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Detective Daniel Turner #2
Second Skin
An intriguing mystery featuring homicide detective Daniel Turner in the second of this atmospheric crime noir series, following Blue Avenue. When one of her students is found dead, English teacher Lillian Turner and her husband, Navy war veteran Johnny Bellefleur, are drawn into the investigation. Having made a macabre discovery which throws a disturbing new light on the case, Johnny and Lillian find themselves involved in something darker and more dangerous than they could have imagined. With their marriage cracking under the strain and Johnny’s sanity under threat, the pair is warned to stay out of the case by Lillian’s brother, homicide detective Daniel Turner. Just what is Daniel’s connection to the dead girl? Does he know more than he’s letting on? Can Lillian trust her own brother?
384 pages, Hardcover
First published November 1, 2015
5 people are currently reading
46 people want to read
About the author
Michael Wiley
34 books87 followersMichael Wiley’s new novel is The Long Way Out, featuring Franky Dast, an exonerated ex-con who investigates a series of murders in Northeast Florida. Michael is also the author of three mystery and detective series, including the Shamus Award-winning Joe Kozmarski books, the Daniel Turner thrillers, and, most recently, the Sam Kelson PI novels. His short stories appear often in magazines and anthologies, including Best Mystery Stories of the Year 2022.
Michael grew up in Chicago and lived and worked in the neighborhoods and on the streets where he sets his Kelson and Kozmarski mysteries. He teaches literature at the University of North Florida in Jacksonville—the setting of The Long Way Out, an earlier Franky Dast novel (Monument Road), and the Daniel Turner novels.
Series:
* Joe Kozmarski Mystery
Michael grew up in Chicago and lived and worked in the neighborhoods and on the streets where he sets his Kelson and Kozmarski mysteries. He teaches literature at the University of North Florida in Jacksonville—the setting of The Long Way Out, an earlier Franky Dast novel (Monument Road), and the Daniel Turner novels.
Series:
* Joe Kozmarski Mystery
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
June 10, 2016
A different kind of book set around Jacksonville in Florida; although it is a crime thriller the police are not too helpful. The Phelps family seem to have just about everyone in their pockets and it has ever been this way.
The writing is clear and emotive about the location, setting and environment. The book is filled with believable characters and gives voice to many people other novels would allow to be heard.
The narration of the unfolding story switches between married couple Johnny and Lillian. Their relationship is troubled; he is a vet suffering with PTSD and she is a teacher with feelings for one of her students.
When one of her class goes missing she turns to her husband in his new guise as a PI. When he refuses their relationship suffers further. When the student turns up dead, both feel guilty and although angry with each other both feel compelled to investigate into the suspicious death he police want to write off as a suicide.
The trouble is the more they investigate the more they find out but can't really see the truth. While nobody in authority wants to believe them, their individual investigations are frustrated and they are warned off every where they turn. Rather than bringing them together the case appears to be driving them apart.
Complex mystery with great dialogue and set pieces that warm and amuse, bringing lighter moments to what at times is a dark thriller.
The writing is clear and emotive about the location, setting and environment. The book is filled with believable characters and gives voice to many people other novels would allow to be heard.
The narration of the unfolding story switches between married couple Johnny and Lillian. Their relationship is troubled; he is a vet suffering with PTSD and she is a teacher with feelings for one of her students.
When one of her class goes missing she turns to her husband in his new guise as a PI. When he refuses their relationship suffers further. When the student turns up dead, both feel guilty and although angry with each other both feel compelled to investigate into the suspicious death he police want to write off as a suicide.
The trouble is the more they investigate the more they find out but can't really see the truth. While nobody in authority wants to believe them, their individual investigations are frustrated and they are warned off every where they turn. Rather than bringing them together the case appears to be driving them apart.
Complex mystery with great dialogue and set pieces that warm and amuse, bringing lighter moments to what at times is a dark thriller.
October 2, 2019
Darker than the previous book (which was pretty noir and dark itself), this thriller set in Jacksonville and the surrounding areas kept me reading well past the time I should've been asleep, because I wanted to see what came next. Lots of great twists and turns, and the characters the author creates will hook you, even though most of them are so flawed it hurts to see what they do next.
July 17, 2016
THE GIRL WHO LOVED EMILY DICKINSON…
In this second installment of Michael Wiley's noir thrillers set in Jacksonville, Florida, Detective Daniel Turner of the local police department takes another back seat.
To his sister Lillian. Lillian is concerned about a missing 19 year old student in her college Lit class who particularly enjoys Emily Dickinson’s poetry. Lillian’s husband, Johnny, is a Navy war veteran who spent most of his military years stuffing body bags in the Middle East that were eventually flown "to a giant warehouse in Dover, Delaware.”
