Breakaway Books

Authored by Tami Hoag; Published 1997; Mystery

⭐️⭐️⭐️ / 🏖️🏖️

A Thin Dark Line was published almost thirty years ago—-and it reads like it. Still, the mystery is an engaging one, if you can stomach the extent of the heroine’s harassment.

In A Thin Dark Line, the small town of Bayou Breaux is in uproar after murder suspect Marcus Renard is released on a technicality. Convinced of Renard’s guilt and more than a little wound up, Detective Nick Fourcade corners Renard and nearly kills him—until sheriff’s deputy Annie Broussard steps in and arrests Fourcade. Now facing the hostility of the force for the betrayal of her fellow cop, Broussard dedicates herself to getting to the bottom of who really committed the murder that started all this. 

While I don’t doubt that the level of sexism and harassment in this novel is true to the time, it still made it incredibly difficult for me to read. Another sign of the times: Annie appears to be the only police officer even willing to entertain the idea of holding another cop accountable for physical assault, and for that, she is ostracized, subject to blatantly false accusations of drinking on the job, and repeatedly has lewd comments thrown her way. It felt way over the top, but I suspect it is not. However, the romance scenes also feel like they were written in a different decade, and all of the sexually charged rhetoric began to wear on me relatively early in the novel. Overall, I admired Annie’s willingness to do the right thing, but my admiration was quickly overshadowed by my fury at her supervisors for doing absolutely nothing to protect her.

As a mystery, the novel is well-crafted. There are a lot of different threads to track, and it is in no way obvious which crimes are connected to each other and which are not. Add to that the spookiness of the Mardi Gras mask that hides the villain’s face and Renard’s very creepy stalker vibes, and the tension is difficult to match. I appreciate the debate on justice, vigilantism and the unreliability of our court system, but I’m not sure that I bought into Fourcade as a hero as much as intended. Portrayed as mysterious, wise and deep, he struck me as more of a guy with a bad temper who is utterly convinced of his own rightness. It is his bad acts that stick Annie in a horrible situation, and I found that hard to get over.

A Thin Dark Line is a well-constructed mystery, but not exactly a pleasant read, especially if you are sensitive to sexual harassment.