Here is the publisher’s blurb, my review will follow :
Retired detective T.J. Peterson is working the table scraps that his former partner, Danny Little, sometimes throws his way. One of them has Peterson hearing from a snitch about a body buried 30 years ago, the same time a drug kingpin went MIA. Peterson is also ducking an ex-con with a grudge, a hitman who likes playing jack-in-the-box with a 12 gauge. Then a former lover re-enters Peterson’s life and begs him to find her daughter, an addict who knows too much about the local drug trade for her own safety. The search for the girl and the truth about the 30-year-old corpse takes Peterson down into the hell of it all, deep into the underworld of crack houses, contract killing, money laundering, and crooked professionals doubling down on their investments of black money.
It was nice to find myself with T.J. Peterson once again. I missed him the second I finished reading The Drop Zone.
I found this novel a nice change of pace from my two previous reads. Bob Kroll not only brought me straight into dark side of Halifax but he also took me deep within the darkest recesses of T.J Peterson. From my cushy leather sofa, Kroll transported me into The Hell Of It All!! (and it is indeed a frightening place)
In this second novel of the T.J Peterson series, Peterson is being hit from all sides, I don’t know how he manages to keep it all together and get through day after day. He’s resilient and a fighter. I like Peterson’s dark side, I like that he’s broken, vulnerable and so perfectly flawed. He is definitely navigating a very thin line. This “Hell” is all around Peterson; inside his head, on the streets and following him around in the shadows.
There is a considerable amount of dialogue in the novel, many different characters to keep track of — quite a bit of cop speak. This just adds to the atmosphere Kroll has created. There is no faffing about, the novel moves quickly, sometimes I found it hard to keep up. Yet, as I plowed through the novel I thought to myself, Kroll must have been a cop in a previous life, this just seems all too real.
While this is the second book in the T.J Peterson series, it reads perfectly well as a stand-alone.
Kroll has said himself that Peterson is an anti-hero, I couldn’t agree more. I hope this isn’t the end of the T.J. Peterson saga, there is so much that I still need to know. This book is for fans of dark, gritty police/mystery dramas. If this is your genre, then The Hell Of It All should definitely be on your reading list.
P.S to Bob Kroll : I’d definitely subscribe to T.J Peterson’s twitter account.
My review of The Drop Zone, the first T.J. Peterson novel can be found HERE
The Hell Of It All by Bob Kroll
Published by ECW press
ISBN: 9781770413382
Pages: 312
Available now
Thank you ECW press for sending me a copy for review.