To occupy his time and damaged mind, Johnny gets an investigator license and rents an office in a building on Philips Highway that used to be a Skinner Milk House. (Skinner Dairies was a successful business in those days that sold their milk in company stores rather than supermarkets.) Johnny’s only visitors are Felicity, a 60 year-old hooker who drops by to bum a cigarette, and Farouk Bashandi, who owns Sahara Sandwiches next door. Farouk drops by to complain about the lack of business, too.
I got a bit confused when I first read the short epigraphs on a page at the front of the book. One is a quote by Lillian Smith, a Georgia author born in Florida who wrote a 1944 story about an interracial romance. The other is a line of Emily Dickinson’s poem, “Hope.” The two are a strange combination about molasses and feathering.
Perhaps Wiley is alluding to the racial tension in his very Southern tale. Frankly, I found more sexual tension in the story (and enough graphic description to be mildly offensive). But that bit in Wiley’s front notes about Dickinson, the prim and proper Massachusetts spinster, being the noirest of poets really begged for more reading and explanation.
The discovery of the body of Lillian’s student, gray-eyed Sheneel Greene, in a plot of scrubland and swamp off Heckscher Drive near the clay pits is startling. Lillian asks first her brother then her husband to help her find the killer. A prominent family that lives in a stately yellow Victorian home near downtown Fernandina and a disastrous fire there many years ago come into play.
A bit of a Southern melodrama, this is not a Gothic romance and, unlike Wiley’s “Blue Avenue,” not much of an interracial one either. It is a superbly crafted and well-paced crime story. The dialogue is crisp and succinct. The Jacksonville settings, especially of nature, are calming and almost poetically sketched. In contrast, the mounting suspense is sometimes stifling.
Highly recommended for lovers of dark crime stories.
(And lovers of Emily Dickinson's poetry will surely enjoy the scattering of her poetic lines in the text. There's even a few Walt Whitman lines and a short quote from a Stevie Smith poem. All three of these poets write well about "death.")
October 21, 2015
To say Second Skin is a powerful, thought-provoking novel is an understatement. It is a novel that leaves the reader raw and trembling, utterly aware of the depths of evil man is capable of. It is a personal tale, told from the perspectives of the various individuals involved. It is complex and messy in the way that life is messy.
Second Skin is a mystery, but it is not a whodunit. From the very beginning it is clear where guilt lies, even if you don't know the specific individual who performed the act. Good is in shades of grey. Johnny is a vet, broken by his time in the military, struggling to find his place. Lillian, his wife, is a teacher with a love of literature. When one of her students goes missing, she asks Johnny to try to find her. The next day, her body is found, and the police and family claim it's suicide. To appease Lillian and his conscience, Johnny goes to the scene and discovers evidence that Shaneel was murdered. His quest for answers puts him in the path of the wealthy and powerful Phelps family.
The Phelps family is chilling, because their wealth puts them above the law, able to buy their way out of any situation. When someone won't be bought or threatened, it is easy enough to pay someone else to get rid of the problem. Ordinary individuals are nothing to people like the Phelps family. Stephen Phelps, the family scion, is particularly disturbing. He is a rapist who feels entitled to whoever and whatever he wants, even the daughter he sired when raping his cousin as a teenager. Repeatedly he tells himself his actions aren't his fault. He has no conscience, readily abusing his wife and others. His father is no better.
As I read, i was so angry and felt so powerless. The Phelps family is fictional, but they reflect a truth that is ugly and frequently ignored.
Second Skin is a superb novel, dark and disturbing, but lyrical. Its effects will long be felt by the reader.
5/5
Second Skin is available for preorder and will be released November 1, 2015.
I received a copy of Second Skin from the publisher and netgalley.com in exchange for an honest review.
--Crittermom
Second Skin is a chilling piece of Florida noir
http://muttcafe.com/2015/10/second-skin/
Second Skin is a mystery, but it is not a whodunit. From the very beginning it is clear where guilt lies, even if you don't know the specific individual who performed the act. Good is in shades of grey. Johnny is a vet, broken by his time in the military, struggling to find his place. Lillian, his wife, is a teacher with a love of literature. When one of her students goes missing, she asks Johnny to try to find her. The next day, her body is found, and the police and family claim it's suicide. To appease Lillian and his conscience, Johnny goes to the scene and discovers evidence that Shaneel was murdered. His quest for answers puts him in the path of the wealthy and powerful Phelps family.
