Down 'n Dirty Detectin' in D.C. (The Reflecting Pool REVIEW)

A police detective with a taste for bespoke suits, vintage watches, fine art, and classic European sports cars sounds like a conundrum, doesn’t it? Not easy to afford such high-ticket items on the average police salary. 

Nothing about Detective Marko Zorn is quite what you’d call “average”, though, in Otho Eskin’s debut crime thriller, The Reflecting Pool… and that fact makes for a highly-compelling read.

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When a woman is found facedown in the Reflecting Pool on the National Mall, Washington, D.C. homicide detective Marko Zorn has questions… not the least of which is how could an obviously fit female—in the prime of her life, by the look of her—manage to drown in less than two feet of water? 

Once the body has been identified as Sandra Wilcox, a Secret Service agent who’d been assigned to the First Lady’s detail, it seems that nearly every branch of the military, police, and government does its damnedest to shut down his investigation, leaving Marko with a larger question: what on earth did Ms. Wilcox get mixed up in, that has everyone scrambling so hard to keep the secret buried? Does it all boil down to politics… or was something else going on?

What no one fully appreciates about Marko, though, is the lengths he’s willing to go to, whether it’s solving a murder case in spite of what everyone is ordering (or downright threatening) him not to do… or funding his habit for luxurious possessions (mostly via a slew of decidedly-not-even-remotely-legal means, usually involving D.C.’s criminal underbelly). 

One thing is certain: by the time Marko wraps up his investigation, a whole lot of things will never be the same, again.

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There’s quite a bit going on in The Reflecting Pool, from Marko’s investigation (including dealings with the White House, the FBI, and a zealous terrorist, among others), to his various side gigs (which eventually intersect in highly-satisfying ways), but Eskin manages to keep things humming along briskly and all the plots straight, with no confusion for the reader (beyond the initial few pages, at least, when the various pieces are first introduced).

I quite like that Eskin doles out bits of backstory gradually, rather than forcing the reader to wade through it all at once; this approach adds a little extra mystery to Marko and his relationships. (Is Marko a likable character? Not precisely… but nor is he unlikable, either. What he is, is a multi-layered, very smart, schemer… which makes for a very interesting and often insightful detective, indeed.)

As for those myriad plot points and spinning wheels? They come together nicely in the end, with a conclusion I only partially saw coming… always a good thing, in my book.

Eskin has a winner on his freshman outing with The Reflecting Pool… and you can bet I’ll be snagging up the next Marko Zorn book he writes.

~GlamKitty