TLC Book Tours Book Review: L.A. Rotten

Author: Jeff Klima
Title: L.A. Rotten
Publisher: Alibi
Publish Date: May 12, 2015
Buy: Amazon

Review Copy Provided By: TLC Book Tours & Net Galley
Book Blurb: 

As an expert crime-scene cleaner, Thomas Tanner charges big money to carve out bullets, mop up fluids, disinfect walls, and dispose of whatever’s left of whomever was unlucky enough to require his services. For a handsome young ex-con determined to stay out of trouble, it’s practically a dream job—until he discovers a grisly pattern to his work: a string of gruesome murders at a cheap motel chain, always in Room 236.

While prying into a serial killer’s nasty scheme, Thomas finds himself with a sharp-witted strip-bar waitress plastered to his side—and his conscience. Even more surprising, the killer starts prying into his life, luring Thomas into a twisted friendship. As Thomas struggles against his adversary’s wicked whims, risking the lives of the few people he holds dear, bodies pile up everywhere he turns. With a psychopath calling the shots, Thomas has little choice but to clean house once and for all.

Review: I started out reading this book not sure of what to expect. Tom isn't your typical mystery hero. He's a druggie and an ex-con and not all that likable at times. In fact most of the time I wanted to smack him. Hard!

The novel is dark and gritty. I wanted to use a better word than that, but gritty fits the bill perfectly. There's sex, and quite a lot of it, and not the pretty kind that can be found in romance novels.

Tom works for a crime scene cleaner, so he sees a lot of blood, guts and gore and he's been noticing a lot more of it in a certain hotel chain's room 236.

When he inadvertently hooks up (not in a sexual way) with a waitress from his favorite strip club, he gets involved with finding the killer, who starts communicating with him via letters, on his landlady's stationary no less. The killers letters are quite good too.

This is one book where the killer is really quite interesting. He's almost more likable than Tom at times, if a sicko killer could be likable, and if you don't want to use likable, interesting will work as well.

I wasn't sure how I was going to feel about this book at first. It was darker than most of the things I read, but when Ivy, the waitress enters the picture, she brings a little levity to the story, and he makes Tom more likable. Before she entered the picture, Tom was really kind of a dick, and that's the nicest thing you can say about him.

This book had some comparisons to the Dexter tv series, and I can kind of agree with that since Tom's investigations don't involve law enforcement.

The ending will leave you breathless and wondering what is going to happen next and you'll even feel more than a bit relieved about the outcome for one of the characters.

If you are looking for a mystery that has more of an edge, this is definitely a book to pick up. I didn't think I'd like it at first, and I didn't, I loved it!

Rating: 5 flowers

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