The Phelps family is chilling, because their wealth puts them above the law, able to buy their way out of any situation. When someone won't be bought or threatened, it is easy enough to pay someone else to get rid of the problem. Ordinary individuals are nothing to people like the Phelps family. Stephen Phelps, the family scion, is particularly disturbing. He is a rapist who feels entitled to whoever and whatever he wants, even the daughter he sired when raping his cousin as a teenager. Repeatedly he tells himself his actions aren't his fault. He has no conscience, readily abusing his wife and others. His father is no better.
As I read, i was so angry and felt so powerless. The Phelps family is fictional, but they reflect a truth that is ugly and frequently ignored.
Second Skin is a superb novel, dark and disturbing, but lyrical. Its effects will long be felt by the reader.
5/5
Second Skin is available for preorder and will be released November 1, 2015.
I received a copy of Second Skin from the publisher and netgalley.com in exchange for an honest review.
--Crittermom
Second Skin is a chilling piece of Florida noir
http://muttcafe.com/2015/10/second-skin/
February 9, 2016
THE GIRL WHO LOVED EMILY DICKINSON…
When I first moved to Jacksonville in the 1970s, a stretch of
U. S. Highway 1 South was the happening place. Located at the corner of Philips Highway and Emerson Street, Philips Highway Plaza was the first enclosed suburban shopping mall in Northeast Florida and was a dazzling showcase of trendy stores and restaurants.
Michael Wiley, English professor at the University of North Florida, writes about that section of Philips Highway/U. S. 1 South in his first Detective Daniel Turner mystery “Blue Avenue” (2014). But it’s a very different scene at the time of his story. Turner has asked his friend BB to identify a body of a woman discovered in a derelict part of the City. Determined to find her killer, BB cruises Philips Highway and its present-day “strip clubs, auto body shops, and cheap motels” looking for people who knew the woman he loved twenty-five years ago.
Fast forward a few months…and I’m reading Wiley’s next Daniel Turner, “Second Skin.” This time Turner’s sister Lillian is concerned about a missing 19 year old student in her college Lit class who particularly enjoys Emily Dickinson’s poetry. Lillian’s husband, Johnny, is a Navy war veteran who spent most of his military years stuffing body bags in the Middle East that were eventually flown "to a giant warehouse in Dover, Delaware.”
To occupy his time and damaged mind, Johnny gets an investigator license and rents an office in a building on Philips Highway that used to be a Skinner Milk House. (Skinner Dairies was a successful business in those days that sold their milk in company stores rather than supermarkets.) Johnny’s only visitors are Felicity, a 60 year-old hooker who drops by to bum a cigarette, and Farouk Bashandi, who owns Sahara Sandwiches next door. Farouk drops by to complain about the lack of business, too.
I got a bit confused when I first read the short epigraphs on a page at the front of the book. One is a quote by Lillian Smith, a Georgia author born in Florida who wrote a 1944 story about an interracial romance. The other is a line of Emily Dickinson’s poem, “Hope.” The two are a strange combination about molasses and feathering.
Perhaps Wiley is alluding to the racial tension in his very Southern tale. Frankly, I found more sexual tension in the story (and enough graphic description to be mildly offensive). But that bit in Wiley’s front notes about Dickinson, the prim and proper Massachusetts spinster, being the noirest of poets really begged for more reading and explanation.
The discovery of the body of Lillian’s student, gray-eyed Sheneel Greene, in a plot of scrubland and swamp off Heckscher Drive near the clay pits is startling. Lillian asks first her brother then her husband to help her find the killer. A prominent family that lives in a stately yellow Victorian home near downtown Fernandina and a disastrous fire there many years ago come into play.
A bit of a Southern melodrama, this is not a Gothic romance and, unlike Wiley’s “Blue Avenue,” not much of an interracial one either. It is a superbly crafted and well-paced crime story. The dialogue is crisp and succinct. The Jacksonville settings, especially of nature, are calming and almost poetically sketched. In contrast, the mounting suspense is sometimes stifling.
Highly recommended for lovers of dark crime stories.
(And lovers of Emily Dickinson's poetry will surely enjoy the scattering of her poetic lines in the text. There's even a few Walt Whitman lines and a short quote from a Stevie Smith poem. All three of these poets write well about "death.")
When I first moved to Jacksonville in the 1970s, a stretch of
U. S. Highway 1 South was the happening place. Located at the corner of Philips Highway and Emerson Street, Philips Highway Plaza was the first enclosed suburban shopping mall in Northeast Florida and was a dazzling showcase of trendy stores and restaurants.
