The Group

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Sure, Ron Green had made a mistake, but wasn't it one that millions of other guys hadn't made before him? And maybe he deserved some sort of punishment. But this? 

Being the main suspect in a single murder was bad enough, but at the same time knowing he was a potential victim of a serial killer was even worse.

My Review

I always make some notes while reading so I can recall a story for a review. Here are my first notations for The Group. “Professor (Ron) plays around on his wife and becomes a suspect because the lady he was sleeping with is killed violently. He pretty well becomes a piranha to everyone, loses his job, his wife, his kids, etc.” This might sound like a familiar theme, but it turned out that wasn’t true at all.

The story has several twists and turns, but it also has some tension that almost makes the reader feel helpless. Reading parts of it is like watching a bus hurtling towards a person in the road but not being able to get the person’s attention.

I have read other of Kevin Doyle’s books. Creating tension in the reader seems to be one of his skills. He seems to be able to create “sit on the edge of your seat” type of stories. This one was another of his successes.

read an excerpt...

Hollis fell silent as the ME went about her business although even he could pretty much guess what had happened. With no exit wound, the small caliber bullet had no doubt buried itself somewhere inside the skull, probably after ricocheting around for a while.

 “So how many does this make?” she asked without looking up. “Have you all hit the triple digits yet?”

 

 “Actually,” he said, “we passed the hundred mark at the end of last month. I’m not sure what number this one makes.”

“Well,” the ME said as she stood up and stripped off her gloves, “I won’t be able to put anything down officially till I get him on the table, but it’s pretty obvious what happened here.”

“One bullet back of the head,” Hollis said.

“Right. Which gets back to the oddity.”

“How did he end up lying face up?”

 “Exactly. Even a .22, in the back of the skull, should have sent him tumbling forward. This looks almost apologetic. Could it have been some sort of a robbery?”

 “That’s the nice thing about it, Hollis. My part’s easy. I just have to come up with the means. You guys get to do the whole motive and opportunity thing.”

Hollis grimaced as she walked off.

“Oh by the way.” She turned back to him. “I checked with the office before I left. This makes number one hundred twelve for the year. And only sixteen days to go.”

about Kevin R. Doyle...

A retired high-school teacher and former college instructor, Kevin R. Doyle is the author of numerous short horror stories. He’s also written four crime thrillers including The Group and The Anchor, and one horror novel, The Litter. In the last few years, he’s begun working on the Sam Quinton private eye series, published by Camel Press. The first Quinton book, Squatter’s Rights, was nominated for the 2021 Shamus award for Best First PI Novel.  The fourth Sam Quinton book, Clean Win, was released in March of 2023.

 

Web site: kevindoylefiction.com

Facebook: ffacebook.com/kevindoylfiction

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6473241.Kevin_R_Doyle

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09CGB2QV4

Barnes and Noble: https://bit.ly/3Phvkco

Google Books: https://bit.ly/469Y4u9

Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/the-group-29

 

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