What do you think?
Rate this book
Detective L.A. Franco Mysteries #3
Cry Havoc
Lieutenant Franco faces a psychotic killer.
Case closures are up and homicide rates are down for LAPD’s 93rd Homicide Squad. “Frank”, Lieutenant L.A. Franco, is revitalizing her depleted detective crew while quietly mending private scars. And Frank is about to need all the back she can muster as she faces her own personal demons while trying not to jeopardize her developing relationship with Gail.
When a corner hustler turns up dead with a headless rooster in his lap, Frank realizes she’s up against Mother Love-Jones, renowned psychic, drug dealer and santería priestess.
Soon Frank becomes inexorably pulled into Mother Love’s ambush. Heedless of the warnings around her, Frank plunges into battle with Mother Love and her violent A battle as dark and deadly as the ancient bloodied sands from which it sprang.
Case closures are up and homicide rates are down for LAPD’s 93rd Homicide Squad. “Frank”, Lieutenant L.A. Franco, is revitalizing her depleted detective crew while quietly mending private scars. And Frank is about to need all the back she can muster as she faces her own personal demons while trying not to jeopardize her developing relationship with Gail.
When a corner hustler turns up dead with a headless rooster in his lap, Frank realizes she’s up against Mother Love-Jones, renowned psychic, drug dealer and santería priestess.
Soon Frank becomes inexorably pulled into Mother Love’s ambush. Heedless of the warnings around her, Frank plunges into battle with Mother Love and her violent A battle as dark and deadly as the ancient bloodied sands from which it sprang.
231 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2003
45 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
Read
June 19, 2020The events in this book take place several months after those in Street Rules. Frank Franco is still dating Gail Lawless, her unit’s medical examiner and they seem to be doing okay. And her unit is now close to full staff, having added three members. One of their first cases involves a victim whose murder had ritualistic overtones—his throat was cut and a headless rooster was found with his body. Ugh.
Turns out that the victim had ties to Mother Love, the leader of the local Santeria church. The good Mother is also a known trafficker of drugs so that her church has occasionally been shut down, but she has never been convicted. So far, so good. The author’s description of the church and its leaders is convincing. And some of the actual writing is better than ever. The times that Mother Love had been temporarily shut down, “Crackheads had hopped around the streets like fleas jumping off a dead dog.” and Frank realized that her job often involved “dealing with mentalities that natural selection had somehow overlooked.” Unfortunately, the actual story and its plot rank a good notch or two below the first two books in the series.
Maybe it is the religious aspect of the book that jar me. In fact, spirituality in many forms plays a big part in the story and in conversations between the characters. One of Frank’s detectives, back from maternity leave, begs Frank to take her off the Mother Love case because of her strong Catholic beliefs. In fact, Frank is lectured on various aspects of religion by one of her new unit members, whose ex-wife just happens to be a voodoo mambo. Even her girlfriend Gail plays the old “everything happens for a reason” harp until I just wanted to turn the page or get to the next chapter.
But spiritual discussions are not necessarily bad. My main objections to the book have to do with coincidence vs. reality. We are told by the author to believe that Mother Love put some kind of a spell on Frank that caused her to have hallucinations concerning her past lives. We are told to believe that an old beggar is able to teleport around town and disappear from a locked examination room. And then we are told that we have to believe these things and more because the human mind can’t fathom the actions of the gods and those who work for them. This might be true, but not in a mystery. In a mystery, it is not the light vanquishing the dark, it is the detective vanquishing the criminal.
Having to solve a crime involving Santeria is unique and exciting, but making one of Frank’s new detectives an expert on the subject—in addition to having an ex-wife who is a voodoo priestess—is just blatant literary contrivance.
I got the idea that Clare didn’t really know much about Santeria, so that much of the book is kind of a conversational rehash of her homework. To be honest, that happens a lot in fiction and Clare does it better than most. But the good is this time defeated by the bad. Give this one a 3 and hope that Clare gets back to her strengths inn the next book.
Note: I read what appears to be the first Bella paperback printing of this novel.
Another Note: This review is included in my book The Art of the Lesbian Mystery Novel, along with information on over 930 other lesbian mysteries by over 310 authors.
Turns out that the victim had ties to Mother Love, the leader of the local Santeria church. The good Mother is also a known trafficker of drugs so that her church has occasionally been shut down, but she has never been convicted. So far, so good. The author’s description of the church and its leaders is convincing. And some of the actual writing is better than ever. The times that Mother Love had been temporarily shut down, “Crackheads had hopped around the streets like fleas jumping off a dead dog.” and Frank realized that her job often involved “dealing with mentalities that natural selection had somehow overlooked.” Unfortunately, the actual story and its plot rank a good notch or two below the first two books in the series.
Maybe it is the religious aspect of the book that jar me. In fact, spirituality in many forms plays a big part in the story and in conversations between the characters. One of Frank’s detectives, back from maternity leave, begs Frank to take her off the Mother Love case because of her strong Catholic beliefs. In fact, Frank is lectured on various aspects of religion by one of her new unit members, whose ex-wife just happens to be a voodoo mambo. Even her girlfriend Gail plays the old “everything happens for a reason” harp until I just wanted to turn the page or get to the next chapter.
But spiritual discussions are not necessarily bad. My main objections to the book have to do with coincidence vs. reality. We are told by the author to believe that Mother Love put some kind of a spell on Frank that caused her to have hallucinations concerning her past lives. We are told to believe that an old beggar is able to teleport around town and disappear from a locked examination room. And then we are told that we have to believe these things and more because the human mind can’t fathom the actions of the gods and those who work for them. This might be true, but not in a mystery. In a mystery, it is not the light vanquishing the dark, it is the detective vanquishing the criminal.
Having to solve a crime involving Santeria is unique and exciting, but making one of Frank’s new detectives an expert on the subject—in addition to having an ex-wife who is a voodoo priestess—is just blatant literary contrivance.
I got the idea that Clare didn’t really know much about Santeria, so that much of the book is kind of a conversational rehash of her homework. To be honest, that happens a lot in fiction and Clare does it better than most. But the good is this time defeated by the bad. Give this one a 3 and hope that Clare gets back to her strengths inn the next book.
Note: I read what appears to be the first Bella paperback printing of this novel.
Another Note: This review is included in my book The Art of the Lesbian Mystery Novel, along with information on over 930 other lesbian mysteries by over 310 authors.
January 22, 2019
A tasteless reading.
February 4, 2019
i loved this series overall. great characters and secondary characters. solid vivid writing.
this particular volume got too graphic for me.
this particular volume got too graphic for me.
January 5, 2017
I love this series.
July 3, 2016
This was my introduction to Lieutenant L. A. Franco of the 93rd Homicide Squad of Los Angeles, although it is the third book about Franco. Frank is dealing with private scars (assumably covered in the pervious books) as the builds up her depleted deceptive crew and developing relationship with the local M.E. The villain this time is Mother Love Jones, re-nowed psychic, drug dealer, and santeria priestess, two of the three things Frank would just rather not deal with. An age old battle of good and evil gets played out with unexpected allies and psychic and spiritual awakenings.
July 4, 2012
So far this is my favorite. I love the characters, the writing, and I love "fringe" religions. I can see that Frank is evovling more and finally opening up her eyes to her addticton and her love for Gail.
June 1, 2010
Lt. L.A. Franco takes a romp through the world of Santeria. The most fun of all the books I've written.
Want to read
June 28, 200806/28/08 purchase at thrift shop
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews