Reviews: City of Suspects

“Jane is everything you want in a PI: daring, quirky and with a smart-aleck sense of humor. Jane follows in the grand tradition of other gumshoes such as Elvis Cole and Toby Peters.”  

Roberta Austin, Murder and Mayhem Book Club

”Fast, fresh and funny, Jane Lanier is a delight.”

April Henry, author of “Learning to Fly"

“In 'City of Suspects,' newcomer Katy King brings us a heroine to remember: Smart, self-deprecating and sexy,  Jane Lanier takes her rightful place in the pantheon of tough but sensitive female private eyes. But King's best character, by far, is Portland, Oregon. King captures the laid-back, latte-sipping Northwest like few other fiction writers of the day, from the sweet seediness of the Virginia Cafe to the Victoriana of the Belmont district. King makes Portland spring off the page every bit as much as Robert Crais' L.A. The story moves at a staccato clip that rarely lets up. A fun read. ”

Conrad Haynes, author of “Bishop's Gambit, Declined”, “Perpetual Check” and “Sacrifice Play”

“The city in question is Portland, where King lives (though she often works in Salem)...City of Suspects introduces us to Portland PI Jane Lanier. In the first few pages, she gets rained on, attacked by a groggy security guard and finds a dead body sitting in her office chair, slumped over her desk. Then the pace really picks up. You'd be hard-pressed to find any evidence that City of Suspects is a first novel. It's fast and furious, gritty and sophisticated and features the best new detective in a very long time. King has an easy, relaxed way with words that helps make the reader feel right at home. The novel set some records for sales at its launch party. It deserves lots and lots of readers. I will still my neck out here: This arguably is the best first mystery novel in the past five years or so. ”

"Great Mystery Novel" From the Statesman Journal, November 2, 2003
Review by Dan Hayes