The Dying Hour: a novel by Rick Mofina

Mofina graps you by the throat and never lets go, September 24, 2005*****


This is the second Mofina thriller I have read. This one is set in the Pacific Northwest instead of San Francisco with a new journalist/detective combo. Journalist intern Jason Wade is assigned to the night police beat at the Seattle Mirror, a dead end posting compared to his intern competitors. Or it is until he chances on the story of Karen Harding missing with her empty car left by the side of the road as she is heading for Vancouver to see her sister. Wade relentlessly chases leads and beats the cops to the punch garnering front page headlines until he blows it. He gets his suspect on the cell phone when a woman screams in the background "Save me". His editors decide to run the story on the front page above the fold only to drop Wade like a hot potato when it turns out the suspect was rescuing a woman whose car was being swept away in a flood. But all is not what it seems. Jobless Jason continues the chase and ultimately tracks the killer to his lair.