For the first time, the CGM book club assigned two books in the same month, the third and fourth entries in a seven-book mystery series. Being swamped with annual meetings, I was able to get through only one: The Hidden Law, which is fourth in the series.
That we were assigned numbers 3 & 4 shows you a bit of the difficulty in figuring out the correct order of the series. The author provides no guidance whatsoever. I suppose that each book can stand on its own, and in fact, I did not sense that I arrived in the middle of something. However, I’m given to understand that not only is the series chronological, but that the main character evolves and improves on his journey. It seems to me that a reader who was planning to read the entire set might enjoy it more reading them in order. It just struck me as odd that one must research it to know for sure.
The main character is Henry Rios. He’s a self-made Latino lawyer who has his own firm in Los Angeles. He’s also openly gay and has a live-in partner of 5 years. However, home life is anything but stable in this story; Josh is HIV-positive and Henry is negative. Josh’s dealing with his status feels reasonable, and thus their relationship is spiraling out of control. Still, Henry is a very with-it guy who reacts quite calmly to the developments.
Henry has also begun to see a therapist, which will yield a great deal of insight into Henry’s relationship with his father, which will lead to a very thorough understanding of the solution of the mystery, which, near its end, is clarified in a passage of striking beauty, so compelling that it leads the reader to think that Michael Nava and Henry Rios are probably one in the same. (George selected the passage as his favorite at the book club meeting.)
As mysteries go, this one was neither the best I’ve ever read nor the worst. The plot proceeded linearly to the conclusion; there were no major surprises. That is not to say that it was easy to figure out who did it, but the mystery itself was not the central theme of this book. I suspect that none of the seven mysteries will be dominated by its underlying plot. Instead, this is a book about character, and in particular, it is about Henry Rios.
Henry should satisfy the liberal in you. He knows all about being down and out. He channeled a bad upbringing and became an efficient, competent lawyer. He believes that men join the police force to be brutal and corrupt. This last one unnerves me a bit, but I suppose if I were Latino and were born, raised, and lived in LA, I’d probably have seen my share of bad guys who were supposed to be good guys. Still, I sensed that Henry would be just as suspicious of a stranger cop as he would of a stranger gang member, and that is a sad commentary of society in general.
Henry endears trust wherever he goes. He is imminently likeable, and so too, I expect, is Michael Nava. I read somewhere that Nava stopped writing altogether after the Henry Rios mysteries were completed. I hope he is simply on sabbatical instead. Enjoy.