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Julie Brennan #1
Little Girl Blue: A Novel of Crime
Everything changes for Lieutenant Julia Brennan, NYPD, on a frigid January morning in Central Park. The commander of a Manhattan North homicide squad, she inspects the body of an unidentified young girl. Naked, her skin blue from the cold, her feet cut and scraped in desperate flight, the grim sight of the dead child in an instant turns Julia Brennan's priorities upside down. Julia Brennan is tough-minded and hard-boiled, like the story this taut, chilling novel unfolds. Yet she suddenly finds herself willing to risk her promotion and, if necessary, her entire career to give a woefully lost child a name and to apprehend the parties responsible for an appalling crime. Her search takes her into the world of pedophiles and foreign adoption agencies that sell children into slavery—a world where, Julia begins to realize, someone has the jump on her, and is killing the very suspects she is hunting. Striking a devil's bargain with an undercover cop from the Sex Crimes Unit, a man who himself becomes a prime candidate for the killer, Julia follows a tortuous path until, alone and dismayed, she sees that she has made a terrible, terrible mistake. Now she faces her greatest fear. For Lieutenant Julia Brennan is also the mother of a young daughter.
314 pages, Hardcover
First published December 19, 2001
4 people are currently reading
43 people want to read
About the author
David Cray
8 books12 followersA pseudonym used by Stephen Solomita.
Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
October 7, 2013
RATING: 4.75
Dealing with the murder of a child is difficult under the best of circumstances, but something about finding the nude body of a young girl in Central Park on a cold January day resonates deeply for tough-edged NYPD Lieutenant Julia Brennan. “Little Girl Blue” are the first words that come to her mind as she views the body, at once referring to the color of her skin and a sense of pathos. The bottom of the girl’s feet are abraded and imbedded with asphalt, which indicates that she was running unclothed into the park to get away from something. What could possibly have caused such an act? And how could nobody have noticed a young girl in these circumstances?
As commander of C Squad, North Homicide, Julia is an excellent manager who knows the strengths and weaknesses of each person on her team well and uses each individual appropriately. Her main concern is that the case will be taken away from them and given to a different unit. That is unacceptable, as this murder has reached her on a deep personal level, one that almost compromises her ability to do the job as it is supposed to be done. It’s a high profile situation, in that the body was found so near to the exclusive residences surrounding Central Park. The girl had to come from one of the buildings in the immediate area. Given the fact that she is naked, it is assumed that there is a sexual element to the crime; and Julia’s worst suspicions are confirmed when they find evidence of a child prostitution and pornography ring.
Julia partners with a rogue cop by the name of Peter Foley who works only on these types of investigations. He has built a web site to lure pedophiles out into the open and is involved in some shady undercover operations as part of the Sex Crimes Unit. His motivation is that his young daughter disappeared several years earlier; his wife subsequently committed suicide. Peter’s behavior leads Julia to wonder if he is part of the crime rather than its solution. At the same time, there’s a sexual tension between these 2 isolated individuals that is perfectly etched.
Little Girl Blue is a tremendous book with some of the most excellent characterization I have seen in a long time. Julia Brennan is a most interesting protagonist. We see her professional side, her tenacity in an investigation, her ambition and drive as she works towards becoming a captain. We also see her personal side, her fierce loyalty to the uncle that helped raise her, her love for her 13-year-old daughter. We learn about Julia’s own miserable childhood and what it took to become the strong woman that she is today. As the narrative progresses, Julia has to kill people. We see her reaction to those killings, the all too human reaction that normally is overlooked in books of this type. We also see her dealing with departmental politics and finding ways to accomplish her objective in spite of the constraints placed on her by the law.
The secondary characters are similarly well drawn: Peter, who has insulated himself from all feeling since his daughter’s disappearance; the uncle, a strong presence in Julia’s life, both personally and professionally; the daughter, who is on the verge of blossoming into a young woman; and the various members of the department.
I was absorbed with the book right from the first page. It was not a quick read; indeed the complexity of characterization and plot led me to read slower than usual. The police procedural aspects were well done, the New York setting perfectly delineated; the conclusion satisfied on all counts. Although the subject matter may seem lurid, it was handled well and never graphically flaunted at the reader. The book was a gripping read and one which I highly recommend.
Dealing with the murder of a child is difficult under the best of circumstances, but something about finding the nude body of a young girl in Central Park on a cold January day resonates deeply for tough-edged NYPD Lieutenant Julia Brennan. “Little Girl Blue” are the first words that come to her mind as she views the body, at once referring to the color of her skin and a sense of pathos. The bottom of the girl’s feet are abraded and imbedded with asphalt, which indicates that she was running unclothed into the park to get away from something. What could possibly have caused such an act? And how could nobody have noticed a young girl in these circumstances?
As commander of C Squad, North Homicide, Julia is an excellent manager who knows the strengths and weaknesses of each person on her team well and uses each individual appropriately. Her main concern is that the case will be taken away from them and given to a different unit. That is unacceptable, as this murder has reached her on a deep personal level, one that almost compromises her ability to do the job as it is supposed to be done. It’s a high profile situation, in that the body was found so near to the exclusive residences surrounding Central Park. The girl had to come from one of the buildings in the immediate area. Given the fact that she is naked, it is assumed that there is a sexual element to the crime; and Julia’s worst suspicions are confirmed when they find evidence of a child prostitution and pornography ring.
