I really liked Joseph Schneider’s debut crime novel, One Day You’ll Burn. It was a little grittier than the books I normally read, but I liked LAPD Homicide Detective Tully Jarsdel. The sophomore effort, though, What Waits for You, was an effort to read.
Tully thinks it’s an honor to be selected for the Creeper Task Force, until he meets the other recruits, and realizes it’s nothing more than a dumping ground. The news media dubbed the serial killer “The Eastside Creeper” because he hid in houses before torturing and killing the residents. Vigilantism is on the rise in the terrorized city by the time Jarsdel is transferred to the task force.
Tully hopes the LAPD’s new consultant can give him some advice, but she’s more concerned with changing the city physically with lights, benches and fences that emit sound, all designed to lower the crime rate. However, her next plan leads to the suicide of a prominent priest. The city is already on edge, but his death, followed by the murder of a policeman’s wife, pushes the police force and the city to the brink.
Tully, an academic turned police detective, feels lost until a false arrest sends him on a lone crusade that ends in a violent confrontation with the only person who can identify the Creeper. And, this is my problem with What Waits for You. This confrontation becomes more important than the hunt for the serial killer, and the identity of “The Eastside Killer” is almost an afterthought. The story wasn’t wrapped up adequately.
The sequel to One Day You’ll Burn was graphically violent, with too much psychobabble. In this case, I felt as if the follow-up book didn’t live up to the promise.
Joseph Schneider’s website is https://jschneiderbooks.com/
What Waits for You by Joseph Schneider. Sourcebooks, 2021. ISBN 9781492684473 (paperback), 384p.
FTC Full Disclosure – I received a .PDF to review for a journal.
