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LITTLE GIRL BLUE
by David Cray
Carroll & Graf, January 2002
320 pages
$24.00
ISBN: 078670943X


Buy in the UK | Buy in Canada

Lieutenant Julia Brennan has worked hard to thrive in the New York Police Department. She was treated to the usual derogatory harassing behavior but did not capitulate. She now commands C Squad, Manhattan North Homicide and has her eyes set on higher rank. When this book opens she has been called to Central Park where the naked body of a little girl has been found. It was a frigid night and the body, literally, had turned blue. It was Julie who labeled her Little Blue Girl. The soles of the feet were abraded indicating that the girl had walked or run into the park on her own. She died of exposure, but someone or something made her flee. And surely someone or ones had seen her running.

Julia takes this case personally. She is even willing to jeopardize her future in the department in order to solve this case. For help she has her uncle Robert Reid, a newspaper correspondent who had cared for her when her alcoholic parents were unable to, and Peter Foley, an undercover police officer chasing pedophiles. It was obvious very soon that this was a case involving children used for sexual purposes.

This is an excellent police procedural that takes the reader through to the solution of a case only the police must go outside the department and, indeed, outside the law in what they believe is a good cause. As Julia says, in this case the end does justify the means. One of the things we learn as we read this book is the way politics dictates and runs the police department. As one gets higher and higher in the command structure, getting positive publicity and not making mistakes is more important than solving a crime or protecting the public. It is this attitude that drives Julia to go outside the system.

The book is realistic, even gritty, but to the authorís credit it does not exploit either violence or sex. It does not pander to prurient thoughts by describing intimately and in detail the child sex and pornography. It is tastefully treated and the most sensitive of readers can probably handle it. Still, it does deal with child prostitution and oneís imagination can conjure up some frightening and appalling scenes.

The characters are very richly developed. They are multi-faceted people with strengths and weaknesses that are evident to the reader. We get to know Julia and Peter especially well. Julia fought her way through a dysfunctional family and childhood problems to become a focused sometimes caustic police person. Her daughter is her greatest weakness and she tries, as best she can, to shield her. Peterís life contained a great tragedy as well. His daughter was seized and never found and his wife then committed suicide. This is what drives his quest to take as many pedophiles as possible off the streets.

The plot is straightforward and, in fact, a little predictable. It is the story we all like to read, the loner against the figures of authority, the cowboy who rides into town to defeat the bad guys at high noon and then canters off into the sunset. We identify with Julia and Peter both because we like them and because what they are doing is what we see as good. It is a satisfying story that held my interest until the very last page. I recommend it.

Reviewed by Sally Fellows

Lieutenant Julia Brennan heads the investigation into the body of a naked young girl. She finds her life turned upside down as she struggles to identify the child and bring the guilty parties to justice, finding herself in a world of paedophiles and foreign adoption agencies. However, as she gets closer to the killer, the killer is coming closer to her own home and her own child.

'Little Girl Blue' deals with a topic that most of us find abhorrent - paedophilia. Cray does not go into detail about sexual acts or anything of that ilk, meaning that although the general subject matter is paedophilia, we never find out enough to make us wish to put the book down. Instead, it actually keeps us hooked as Cray leads us through his (at times) complicated plot.

He succeeds in creating two very interesting characters, Peter and Brennan, both of whom have various sides to their character and I can easily imagine seeing them again in a future novel. A detailed novel, with clearly checked facts, Cray does well in bringing New York City alive and writing an enjoyable, recommended tale. Dark, fast-paced and well written, Cray has another success on his hands here.

Reviewed by Luke Croll

Dealing with the murder of a child is difficult under the best of circumstances, but something about finding the nude body of a young girl in Central Park on a cold January day resonates deeply for tough-edged NYPD Lieutenant Julia Brennan. Little Girl Blue" are the first words that come to her mind as she views the body, at once referring to the color of her skin and a sense of pathos. The bottom of the girl's feet are abraded and imbedded with asphalt, which indicates that she was running unclothed into the park to get away from something. What could possibly have caused such an act? And how could nobody have noticed a young girl in these circumstances?

As commander of C Squad, North Homicide, Julia is an excellent manager who knows the strengths and weaknesses of each person on her team well and uses each individual appropriately. Her main concern is that the case will be taken away from them and given to a different unit. That is unacceptable, as this murder has reached her on a deep personal level, one that almost compromises her ability to do the job as it is supposed to be done. It's a high profile situation, in that the body was found so near to the exclusive residences surrounding Central Park. The girl had to come from one of the buildings in the immediate area. Given the fact that she is naked, it is assumed that there is a sexual element to the crime; and Julia's worst suspicions are confirmed when they find evidence of a child prostitution and pornography ring.

Julia partners with a rogue cop by the name of Peter Foley who works only on these types of investigations. He has built a web site to lure pedophiles out into the open and is involved in some shady undercover operations as part of the Sex Crimes Unit. His motivation is that his young daughter disappeared several years earlier; his wife subsequently committed suicide. Peter's behavior leads Julia to wonder if he is part of the crime rather than its solution. At the same time, there's a sexual tension between these 2 isolated individuals that is perfectly etched.

Little Girl Blue is a tremendous book with some of the most excellent characterization I have seen in a long time. Julia Brennan is a most interesting protagonist. We see her professional side, her tenacity in an investigation, her ambition and drive as she works towards becoming a captain. We also see her personal side, her fierce loyalty to the uncle that helped raise her, her love for her 13-year-old daughter. We learn about Julia's own miserable childhood and what it took to become the strong woman that she is today. As the narrative progresses, Julia has to kill people. We see her reaction to those killings, the all too human reaction that normally is overlooked in books of this type. We also see her dealing with departmental politics and finding ways to accomplish her objective in spite of the constraints placed on her by the law.

The secondary characters are similarly well drawn: Peter, who has insulated himself from all feeling since his daughter's disappearance; the uncle, a strong presence in Julia's life, both personally and professionally; the daughter, who is on the verge of blossoming into a young woman; and the various members of the department.

I was absorbed with the book right from the first page. It was not a quick read; indeed the complexity of characterization and plot led me to read slower than usual. The police procedural aspects were well done, the New York setting perfectly delineated; the conclusion satisfied on all counts. Although the subject matter may seem lurid, it was handled well and never graphically flaunted at the reader. The book was a gripping read and one which I highly recommend.

Reviewed by Maddy Van

A naked little girl, blue with cold, the soles of her feet abraded and worn, is found dead in Central Park one freezing January morning. Lt. Julia Brennan, Manhattan North detective, is sure someone must have seen her, so she sets her detectives to searching for that witness. Meanwhile, a man leaves a Church after hearing a Latin mass, and trades child porn with another.

If you can get past the repulsion of the juxtaposition of religion and pedophilia and a dead 9 year old with no one to claim the body, then you are in for a solid police procedural. Brennan and her team search for the person who used "Little Girl Blue" so badly that she ran into the park during a bitter night, so cold that freezing to death was preferable to remaining in her dwelling. They finally do find out Blue's real name, and by tracing pedophiles, find the place she had been held.

I took this book to work with me, read the first couple of chapters during my coffee break, and put it aside, thinking I could never read any more of it, but had nothing else to read with my lunch, so I persisted, and then I couldn't put it down. Because Cray treats the perverts as criminals that have to be tracked down and jailed, and doesn't dwell on the perversions, the book transcends its awful subject.

Reviewed by Barbara Franchi

Reviewed by Barbara Franchi, December 2001

This book has more than one review. Click here to show all.

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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)


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