His name is Daniel. The other cons call him Saint Homicide.
Daniel is a religious man. To say that he is being tested, if you believe in such a thing, is an understatement. As Daniel lays out his story you see how a man of God who is a faithful hardworking and devoted husband becomes a cold-blooded killer.
Daniel isn’t on a slow spiral out of control, he’s on a runaway freight train to destruction and just as Daniel can’t stop what’s about to happen, you as a reader won’t be able to stop turning pages.
Jake Hinkson has the ability to draw us into a world that most would never want to inhabit. When our lives cross paths with others like Daniel we sometimes think, there but for the grace of God… in Daniel’s case he believes that it is the grace of God that brought him to be a convicted murderer sitting in a prison cell.
As Daniel lays out his story we discover that Daniel has always been a religious man and one who stood up for his beliefs no matter the cost. While others see him as a fanatic, Daniel knows he is a servant of God. Daniel believes by telling his story, “by honestly transcribing blasphemies, rough language, and ugly situations as they occurred” he is “creating a testament to the glory of Christ.”
So we learn about Daniel’s hatred of abortionists and how this brought about the loss of his job as a college professor. We wonder how Daniel, now jobless, will take care of his wife who still suffers from injuries that have left her not only physically scarred but mentally diminished.
The pressure continues to build so that when Daniel agrees to go looking for his young sister-in-law who may have run off with a thug, we know that things are not going to end well. And they don’t.
This novella is not for the feint of heart or younger readers, but if you’re a fan of crime fiction and noir my guess is you’ll really dig this. My only complaint is that it ended too soon. I wanted more. Of course, isn’t that what good authors do… leave their readers wanting more?
I’m a Jake Hinkson fan. And like Hell on Church Street and The Posthumous Man, I recommend Saint Homicide and will look forward to Hinson’s next novel(la).
Rating: 3 out of 5
