At This Point in My Life

by Frank Zafiro

Jack “Mac” McCrae is about to retire. Without children or any family, he looks back over his career and his life and finds himself wondering what, if any, impact he’s had on this world.

Then a young woman reappears with a photograph of her mother — and his old lover — and an unknown child that might be her sister…and his daughter.

Mac agrees to accompany her to a small town in Oregon to get to the bottom of this mystery. Who is the little girl in the photograph? Is she his daughter? And where is she now?

But Mac discovers that no one in this small town wants to answer or even acknowledge these questions. He will have to find a way to overcome the stranglehold that the Tate family has on the town and work his way to the truth about who the little girl is, even if it kills him.

The first book in Jack McCrae mystery series.(* Jack McCrae mysteries take place in the same universe as Frank Zafiro's SpoCompton series and Sandy Banks thrillers)

Genres: Mystery

281 pages, Kindle Edition

First published December 9, 2012

About the author

A former police officer, Frank writes gritty crime fiction from both sides of the badge.

Reviews

[Kathy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Away from normal keyboard, so short review for first two books in the McCrae series. This is a very different kind of series featuring retired cop who gets asked for help without actually setting himself up as a PI. This first was request for help from a young woman from his past. It starts with some inappropriate behavior, but initiated by the woman. He goes with her to assist in a mission to find a girl from a photograph, holding hands with her now dead mother. Quite a challenging investigation ensues!

Kindle Unlimited

[David Freas · Rating 3 out of 5]

This story is based on the oft-used background of a small town with a secret controlled by one man or family.

Loner Jack McRae is at loose ends after pulling the plug on his detective career until a young woman asks him for help finding her missing sister.

Zafiro did a good job making McRae and the woman work hard for information. And with McRae, he painted a realistic picture of a man no longer young. McRae gets jumped twice by thugs and doesn’t miraculously heal by the start of the next chapter. Unlike many main characters, he copes with the aftereffects of those attacks for the rest of the book.

However, he fell short there. The men who attacked him appear out of the blue twice, beat him up, and disappear into the blue, and never get punished for the attacks. Readers want all the bad guys to get their comeuppance for the evil they do to the main character.

And while this is a good story, there’s something missing here that dropped it from good to merely okay.

Still, Zafiro does such a good job with his River City books, that I’ll keep reading him.

[Pat · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like Mac, he is suitably quirky and sympathetic protagonist. I look forward to more.

[P.Kirk · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really good read.

[Bill · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great read

I've read several of Frank Zafiro's I'd books and enjoyed them all. This one is no exception. His stories are always fresh and seldom predictable.

[Gaenolee · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thoroughly enjoyed this novel, and (maybe it was finishing it at 3 am) didn't guess the ending until the ending. Well crafted.

[Virginia · Rating 4 out of 5]

A pretty good mystery. I couldn't understand why, when, or where Jack would have been with Julia. Some simple math would have figured out if he daughter was his.

[Vickie Hayes · Rating 5 out of 5]

Truth

Truth and judtice verses money and control and how knowing the truth can be painful as well as healing. A lesson in how our actions affect others.

[Gina Trail · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dark, tragic, heartbreaking. A mystery jam packed with events that might hurt. TW: sexual abuse. The writing was very detailed and descriptive. Overall, a sound writer with a story to tell.