Makes for wonderfully dark reading ... This series was originally conceived as a trilogy, but the complexities of the character as well as the secondary players are too original and interesting to be consigned to the dust bin. We’ll have to wait and see if Swinson will continue the story --- perhaps in another three-book arc --- but for now we have Trigger and its predecessors, all of which are worth your time and money.
George Pelecanos fans will welcome Swinson’s gritty third novel featuring PI Frank Marr ... Swinson, a former police officer, writes with authority and honesty, giving readers a timely, informed look at the mean streets from an insider’s perspective.
Marr is frequently tempted to relapse into cocaine use, and he and Luna consume a prodigious quantity of alcohol keeping their various demons at bay, but addiction never really gets any traction in the plot, nor does the tension of working with one's estranged sweetheart ... The private eye and his apprentice have a pleasingly uneasy relationship, and the growth of their friendship is the most rewarding element in the book. Though the two don't exactly triumph over ambiguity and injustice, the unlikely buddies enliven a slightly flat thriller.
