She Treads Softly: What Harms You

Wednesday, July 26, 2023

What Harms You

What Harms You by Lisa Black
7/25/23; 336 pages
Kensington Books
Locard Institute Thriller#2

What Harms You by Lisa Black is a very highly recommended mystery/thriller and the second book in the Locard Institute series.

The first thing that happens when Dr. Ellie Carr arrives for her first day as an instructor at the Locard Institute, a forensic research center which holds classes for law enforcement experts, is that her key card didn't work. The second event was that Dr. Barbara Wright, the instructor she is replacing, is found dead on the floor of a supply closet. The death appears to be an accident, but Ellie and her supervisor Dr. Rachael Davies are suspicious. When another death occurs, the two team up to try and find the connection between the two murders. Two different classes are being held and it seems the guilty party must be one of the attendees.

With What Harms You Lisa Black has written another excellent forensic mystery/thriller. The real-life scientific details she provides as an crime scene analyst and investigator add depth and realism. Completing the exceptional narrative is the carefully crafted intricate plot. Add in the complex, fully-realized characters and the result is a compelling mystery that will hold your complete attention to the tense, exciting denouement.

Even though this is part of a series, beginning with Red Flags, What Harms You works well as a stand alone. Anyone who appreciates novels with details about the forensics and scientific details involved in an investigation along with strong, competent female characters will enjoy What Harms You immensely. I'm looking forward to the next installment of this series.

Disclosure: My review copy was courtesy of Kensington Books via NetGalley.

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John Updike's six rules for reviewing:

1. Try to understand what the author wished to do, and do not blame him for not achieving what he did not attempt.

2. Give him enough direct quotation--at least one extended passage--of the book's prose so the review's reader can form his own impression, can get his own taste.

3. Confirm your description of the book with quotation from the book, if only phrase-long, rather than proceeding by fuzzy precis.

4. Go easy on plot summary, and do not give away the ending.

5. If the book is judged deficient, cite a successful example along the same lines, from the author's oeuvre or elsewhere. Try to understand the failure. Sure it's his and not yours?

To these concrete five might be added a vaguer sixth, having to do with maintaining a chemical purity in the reaction between product and appraiser.....Review the book, not the reputation.... Better to praise and share than blame and ban. The communion between reviewer and his public is based upon the presumption of certain possible joys in reading, and all our discriminations should curve toward that end.