Silent Echo

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This is a well-written book with an interesting character, but there will be no sequels and the writing and character are probably stronger than the mystery.

Jim Booker is dying. He is at eight months of the six months he was given by his doctor. He has AIDS, which is not killing him and he is a committed heterosexual. It is the lung cancer that is killing him. He is being cared for by his Nigerian friend, Numi, who seems like a saint and is a homosexual. The relationship between Numi is really one of the nice features of the book.

Booker is visited by his life-long friend Eddie, who wants him to look for his missing wife. One thing leads to another, and the missing person case becomes an unsolved murder that looks a lot like the murder of Booker's brother twenty years before. From there it is a matter of Booker following the leads while not dying.

I liked the book a lot, but I had some problems with it. I didn't understand or buy how Booker's relationship with his hospice worker turned sexual so easily, or how Booker, who could barely move at the beginning of the story, had the strength to engage in a fight with the villain. Likewise, the story, though extremely well-written and engaging, seemed to be rather straightforward with only a limited number of suspects.

But the strength of the book is really the story about the dying detective, not the who-done-it. I do recommend it and I found J.R. Rain to be a writer worth reading.