Publisher's Weekly Review
In O'Mara's gripping fifth Raymond Donne mystery (after 2016's Nasty Cutter), Donne, a former NYPD cop who's now a Brooklyn public school dean, is shocked to learn that his friend Maurice "MoJo" Joseph, a recovering drug addict who was doing community service at Donne's school, was shot dead with an arrow on the school's roof. His pregnant widow is even more distraught when the toxicology exam concludes that the supposedly clean MoJo had fentanyl in his system. MoJo's partner in a security firm, meanwhile, is upset to learn that he was making business deals that he'd kept secret. The plot thickens when one of MoJo's secret clients proves to be a white nationalist leader, a reveal that coincides with Donne's reporter girlfriend's series of stories about a teenager who grew up in that movement. Some humor, such as an NYPD friend of Donne's jokingly referring to him as Jessica Fletcher for his habit of stumbling into homicides, compensates for some overly pat plot elements. This is a solid whodunit, packed with a number of surprises. (Mar.)
Kirkus Review
An old friend killed in a statistics-defying way pulls Brooklyn ex-cop schoolteacher Raymond Donne into a fifth case.Maurice Joseph was a repeat drug offender who was doing community service work at the Williamsburg school where Donne teaches. But he wasn't a violent man, and his pregnant wife, drug counselor Lisa Joseph, is certain that he'd been clean. So what was he doing up on the school's roof, where he'd gone to check his pigeons and his hydroponic garden, with 60 bags of heroin in his pockets and an arrow in his back? Evidence quickly links MoJo to two clients: hedge fund manager David Henderson, who blandly maintains that he'd hired the IT/security expert to find his missing stepson, and white nationalist Duke Lansing, for whom MoJo can't have been doing anything good. And Lisa's insistence that MoJo couldn't possibly have been using is severely undercut by a toxicology report that finds fentanyl-laced heroin in his bloodstream. Telling his frenemy Detective James Royce, who's already been around the block with Donne more than once (Nasty Cutter, 2017, etc.), that he doesn't want to get involved this time, Donne is soon insinuating his live-in girlfriend, NYC Here and Now reporter Allison Rogers, onto the crime scene, apologizing for sensitive information she may have let loose, and finding that David Henderson is as big an imposter as he suspected from the get-go. But what about Duke Lansing's toxic white nationalists? O'Mara daringly closes out MoJo's murder with a quarter of the tale still to go, building the closing movement around Allison's abductiona development that forces Donne to confront the biggest mystery of all: himself.You can taste every individual ingredient, but they refuse to blend together in a savory stew. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
What a setup! Raymond Donne quit the police department for a post at a Brooklyn middle school. He's a dean and assistant principal, but students call him Teacherman, and he doesn't give us gumshoe lectures on the awfulness of everything. Instead, he promotes student nightmares like algebra. It's like police work; you put bits of info together ""to find the unknown."" His chance comes as he views the body of a murdered colleague, who was killed by an arrow on the roof of the schoolhouse. The bits of info include a Roman numeral near the body and, later, a tox report saying the corpse was full of drugs. Raymond knows the man was in a successful recovery program, which prompts Teacherman to do some policing work again. Readers' reactions to what happens next will vary according to their feelings about pace. Instead of a straight-ahead investigation, the narrative constantly releases tension with digressions on white supremacy, reporter blogs, addiction treatment. Well done, but slow. Readers who give up will miss Raymond's shocking final act and the chance to agree with his lover's anger at him.--Don Crinklaw Copyright 2020 Booklist
Library Journal Review
Maurice Joseph, aka MoJo, is fatally shot with a bow and arrow on the roof of the school where he tends hydroponic plants. Raymond Donne, a former policeman and the dean sponsoring MoJo, a recovering addict, discovers the body and immediately calls police detective Royce, with whom he worked in the past. There are traces of heroin laced with fentanyl in MoJo's blood, yet his wife, Lisa, insists he was clean. Among MoJo's possessions, they discover high-tech surveillance equipment, including videos of a white supremacist group for whom MoJo was apparently doing security work as well as videos of executives of the rehab center MoJo attended. A wide-ranging investigation ensues. With several additional deaths--and the kidnapping of Donne's reporter girlfriend, Allison--the tension remains high throughout this fifth in O'Mara's series (after Nasty Cutter). VERDICT The dynamic among Royce, Donne, and Allison is reminiscent of Spenser, Hawk, and Susan Silverman from Robert B. Parker's "Spenser" novels. Fans of Parker and Ace Atkins will appreciate the smartly paced action the surprising denouement.--Edward Goldberg, Syosset P.L., NY