In Wisdom's Mind

by Jensen Moock

1972: It’s Christmastime in the nation’s capital. Watergate is starting to brew. The Redskins are on their way to the Super Bowl. But beneath all that roiling, high-stakes drama also lies a city riddled with senseless and violent crime. It's a world all too familiar to homicide detective, Joey Wisdom. After twenty years working the D.C. beat, the beleaguered and calloused detective has seen it all. That is until the wintry early morning discovery of a young investment banker lying face-up, in a foot of fresh snow—a muddied black hole square-center in his forehead. Murdered. The only clue; a telling trail of snow prints leading away from the body. As Wisdom digs, he quickly realizes this case has more left turns than right answers. Each clue is met with a new twist. Each suspect, a dead end. Is it a botched robbery? Jilted lover’s revenge? Or something more sinister? In search of the killer…or killers, Wisdom moves through the tony neighborhoods of Georgetown and Dupont Circle and into the nefarious inner workings of the CIA. And along the way, Wisdom keeps coming across the name of one, Albert Poeltz—a quietly quirky retired professor who has his own tortured story to tell. A story, Detective Wisdom is going to help finish. Like it or not.

258 pages, Kindle Edition

Published December 18, 2018

Reviews

[Landen Swain · Rating 4 out of 5]

Never been super into the Crime genre, but will add more books from that genre onto my shelf after reading this. First chapter alone had me hooked (had a coworker read it and he bought the book online as well, so obviously would recommend).

Entertaining throughout, possessing a sort of LA Noire narration feel (if you’ll read it, you’ll know what I mean… that sort of grizzled detective voice with some saxophone in the background.) Great debut from the author!

[Alisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

I LOVED THIS BOOK! What a great story - full of unusual twists and turns that I never saw coming!!

I really liked this author's writing style and his descriptions were so well done - could easily picture the scene being described! I can't believe this is the author's first book! I sure hope that he writes another one soon! Well done Jensen Moock!

[Karen Crawford · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an incredible book! Detective Joey Wisdom embarks upon a dark and twisted journey to solve the murder of an unlikely victim. Jensen Moock hurls us into a fast-paced, history-laden whirlwind that doesn't let go of us until the very last page. Jensen Moock's writing is brilliant! I hope he's writing a second book!

[Colin Campbell · Rating 5 out of 5]

An amazing book! if you like history, historical fiction and high energy this is a book you will like. Jensen Moock did a great job setting the stage in the Washington, DC and weaving history into 1 week of events. I can't wait for Jensen's next book

[Sandy EggO · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great read

Brought me back in time. 1969 was the year I graduated High School. Wisdom is a great protagonist to have. I was sorry to see him go.

[Diane Buxo · Rating 3 out of 5]

I realize that this is the author's first book, and I agree with the other reviewers that the plot and characters are absorbing. However, White Bird Publications (which appears to be the publisher) did an atrocious job of editing. For example, on page 2 a minor character, Moshe, is described as having an "African accent" but on Page 64 Moshe becomes an "English-challenge Paki." Aside from the fact that the word would be "challenged" I don't think that even in the book's era of 1972 this would be an appropriate way to refer to someone! If the author was channeling the police officer interviewing "Moshe" then it would make one dislike the officer for being a racist. It's never explained what country Moshe really immigrated from. (I was always told that "Moishe" was an Israeli name?)
On Page 53: "back to the Barbara Bell" was another glaring editorial error where a reporter is referred to as "the" as if the author himself didn't speak English. On Page 97: after the cover blurb and everything in the text refers to December 1972, we see a police report dated "December 16th or 17th, 1974"?? 1974 is referred to throughout the next few pages. On page 135, another minor character is described as a "tubby negro." I'm sure the author was going for noir-ish atmosphere here but I'm not even sure people referred to African-Americans as "Negros" as late as the 70s and back when they did, it was capitalized. I doubt whether any younger readers or persons of color would feel comfortable reading this book. The various grammar, plot inconsistencies, and other glaring errors were so frequent as to be distracting.