Murder in Missoula

Loner Charles Durbin, pet groomer and provider of all icky feelings, is fairly new to the small Montana town. This fresh start provides him with an opportunity to obscure his past and shield his immoralities from his new relationships. But as with any depraved person, he has already set his morbid sights on Marie-Justine and her best friend Anne.

Anne, a Missoula native, and freshly divorced Marie-Justine, have been best friends for years and are all but sisters. A college professor, Marie-Justine yearns for independence, but, in the same turn, is afraid of it. Nearly 24 hours after her divorce finalizing, she finds herself celebrating with retired DEA agent, Joe Nicoletti. He’s immediately smitten with her, seeing that she resembles his deceased wife, but he soon finds he’s more than attracted to her looks and they begin to fall in love.

In the few short days Nicoletti and Marie-Justine have been acquainted, a tragedy befalls Missoula, where fate unites good and evil together in an instant. Has Nicoletti arrived in Missoula and into Marie-Justine’s life in the nick of time to foil Charles Durbin’s malicious plan? Will the war against a serial killer be waged or prevented before it’s begun?

With a Law & Order: SVU quality, Murder in Missoula can easily be categorized as a classic murder-mystery novel, having a synonymous theme of hero versus villain, as the reader hopes good will triumph over evil. Although the villain was apparent, the chase to implicate and prevent him from doing further damage was riveting, challenging Nicoletti’s intuitiveness to be two steps ahead of Durbin.

Laurence Giliotti created several first-person voices throughout the novel, switching from dark and wicked to innocent and pure, an ability Giliotti practiced effortlessly. Charles Durbin’s active voice was concurrently interesting and disturbing to read, while Marie-Justine’s provided hope. Giliotti, author of the Inspector Gambrelli Mystery Series, deservedly made room for himself on the murder-mystery bookshelf.