Night Laws
by Jim Hansen
Reviewed by Byron Merritt
Introducing Lieutenant Bryson Coventry, a Denver, Colorado police detective. Just your regular working class stiff who loves his job and the many women he encounters along the way in Night Laws, author Jim Hansen’s first thriller novel in the Laws series (there are currently three in the works).
With excellent dialogue and a creepy villain who loves to make women “live out” their darkest death-fears, Bryson has a tough week ahead of him. A local Denver attorney is somehow involved in the murders and our detective is quickly wrapped up in the case. When Coventry uncovers a supposed phony kidnapping and possible murder, weird clues rear their ugly heads. Psychology college students are vanishing. Hair samples are found in legal files. Harley bikers’ bodies turn-up in the desert. But with Denver’s premier detective on the trail of the killer, the pieces slowly come together and a climactic encounter draws near.
Having had the opportunity to have read Shadow Laws, Mr. Hansen’s second in the Laws series, I may be a bit spoiled. I read Shadow Laws first, then went on to this novel, Night Laws (reverse order). I must say that I enjoyed Shadow Laws quite a bit more, mainly because I felt the pacing to be much snappier. There were times in Night Laws where the action dragged for several pages before returning to that bang! bang! pace I’d grown accustomed to from this able author.
But that’s not to say that Night Laws wasn’t worth my reading time. It was! I’m guessing that Mr. Hansen has grown as a writer as he continues this great series — which is why I enjoyed the second novel more than this first one.
I will be reading the third Laws novel in this series. And I have a feeling it’ll be even better than the first two.
