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The 'Third Rail' is an electric debut cop and murder mystery novel

Third Rail by Rory Flynn


Rory Flynn's cop investigation story "Third Rail" is a hard hitting, fast reading powerhouse of a debut that introduces a great new voice in detective fiction. Readers will be swept along on a wild ride as Eddy Harkness has to single handedly bring a new drug dealer, an old nemesis and a crooked politician to their knees.

Harkness was once the head of an elite Boston narcotics unit, but after a shooting incident ended with the tragic death of Pauley Fitz, a Red Sox fan, Harkness has been exiled to his hometown of Nagog, Masschusetts, where he has been reduced to being the meter maid. Infamously known, Harkness is now universally blamed for the Sox's losing season.. Tragedy seems to be dogging the Harkness family. His mother has dementia and his father blew his brains out after screwing people out of money in a Ponzi scheme.

When we first meet Harkness, he is drunk and dangerously playing chicken on the highway with passing cars. He is barely surviving his demons.

Then Harkness goes on a night of heavy drinking and ends up having hot sex with Thalia Havoc, a sultry amber haired waitress recently a mainstay at Mr. Mach's bar, a drug dealer that Harkness busted years before. When Harkness awakes, he finds his service pistol missing. Harkness immediately suspects that his Glock was stolen, not lost. His day gets even worse when he starts getting prank calls from Pauley Fitz's cellphone, which should be in an evidence locker in Boston.

Rather than report his missing piece, Harkness figures to run a private investigation, but soon finds himself hip deep in several other private investigations. Someone is cooking up a new designer drug called Third Rail that gives a tremendous boost, but also causes people to hallucinate and think they are invincible. Victims are dropping like flies.

When a high school senior goes running in a forest and pulverizes her brain by smashing her head into a tree, Harkness is told by his superiors her death should be ruled an accident. Harkness is not buying this story. He soon starts to piece together who is cooking up the new drug.

Meanwhile, Jeet, a friend of Havoc, who also worked for Mach, gives Harkness an incendiary trove of pictures of criminals, politicians and citizens with Mach's prostitutes. The pictures are especially damning in an election season.

Then the Chief of Police drowns in a mysterious accident and leaves Harkness.

The drug investigation, dead cop and dead girl, missing gun, and pictures all come together in a fiery conclusion to this explosive novel.

It's a must read for any fan of hard hitting police investigations.