I’ve decided there are two scenarios crime fiction writers need to get out of their system. One is harvesting of body parts. The other, a more recent theme, deals with the trafficking of young boys and girls. In the third Sin City Investigations novel, Body Zoo, J.D. Allen manages to juggle both themes. It’s a fast-paced, character-rich story. But, there’s a comment made at one point, “Everything in this was just off a hair.” I actually felt that way about the book at times. Maybe I would have felt differently if I’d read the earlier books in the series.

PI Jim Bean owns Sin City Investigations. in Las Vegas. His primary corporate client, Transport American Insurance, hires him to investigate when a trailer goes up in flames at a residential trailer park. That’s a normal insurance case, but Bean is bothered by one aspect. No one, not the police, the fire department, the owner of the trailer park, seem concerned by the missing tenant, Emilee Beck.

Emilee has been on the run for years. As a child, she was owned by the Outlaws gang, tattooed as their possession. Ever since the night a woman named Angie freed her, they ran and hid, not keeping the same car or staying in the same location for too long. But, Emilee realizes she grew too comfortable and too close to people in Henderson, outside of Las Vegas. The fire causes her to take off again, but she’s caught on tape killing a gang member who recognized her as property.

One person Emilee grew too comfortable with is A.J. Ward, part of the Ward family that owns Ward’s Outdoor Adventures. A.J.’s uncle, Calvin, worries Emilee knows too much about his sideline businesses of taxidermy and body parts. He wants to eliminate the threat to his livelihood and the family.

Body Zoo turns into a wild hunting trip in the wilderness of Utah, a hunting trip with humans as the prey. Calvin and an employee may seem kind on the surface, but it doesn’t take long for Jim Bean to be aware he can’t really trust anyone except a few eccentric friends.

A friend of mine loved Body Zoo. Readers really need to try the series for themselves. Harvesting of body parts, like the Mexican drug cartels, is a theme that just doesn’t capture my attention anymore. And, as one novelist after another focuses on human trafficking, I’m beginning to feel the same. It’s not that I’m heartless. I just tire of overused themes that no longer offer surprises.

J.D. Allen’s website is https://jdallen-books.com/

Body Zoo by J.D. Allen. Severn River Publishing, 2021. ISBN 9781648750960 (hardcover), 370p.


FTC Full Disclosure – I read a .PDF for a journal.