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Homicide Detectives Eliza Ochoa, and her partner, Ike Horner, are called to investigate the case of a mutilated dead body left out in the freezing cold in their midwestern hometown of Booth City. At first the enhanced breasts and mutilation of the genital area makes the police think that the victim was a female prostitute, but it turns out they were wrong. It was a young man hoping to go through a sex change operation very soon. As they investigate, they find the dead man had a friendship with another missing male prostitute, both into partying and drugs. Personal problems plague both detectives as they question members of the dirtier underbelly of Booth City, which includes not only the lowlife, but a wealthy family, a corrupt cop firmly connected to a best-forgotten relative, and the doctor brother of one of the murdered men. Writer Steven Sidor manages to create a dark and dreary fictional Booth City whose denizens are always sliding towards despair, but manage to find reasons to keep on going. Detective Eliza Ochoa is still very much influenced by her difficult childhood. Her father, a drinking man, now in prison, was not the best role model around and he is said to have been a dirty cop, a rumor she has had to struggle against ever since she joined the force. Her partner, Ike Horner, has recently been overwhelmed by bad health diagnoses and he's endeavoring to give up drinking and smoking, trying to live longer for his new family. Fast-paced and filled with unusual characters, BONE FACTORY is a good but depressing mystery. This is the second in the series and author Sidor tends to rely on the idea that the readers have read the first book and therefore have been introduced to the main characters and the city before this second installment began. It wasn't until many pages into it that both leads were even described. Because this is the first of the series I've read, I had pictured them completely differently and I had to go back to reread the beginning of the book to see if I missed an early description. It completely took me out of the story for a long while. The book is filled with metaphors galore, many with the sound of poetry, and Sidor also has the habit of using sentence fragments for a good percentage of his pages. This does reflect the fast, bare sentiments of the characters, but it also tends to make the reading a bit too like an old B movie film noir. A solid crime story with hard-working cops who skip no steps to get to the solution, BONE FACTORY does a competent job of drawing the readers into a location and letting them work the clues with the cops. It is a fine police procedural that will stay with you after the last page is finished.
Reviewed by Sharon Katz, September 2005
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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)
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