This time John Verdon presents us a difficult case in a town named White River where the police is accused by the people of racism and corruption. Dell Beckert is the chief of police and he’s radical, authoritarian, inflexible and ambitious.
Everything begins with the assassination of a police officer during a march of a group in defense of the black people, making them the main suspects.
Dave Gurney is hired by the district attorney. Curiously, all the evidence appears in an extremely clear way making Dave question its veracity. He thinks someone could be trying to incriminate an innocent.
This is a very misleading case.
I think this novel keeps you trying to discover who’s the killer. He doesn’t follow a clear pattern. All his victims are related but they’re not from the same gender, or ideas or race. He’s motivated by his hate to a single person. I didn’t like the murderer’s identity.
“White River Burning” is an exciting novel that talks about important themes such as corruption, racism, ambition, distrust in security institutions and abuse of power.
White River was, literally, burning and in chaos. The people didn’t believe in the police and they knew there were a lot of innocent people in jail; and all the powerful men could only think in the next elections, in how they could handle the press and how they could use the situation in their favor. This political situation was very interesting to read. I liked it.
I recommend this book but it’s not one of my favorites.
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