FRANK ZAFIRO - AT THIS POINT IN MY LIFE (2012)

 

Synopsis/blurb ....

Jack “Mac” McCrae is about to retire. Without children or any family, he looks back over his career and his life and finds himself wondering what, if any, impact he’s had on this world.

Then a young woman reappears with a photograph of her mother — and his old lover — and an unknown child that might be her sister…and his daughter.

Mac agrees to accompany her to a small town in Oregon to get to the bottom of this mystery. Who is the little girl in the photograph? Is she his daughter? And where is she now?

But Mac discovers that no one in this small town wants to answer or even acknowledge these questions. He will have to find a way to overcome the stranglehold that the Tate family has on the town and work his way to the truth about who the little girl is, even if it kills him.

The first book in Jack McCrae mystery series.

One of the highlights of my last couple of years reading has been the discovery of author Frank Zafiro. I've enjoyed his Charlie 316 series, co-authored with Colin Conway (another fabulous find) as well as some of his standalone works. At This Point in My Life from nearly a decade ago was another enjoyable outing.

A detective retires and we spend the last day on the job with him. We see that he was a plodder, a capable detective but not exactly a fire-starter. A few weeks into retirement and a voice from his long past connects with him.  Soon, Jack McCrae is reluctantly involved in the hunt for a missing girl - maybe more of a voyage of discovery as opposed to an active missing persons case. He's tempted by the possibility that the missing child could well be his daughter and Rachel's sibling. Rachel has been stonewalled when presenting the picture of the girl and Rachel's own mother to her uncle, demanding an explanation.

Jack and Rachel head to Oregon for answers and things get more interesting. 

Small town mystery, small town corruption, a small town big shot, small town power, small town secrets and silence, small town bullies, small town fear. Outsiders, questions but no answers, a buy off attempt, a refusal and an escalation. I liked McCrae's investigation. I liked the butting of heads with the local king pin. I liked McCrae's hard headedness in the face of intimidation and violence. I enjoyed the persistence of him and Rachel. Eventually, they wheedle out a small nugget of information and after that the dam bursts. Answers, but no happy endings.

I liked the fact that there wasn't a Disney-esque ending. Life doesn't always give you what you want. There was a realism to the outcome which went well with all we had learned throughout the book. Another winner from Frank Zafiro.

4 from 5

Links to my 10 or so reviews of  Zafiro authored or co-authored tales can be found here. 

Read - (listened to) June, 2021

Published - 2012

Page count - 277 (6 hrs 1 min)

Source - Audible purchase

Format - Audible

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