Michael Wiley, English professor at the University of North Florida, writes about that section of Philips Highway/U. S. 1 South in his first Detective Daniel Turner mystery “Blue Avenue” (2014). But it’s a very different scene at the time of his story. Turner has asked his friend BB to identify a body of a woman discovered in a derelict part of the City. Determined to find her killer, BB cruises Philips Highway and its present-day “strip clubs, auto body shops, and cheap motels” looking for people who knew the woman he loved twenty-five years ago.
Fast forward a few months…and I’m reading Wiley’s next Daniel Turner, “Second Skin.” This time Turner’s sister Lillian is concerned about a missing 19 year old student in her college Lit class who particularly enjoys Emily Dickinson’s poetry. Lillian’s husband, Johnny, is a Navy war veteran who spent most of his military years stuffing body bags in the Middle East that were eventually flown "to a giant warehouse in Dover, Delaware.”
To occupy his time and damaged mind, Johnny gets an investigator license and rents an office in a building on Philips Highway that used to be a Skinner Milk House. (Skinner Dairies was a successful business in those days that sold their milk in company stores rather than supermarkets.) Johnny’s only visitors are Felicity, a 60 year-old hooker who drops by to bum a cigarette, and Farouk Bashandi, who owns Sahara Sandwiches next door. Farouk drops by to complain about the lack of business, too.
I got a bit confused when I first read the short epigraphs on a page at the front of the book. One is a quote by Lillian Smith, a Georgia author born in Florida who wrote a 1944 story about an interracial romance. The other is a line of Emily Dickinson’s poem, “Hope.” The two are a strange combination about molasses and feathering.
Perhaps Wiley is alluding to the racial tension in his very Southern tale. Frankly, I found more sexual tension in the story (and enough graphic description to be mildly offensive). But that bit in Wiley’s front notes about Dickinson, the prim and proper Massachusetts spinster, being the noirest of poets really begged for more reading and explanation.
The discovery of the body of Lillian’s student, gray-eyed Sheneel Greene, in a plot of scrubland and swamp off Heckscher Drive near the clay pits is startling. Lillian asks first her brother then her husband to help her find the killer. A prominent family that lives in a stately yellow Victorian home near downtown Fernandina and a disastrous fire there many years ago come into play.
A bit of a Southern melodrama, this is not a Gothic romance and, unlike Wiley’s “Blue Avenue,” not much of an interracial one either. It is a superbly crafted and well-paced crime story. The dialogue is crisp and succinct. The Jacksonville settings, especially of nature, are calming and almost poetically sketched. In contrast, the mounting suspense is sometimes stifling.
Highly recommended for lovers of dark crime stories.
(And lovers of Emily Dickinson's poetry will surely enjoy the scattering of her poetic lines in the text. There's even a few Walt Whitman lines and a short quote from a Stevie Smith poem. All three of these poets write well about "death.")
October 30, 2015
Second Skin by Michael Wiley **** (4 stars)
An intriguing and exciting murder mystery
Lillian Turner is an English teacher who finds herself inexplicably drawn to one of her students, Sheneel Greene. When Sheneel is found dead, Lillian cannot help but be curious, and she and her Navy-veteran husband Johnny become increasingly embroiled in a mystery of dark and dangerous proportions.
I found it rather difficult to get into this book to begin with, but it was well worth persevering through the first few chapters, as the plot unfolded to become one of intrigue and excitement. After a while I found myself needing to know the truth about what happened to Sheneel, just as Lillian and Johnny were determined to find out. I hadn’t realised this was the second novel in a series, in which homicide detective Daniel Turner is present playing a secondary role. The book works well as a standalone, and I am now keen to read the preceding novel too.
Laura
Breakaway Reviewers received an advanced copy of this book to review
An intriguing and exciting murder mystery
Lillian Turner is an English teacher who finds herself inexplicably drawn to one of her students, Sheneel Greene. When Sheneel is found dead, Lillian cannot help but be curious, and she and her Navy-veteran husband Johnny become increasingly embroiled in a mystery of dark and dangerous proportions.
I found it rather difficult to get into this book to begin with, but it was well worth persevering through the first few chapters, as the plot unfolded to become one of intrigue and excitement. After a while I found myself needing to know the truth about what happened to Sheneel, just as Lillian and Johnny were determined to find out. I hadn’t realised this was the second novel in a series, in which homicide detective Daniel Turner is present playing a secondary role. The book works well as a standalone, and I am now keen to read the preceding novel too.
