FEAR AND MURDER IN LAS VEGAS: VICTOR METHOS' THE SILENT WATCHER

Victor Mathos fuses three different genres together with self-assured craftsmanship for The Silent Watcher. He mainly pulls this off through understanding and clearly defining his lead characters. In doing so, he serves up an engaging mix of people, place, and plot.

Attorney Piper Davis begins her new job as a guardian ad litem, an advocate for juveniles in Las Vegas' legal system. She gets assigned to Sophie Grace, the survivor of a mass murderer who wiped out her family. The investigating officer is Lazarus Holloway, a detective working in juvenile who takes the case because it reminds him of an unsolved murder he worked in Homicide. Piper develops a connection with Grace and grows protective of her as she works with Holloway as the investigation takes them into the "cannibal" subculture. Piper, Sophie, and Holloway become endangered when the killer decides to finish his job.

We immediately connect with the protagonists as well as Judge Hope Dawson whose court Piper works for. Mathos introduces them as smart with a true sense of duty. We learn more about them and what drives them, which isn't completely heroic, as the story progresses. This is especially true of Holloway, a man wounded by his work yet still clings to it, thinking it will give him a chance to at least right one of society's wrongs. His relationship with Piper builds in a believable and professional manner.

The author also uses Las Vegas well. He spends most of the time off the strip. Holloway and Piper move through the city's working class bars and old school hotels, dealing with bartenders and sex workers. You feel the aris temperature and see the faded neon.

The Silent Watcher connects the legal thriller and police procedural with a serial killer tale. It works since we view the story through professionals we like and want to know better. Victor Mathos keeps the story moving and the reader caring,