to mend herself.

On the plus side, the writing is competent. The dialogue varies, though, with some passages being spot on and others rather stilted. The Colin character isn't portrayed as being quite as clueless as in previous novels in the series, although his hinted-at romantic interest in one of the women under investigation didn't make a lot of sense and was never resolved. The plot at a high level was pretty interesting, but I had a few minor quibbles with some of the investigatory work and the sort of rush at the end to wrap things up. It's a nice mystery but not a whole lot of explanation of what ended up to be a very complicated affair at the end. ( )