Laura
Breakaway Reviewers received an advanced copy of this book to review
June 22, 2025
My local library had a copy of Second Skin for sale. Michael Wiley’s series had been on my “to-read” list for some time, so I gave it a chance. I found the book to be a big disappointment.
In Second Skin, Wiley (a college English professor) aspires to blend the mystery novel with social commentary. As is usually the case with such books, he fails on both levels. The characters are self-absorbed navel gazers. Johnny’s a military veteran with PTSD. (He’s also an unsuccessful private eye). Lillian’s an English professor who “ran around” on him while he was overseas. Neither is likable.
The mystery surrounds the old, rich, southern Phelps family. They made their fortune in the timber industry. If you’re familiar with the contemporary politics of the Left (which are also the contemporary politics of the publishing industry and of academia) you can fill in the rest without actually bothering to read Second Skin. The Phelps family is completely without any redeeming features. Of course, they spend all of their time victimizing the black community in and around Jacksonville, Florida.
In short, Wiley wallows in nearly every contemporary cliché held dear by the Left. If Second Skin told an interesting story, it might still be worth reading. But it doesn’t - the mystery is slow moving and the characters are all unlikable.
For me, Second Skin was two Michael Wiley novels in one - first and last.
In Second Skin, Wiley (a college English professor) aspires to blend the mystery novel with social commentary. As is usually the case with such books, he fails on both levels. The characters are self-absorbed navel gazers. Johnny’s a military veteran with PTSD. (He’s also an unsuccessful private eye). Lillian’s an English professor who “ran around” on him while he was overseas. Neither is likable.
The mystery surrounds the old, rich, southern Phelps family. They made their fortune in the timber industry. If you’re familiar with the contemporary politics of the Left (which are also the contemporary politics of the publishing industry and of academia) you can fill in the rest without actually bothering to read Second Skin. The Phelps family is completely without any redeeming features. Of course, they spend all of their time victimizing the black community in and around Jacksonville, Florida.
In short, Wiley wallows in nearly every contemporary cliché held dear by the Left. If Second Skin told an interesting story, it might still be worth reading. But it doesn’t - the mystery is slow moving and the characters are all unlikable.
For me, Second Skin was two Michael Wiley novels in one - first and last.
January 12, 2018
Cannot wait to read more of Michael Wiley!
February 2, 2023
Yes. No. Not really. I probably won’t seek out more from this author.
November 22, 2015
I would like to thank NetGalley and Severn House Publishers for giving me the opportunity to read this in exchange for an honest and open review.
Michael Wiley is a new author to me but the book sounded intriguing.
When one of her students goes missing Lillian asks her husband, military vet Johnny, to find her. The girl's body is found and even though the police claim it was suicide, Johnny decides to investigate.
It took me a few chapters to get into the story but I was so pleased I persevered and didn't abandon it.
It was a different style of writing as it was told from different POVs.
I didn't realise that this was the second book of a series as it works admirably as a stand-alone. I will definitely be reading more of Michel Wiley's books.
Michael Wiley is a new author to me but the book sounded intriguing.
When one of her students goes missing Lillian asks her husband, military vet Johnny, to find her. The girl's body is found and even though the police claim it was suicide, Johnny decides to investigate.
It took me a few chapters to get into the story but I was so pleased I persevered and didn't abandon it.
It was a different style of writing as it was told from different POVs.
I didn't realise that this was the second book of a series as it works admirably as a stand-alone. I will definitely be reading more of Michel Wiley's books.
September 25, 2015
What a weird, fascinating book!!! It is not a book about Daniel Turner, but rather about his sister and her war damaged husband. The husband is suicidal and spiraling out of control and the only thing that seems to be able to save him is figuring out who killed one of his wife's students. From the beginning, the reader is taken on a roller coaster ride that never seems to end. This book goes off on different tangents at times and deals magnificently with the sufferings war veterans go through. The mystery and suspense are top-notch.
*Netgalley and Severn House advance copy review
*Netgalley and Severn House advance copy review
October 2, 2015
3.5/5 Overall, I liked the plot of this book, but I found the ever changing POVs distracting. Just when I would connect with one character, it would switch to another. I think it would have worked better in 3rd person. I'd never heard of the Gullah culture before, so that was quite interesting to read about and I wouldn't have minded a bit more.
September 13, 2016
The story started out okay and held my interest almost to the halfway mark but some of the situations seemed unrealistic and towards the end pretty ridiculous. I also feel like it started to fall fall apart towards the end and I found myself just wishing it was over. The actual ending was anticlimactic.
March 6, 2016
Very good read. My first time reading this author. Lots of twists and turns that kept me interested. The setting is in our neck of the woods.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews