Thursday 11 January 2018

The Red Goodbye - Brandon M. Lipani - Serena Triton Detective Novel Book 2

The Red Goodbye
Serena Triton Detective Novel Book 2
Brandon M. Lipani
ISBN 9781521007952

ASIN B06Y2MHTSL


This is the second novel from Lipani, and there were some great improvements over his first offering. It is a good detective story. It does strain the imagination, but the inconsistencies I saw in Serena's character and actions in book one have continued and if anything her character has changed to the extent that the character was not whom I believed her to be in the first book. This story is set a year after book one. And a lot has happened to Detective Triton in the interim. Serena is dating and settling into life with another. She has been moved from active homicides to cold cases, the open unsolved case unit is a big change for Triton. But she was given a choice of unemployment, looking in a different precinct, or cold cases. And in choosing cold cases she keeps the seniority she has, and is partnered with her old partner Andy. Andy had apparently transferred after the Panagram case. 

The case in this story is very interesting. A cold case that looks like it may be linked to a man who has been in jail for 30 years. But the inconsistencies the his conviction and the new evidence in a similar case won't let Serena let it rest. She keeps digging even after Internal Affairs steps in and takes over the case. And that is her first mistake. And from there she goes on to make many more. Her mistakes will not only cost her but those close to her. Sometimes being stubborn is just a bad idea. And in this case it might be downright terrible. But you will need to read the book to find out how. 

Now to some pros and cons.

The Pros:
Better second effort
Good characters
Well-paced story
Entertaining

The Cons:
Is really a novella or extended short story not a novel
Print version is listed at 179 pages, ebook is actually 75


The pros and cons are self-explanatory. I find some inconsistencies that do not make sense to me, but cannot go into them without spoiling the story. That being said it was an entertaining novella, and if there is a third Serena Triton novel I would pick it up and give it a go.

Books by Brandon M. Lipani:
Serena Triton Detective Series:
The Pangram Killer
The Red Goodbye




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