Paradise Lost

by Joseph Williams

After ten years as a uniformed state trooper, John finally makes detective. His first case, the murder of a wealthy developer in a rural western Massachusetts town. John starts his interviews with the people who's property is adjacent to the developers including, to John's chagri, the owners of the nudist resort the street behind the developers.Follow John while he makes some rookie mistakes and see if he can solve the murder of his victim.

341 pages, Kindle Edition

First published August 29, 2012

About the author

Librarian note:
There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name
This profile may contain books from multiple authors of this name

The Science Fiction author can be found here: Joseph Williams (two spaces)

Reviews

[Baz TB]

A man is murdered in a quiet community in western Massachusetts. Detective John Busco is called in to investigate, in his first day in a new role and keen to make a good first impression, he begins. He uncovers many people with motive for murdering a man who was almost universally detested. A number of neighbours loom large as suspects, but Busco's particular suspicions are roused by the nudist resort also bordering the victim's property. A dimension of questioning hitherto not experienced by Busco transpires, with more questions raised than answers, including searching himself for his own motivations as he is forced to face the fact that his own prejudices could be clouding progress. And then, the town seems remarkably tolerant, welcoming even, of this group, to the point that Busco now wonders at conflicts of interest for key members of the town governing bodies.
Nevertheless, Busco perseveres building up a case, and all comes to a head. Twists follow and the story concludes.

I found Joseph Williams' narrative gripping, and his unearthing of the case systematic but dramatic. I liked all the major a characters from the start, including their flaws, and found myself trying to second guess as the story develops. Well written, and paced, I fully recommend.

[Mark]

Pretty decent detective story, needs some editing for typos and grammar.

This was a pretty good detective story with a different naturist angle. Usually the murder happens on the nudist resort, this one was nudist adjacent.

The book needs some editing, though. There are a lot of typos and simple grammatical errors and cleaning these up would help immensely.

[Barefoot in Nature]

Good mystery-style nudist fiction. Good summarizing the clues at the end.