Review: Madison Square Murders by CS Poe

 

Growing up, my all time favorite crime TV drama was Cold Case. My mom would rotate through watching them all but none of them ever grabbed my attention the way Cold Case did. I liked the back and forth between time periods and the main detective - Lilly was such a badass. All of that to say, I was very excited to read this book. 

Madison Square Murders is told from the POV of cold case detective Everett Larkin as he starts a case where a skeleton has been unearthed by a fallen tree in Madison Square Park in New York. With the skeleton, there is a metal death mask which leads him to reaching out to Ira Doyle - a forensics art detective. 

Larkin is a very interesting character which is clear from the beginning - he has HSAM (highly superior autobiographical memory) from a traumatic brain injury and he is neurodivergent from the way he talks to some of his mannerisms. Doyle is a treat honestly - I liked him from the moment he was introduced, he has a lot of depth and is still a very sunshiney character which I always love. The case was interesting especially the death masks and Doyle's forensic art which is not something I have ever seen included in any cop fiction novels that I have read.  

I had two major issues with this book. The first being is the f slur is used multiple times. I know that being shown homophobia among cops is most likely realistic to real life but reading a book where the ciswoman author drops the f slur multiple times didn't sit well with me - there are multiple other ways to have a character be homophobic than having characters drop the f slur over and over. My other issue - Larkin is married and his husband checks all the boxes for a stereotypical naggy housewife. Larkin doesn't communicate with his husband at all and just acts like Noah is a huge bother for trying to get him to be around him. I think I would have enjoyed the story way more if Noah and Larkin had already split or been in the process of splitting when Larkin met Doyle - I don't like romances being the reason that a relationship ends even if the couple isn't good together.