Honoring our law enforcement officers during National Police Week
In 1962, President John F. Kennedy signed a law designating May 15th as Peace Officer’s Memorial Day and the week surrounding that day as National Police Week.
Peace Officers Memorial Day and Police Week pay tribute to the local, state and federal law enforcement officers who serve and protect us with courage and dedication. It also reminds us to be vigilant against all crime, acts of violence and terrorism. Learn more at www.policeweek.org. Enjoy some recent fiction featuring police protagonists that are available at your Manatee County Public Libraries.
James Patterson has created more police characters than any other novelist. In James Patterson and David Ellis’s latest police thriller, “The Black Book,” Chicago police officer Billy Harney survives a shootout that leaves his former partner and an assistant district attorney dead. Charged with their murders and unable to remember the events that led up to the shootings, Billy retraces his steps and discovers the existence of a “little black book” from an exclusive brothel that the city’s elite patrons are desperate to put their hands on. Billy suspects it contains the truth that will either set him free or confirm his worst fears.
The 44th novel in the “in Death” series by J.D. Robb, “Echoes in Death,” finds New York Police and Security Dept. Lt. Eve Dallas and her husband, Roarke, driving home after a party when a dazed, naked and bloody woman stumbles into the path of their car. The woman, Daphne Strazza, is rushed to the ER, but it’s too late for her husband, Dr. Strazza, found dead in the wreckage of their townhouse. Because of her terror and shock, Daphne can only repeatedly call the perp “the devil.” Eve and her team engage in an urgent race to answer crucial questions: What does the devil look like and where will he show up next?
“Downfall: a Brady Novel of Suspense” by J.A. Jance, is the 15th in her outstanding mystery series featuring Cochise County Sheriff Joanna Brady. The bodies of two women are found at the base of a nearby peak known to locals as “Geronimo.” Is it an accident, a case of murder/suicide or a double homicide? As the sheriff and her team hunt for answers, they uncover a web of sordid secrets and evil lies taking Brady dangerously close to a determined killer.
“The Wanted” is Robert Crais’s 17th novel featuring investigator Elvis Cole. In this installment, Cole is hired by single mother Devon Connor who, seeing her son Tyson flashing a lot of cash, fears that he is dealing drugs. It seems like a simple case, but as the bodies begin to pile up, Cole learns the truth is devastatingly different. Tyson and his two partners in crime have been responsible for a string of high-end burglaries and after stealing the wrong thing from the wrong man, one of them is murdered. Cole calls in his partners, Joe Pike and Jon Stone, and together they take on the deadliest case of their lives in this masterpiece of suspense.
Speaking Volumes, written by Manatee County Public Library System staff members, is published each Sunday. Cathy Habora is a staff member at the Braden River Branch Library.
This story was originally published May 12, 2017 at 4:06 PM with the headline "Honoring our law enforcement officers during National Police Week."