Publisher's Weekly Review
Rookie LAPD homicide detective Matt Jones, the hero of Ellis's overheated crime novel, accepts that Kevin Hughes, his best friend and mentor, was killed in a robbery, until another detective's suspicious death points to a rogue police frame-up of an innocent man for what actually was the first in a series of ghastly ritual murders. Matt's eager-to-get-along partner, Denny Cabrera, can't be trusted, and his boss, Lt. Bob Grace, led the earlier, corrupt investigation. While pursuing an insane killer and evading his traitorous peers, Matt is distracted by a growing attraction to Kevin's widow-and by his obsession with the father who deserted him in childhood. If this were a Michael Connelly novel, Harry Bosch would pull himself together and soldier neurotically onward; in this one, Matt barely keeps himself from unraveling until the story breaks off. The plot offers many opportunities for pulpish melodrama, and Ellis (Murder Season) dives into most of them. Agent: Scott Miller, Trident Media Group. (Aug.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Booklist Review
*Starred Review* Know what a Chelsea Grin is? Readers who stay with Ellis' powerhouse of a novel are going to find out, and their response to this incredible bit of cruelty is sure to be mixed. Most will side with Matt Jones, Ellis' hard-bitten L.A. homicide detective, who thought he'd seen everything. Even he is unable to comprehend how anyone, no matter what their psychological issues . . . could do this to any living thing. Jones is a bystander to the crime that ignites the plot: a teacher's affair with his student that ends horribly. Why do the arresting officers start dying? Why do murders continue after the presumed killer is caught? Characters multiply and the plot grows ever more complex, but Ellis keeps everything in focus while building a staggering forward momentum. Then a tsunami of revelations and reversals begins, each put forth with stunning emotional force as everything Jones and the reader knew for sure is turned on its head. Awesome, as the kids say, but not necessarily right for late-night reading. Not with those Chelsea Grins.--Crinklaw, Don Copyright 2015 Booklist