I picked up The Fallen because it was sitting out at Cody’s Books (Stockton Street), on a table near the front. I wanted something I could dive into immediately on the bus ride home. Don’t ever let someone say that awards don’t matter, because the big “two-time winner of the Edgar award for best novel” definitely helped make up my mind. Or maybe it was, subliminally, the OpenDNS orange lettering on the cover (click cover for larger version). 😉
Anyway, T. Jefferson Parker delivered a great read. A homicide detective investigating a murder…pretty standard outline of a plot, but the story is about people, well painted. The detective has synesthesia and a marriage that’s not quite what he thinks. The murder victim had been recovering from the recent drowning death of his three-year-old daughter. (As a parent, even reading about this kind of tragedy hurts.) We actually get to “know” the victim quite well, thanks to the investigation. Mix in a range of characters scattered around San Diego’s political life, and you have a good story told very well.