For this Throwback Thursday as we approach the Christmas season, I'm giving you a review of the third book in the Atticus Priest Series by Mark Dawson. You really can't miss for your mystery-loving friends or relatives when you purchase this series, but, please, give them the first book because they're all connected. Mark Dawson is also an excellent thriller writer as you will find in his John Milton Series.
Posted as: A view of . . . The Red Room
As the current trendy expression says, “It’s been a minute” since the second book in the Mark Dawson series (An Atticus Priest Mystery) A Place to Bury Strangers debuted, and since many, many novels have been read since that one, I found my memory to be a little rusty in recalling previously dead characters. I remember the discoveries that led to The Red Room, the ominous conclusion to that second book in the series. Mark Dawson is a creative and prolific author, marketer, and promoter of his work so it’s not surprising when some books take a little more time than others to get to his waiting readers.
I’ve been somewhat patiently waiting for The Red Room, both knowing and dreading the subject matter. Before I get into the actual review, I want to commend Mark Dawson and other authors who’ve tackled this abhorrent topic in their novels. More and more people are becoming aware of the children/young people/adults being sex-trafficked, bought and sold for perverse pleasures until they’ve served their purpose and are disposed of like so much garbage. After Epstein’s Island was exposed, the list and tapes of clients and encounters still concealed for purely political reasons, The Red Room stands as a poignant example of this centuries-old practice celebrated by those who worship the devil. Although that facet of this particular practice is not addressed in this story, it’s at the heart of this evil.
Atticus Priest, a former police detective, is one of the most uniquely attractive characters in Mark Dawson’s extensive repertoire and may be my favorite. His gift for perception of people’s most disguised personality and character traits along with his genius-level intellect, makes him an incredible private investigator and police consultant when his girlfriend DCI Mackenzie Jones (“Mack”) can interject him into a murder investigation. He pursues puzzles like a pugnacious pugilist. Unrelenting even when Mack tells him he must back off due to higher-ups in the chain of command’s disdain for Atticus. He never fails to out-perform them and solves their mysteries.
This story explodes when a favorite local man takes a deadly dive off the top access to the Salisbury Cathedral where he’s worked for many years. In the process of making a film from that horrific height, the gruesome splat of his body is discovered on the pavement below. Accompanying his shocking death, a video tape arrives at a local newspaper that shows this well-respected man compromised with a minor boy years before.
There are more deaths and more tapes which lead Atticus to suspect an online acquaintance “Jack” with whom he plays chess. Jack seems to know far more about Atticus than he should, and when Jack makes implications about these murders, Atticus is determined to discover who he is and what Jack’s motive is.
As with all of Mark’s work, the mystery is complex, disturbing, and full of distractions. The final twist which is shared only between Jack and Atticus reveals a great deal about things the reader hadn’t considered until now.
Well written, sad and disturbing, Mark presents a plain picture of how this sordid, demonic “business” operates. Again, I commend Mark for tackling this poignant subject. The more people who realize its perverse reality, hopefully the more can be done to effectively curtail the horror for those victims of it.
I gave the book 5 stars because of the way Mark dealt with this subject matter: carefully but boldly proclaiming the utter demonic practice of enslaving children/young people/adults to those who wish to pursue their perverse lusts and have the money to indulge them.
Father, you know Mark's heart, his every need, his talents and gifts that you've given him. I pray you would continue to bless his life and lead him in your ways. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.