Julia partners with a rogue cop by the name of Peter Foley who works only on these types of investigations. He has built a web site to lure pedophiles out into the open and is involved in some shady undercover operations as part of the Sex Crimes Unit. His motivation is that his young daughter disappeared several years earlier; his wife subsequently committed suicide. Peter’s behavior leads Julia to wonder if he is part of the crime rather than its solution. At the same time, there’s a sexual tension between these 2 isolated individuals that is perfectly etched.
Little Girl Blue is a tremendous book with some of the most excellent characterization I have seen in a long time. Julia Brennan is a most interesting protagonist. We see her professional side, her tenacity in an investigation, her ambition and drive as she works towards becoming a captain. We also see her personal side, her fierce loyalty to the uncle that helped raise her, her love for her 13-year-old daughter. We learn about Julia’s own miserable childhood and what it took to become the strong woman that she is today. As the narrative progresses, Julia has to kill people. We see her reaction to those killings, the all too human reaction that normally is overlooked in books of this type. We also see her dealing with departmental politics and finding ways to accomplish her objective in spite of the constraints placed on her by the law.
The secondary characters are similarly well drawn: Peter, who has insulated himself from all feeling since his daughter’s disappearance; the uncle, a strong presence in Julia’s life, both personally and professionally; the daughter, who is on the verge of blossoming into a young woman; and the various members of the department.
I was absorbed with the book right from the first page. It was not a quick read; indeed the complexity of characterization and plot led me to read slower than usual. The police procedural aspects were well done, the New York setting perfectly delineated; the conclusion satisfied on all counts. Although the subject matter may seem lurid, it was handled well and never graphically flaunted at the reader. The book was a gripping read and one which I highly recommend.
September 14, 2024
An extremely difficult book to read. I dealt with young children be taken from their parents and used for sick sex with adults Slime).
The children were kidnapped primarily from countries like Bosnia, Croatia and other countries in the region of the world and brought the America as sex slaves.
One NYPD Lieutenant made it her project to find out who was bringing the kids and putting an ending to it.
I began with a very young girl who was naked and freeing in Central Park. Frozen dead with NO WITNESSES in a wealthy area where ever home had video cameras.
I can’t recommend this book and the only reason I finished it was to make sure she saved children and dealt with the dirt that brought the very young children to our country!🥲🥲
The children were kidnapped primarily from countries like Bosnia, Croatia and other countries in the region of the world and brought the America as sex slaves.
One NYPD Lieutenant made it her project to find out who was bringing the kids and putting an ending to it.
I began with a very young girl who was naked and freeing in Central Park. Frozen dead with NO WITNESSES in a wealthy area where ever home had video cameras.
I can’t recommend this book and the only reason I finished it was to make sure she saved children and dealt with the dirt that brought the very young children to our country!🥲🥲
December 30, 2023
I read this book many years ago and remembered only that I’d liked it. And I kept it on my shelves through many cullings. On rereading, I wasn’t quite as impressed. However, I did enjoy it and I’m planning to look for other books by this author.
February 5, 2011
I don't think I've ever finished a book and had no clue about what it was about, but I did with Little Girl Blue. If I had to guess, I'd say it was about the death of an unidentified little girl. Or was about child pornography? Or was it about child prostitution? Or was it about a woman cop who was trying to get ahead in a man's world? Or was it about a serial killer who was a pedophile? Or was it about a rogue cop? There were so many things going on in the book that I was totally lost. It was like the author threw every story idea he'd ever thought of against the wall to see what would stick. Sadly, it appears that everything did.
June 12, 2009
A Julia Brennan, New York police detective, novel. Finding the body of a young girl in Central Park sends Brennan on an investigation as to who the girl is and what happened to her. Story brings Brennan into the world of pedophiles and people who bring girls in from Eastern Europe for sex. A good gritty story.
June 4, 2016
Had this on the shelf for more than ten years before realizing that David Cray is Stephen Solomita. Tore through it and "What You Wish For" in the last two days. Not sure there's any more to be said about Julia Brennan and Peter Foley, but if Mr. Solomita will write it, I'll read it. Perfect way to spend a couple of days by the pool.
July 26, 2013
Poor flow to book. Characters are supposed to be intertwined, but their connection is poorly communicated. Good storyline, just poorly executed. Also had three careless typos throughout the book that I found irritating.
March 13, 2007
wow this book was sick and twisted! I loved it!
September 4, 2012
Someone at work recommended this, but I don't think I'm reading the one by the right author. Standard mystery novel, I'm taking it to the beach today.
Read
August 18, 2013Read 8/02
March 21, 2014
Excellent NYC police procedural novel, which involves the child porn business. I intend to read Cray's follow-up novel with these same characters.
November 15, 2016
Started out not thinking this was a book for me, due to the story line. But, it does not delve into the details of the story line, instead has you follow the characters lives.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews