The Assailant: a Lt. George Hastings Mystery

by: James Patrick Hunt

Published by: Minotaur Books

Reviewed by Julie Failla Earhart

James Patrick Hunt is back with another Lt. George Hastings mystery, The Assailant.

This time Hastings is called to the St. Louis riverfront when a hooker turns up dead. Mostly abandoned, the riverfront leaves few clues for Hastings and his team. All they can really determine is that the girl was strangled.

The girl’s death is considered tragic, but nothing to worry about until a second hooker turns up dead, this time on the other end of the metropolitan area. Is there a serial killer loose in the Gateway City? Hastings and his team of detectives aren’t sure, but the one thing they don’t want to do is let anything slip to the press. They don’t need panic-stricken citizens.

When a third woman is also found strangled, Hastings is sure a serial killer is on the loose. However, the third death doesn’t quite fit the MO of the other two. The third woman was not a hooker. Is it connected, or merely happenstance?

Hastings’ superiors form a joint task force between the City and County police departments.

The Assailant got off to a rocky start for me when Hunt didn’t know that a County morgue team isn’t going to be called to downtown St. Louis for a murder; St. Louis City and St. Louis County are two separate governments, each fully equipped to handle a single murder.

As St. Louis has been my adopted hometown for the last thirty years, I found that Hunt spent much too much time trying to prove he knew his way around the city. And he did okay; it’s that the locations got in the way of the story.

Hunt’s The Assailant also failed in two other main areas: 1) he gave detailed background on each and every character, even the secondary and walk-on characters. It got boring fast. 2) He told what he needed to show and showed scenes that were irrelevant.

Armchair Interviews says: Decent story that was a disappointing 2-star read because of such technical, logistical and writing problems.