Review: Murder in Color by Emmi Lawrence

Title: Murder in Color (DaSunder Chronicles: Book Two)

Author: Emmi Lawrence

Publisher: Loose Id

Length: 313 Pages

Category: Sci-Fi/Fantasy

At a Glance: I was amazed and sucked right into this fantastic story, and am hoping for another wild novel with Salain and Jevette; after all, they were just getting started.

Reviewed By: Maryann

Blurb: Medical Examiner Salain Dusari doesn’t like chaos. He prefers things clean and uncomplicated, like the dead. Yet, when he discovers a yellow maze painted on one of his corpses, he gets everything but uncomplicated in the form of the Maze Killer–a serial killer reemerged to haunt the city once more. But that’s not the only person returning to haunt Salain. Detective Arman Omisto, Salain’s old lover, and his partner, Detective Jevette Tunalti, arrive to give the case another crack, bringing a desert’s expanse of memories and lust with them. Between the two detectives, only one is truly excited to see Salain. Problem is, it’s the wrong man.

With Jevette seemingly uninterested in smoothing old hurts, Salain doesn’t think he has a chance of convincing him that the one night they spent together had been the real thing. Yet, when the hunt for the serial killer turns deadly and they only have each other to turn to, he thinks they might just find the trust they need in order to risk their hearts all over again. But with danger blowing in like a sandstorm, violent and sudden, neither of them might live long enough for it to matter.

Review: With the help of its citizens, Governor Lurinto Acasto cleaned up the gangs in DaSunder, a city that’s surrounded by an unrelenting desert. Lurinto has made the city prosperous with trade and the factories that produce paint from the topopyi plant. The topoyi paint became a monopoly but was mainly used by the city’s artists, and their paintings sold for so much money because you could escape into them thanks to the topoyi.

Salain Dusari has always lived in DaSunder. He’s currently the medical examiner at the Wasterli Station in DaSunder. He’s stubborn, snarky and grumpy at times, but he has his reasons. He hates that some people think he needs protection, or can’t do his job. He doesn’t like being coddled, it’s hurtful to him, but he also hides a secret that could get him killed.

At Wasterli Station someone has breached Salain’s lab and used the topoyi paint on a corpse. It draws him and Calvo, his lead ME, into the maze, the same painted maze used by the Maze Killer, a case that has plagued detectives Arman Omisto and Jevette Tunalti for years. Both detectives are called to Wasterli Station, and Salain is not necessarily looking forward to their presence. He has a history with both the detectives.

The setting for this novel could be the past or the future or some far away planet. Desert life is harsh but exotic, sandstorms can occur at any time, and sand gets into every crevice, especially on humans. There’s never a place where the characters are without a scarf to wipe their sweat or protect themselves from the harsh sand, and people go nowhere without waterskins. It’s an absolute wild ride when Salain and Jevette find themselves lost and jumping from painting to painting, never knowing what danger could lie ahead. The names of the characters and drugs along with the colorful descriptions, deceit, jealousy, greed and action created a great mystery. I was amazed and sucked right into this fantastic story, and am hoping for another wild novel with Salain and Jevette; after all, they were just getting started.

Murder in Color is the sequel to Shatter by Glass, which introduces Salain Dusari, Calvo, Detective Brettoni Rhodes and Marona Baino as well as the unique desert city of DaSunder. Both of these novels are well worth the read.

You can buy Murder in Color here:
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