Black Widower is the eighth installment of the Jimmy Parisi series by Thomas Laird. The books in the series are published by Endeavor Press in the UK, but are also available in the US via Amazon’s CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform. Jimmy and his partner Doc, who work for the Chicago Police as homicide detectives, are charged with solving the disappearance and subsequent murder of Jennifer Skodati, who was married to a fellow vice cop. Everyone knows Derek Skodati is a dirty cop, but because of his previous training and working as a homicide detective, he knows what to cover up, and Parisi can’t get any evidence to prove Skodati’s crimes. As a vice cop, Skodati loves to beat up prostitutes, use them for their services, and release them since he knows it will be his word against theirs.

Plank, Louisiana is home to Leonard Tare, a Vietnam vet, who lives in a shack on the bayou and hunts for alligators for zoos and exhibits, as well as alligator meat. When he cuts an alligator open, he finds the head of what turns out to be Jennifer Skodati. Derek thought that by dumping his wife’s body parts in the bayou, the evidence would be destroyed.

Jimmy, who is an honest policeman, hates Skodati, and wants more than anything to find the evidence to charge him with the crime. This proves almost impossible.

As the story evolves, it becomes clear that rather than spend time solving crimes, most of the main characters, Derek, Jimmy, and Doc have other things on their minds than solving cases. Rather than focusing on the investigation, the characters focus on sexual escapades, which become the main part of the book. The language is quintessential men’s locker room, and the sex scenes depicted are obviously the sexual fantasies of the author. With the exception of a few interviews, most of the story is spent on torrid sexual encounters.. No wonder it takes months for Jimmy to solve the case.

With the exception of Derek, the characters are not well developed, and don’t seem real. They are not particularly likeable. Leonard Tare, however, is interesting, but most readers won’t be able to relate to him either.

Unfortunately, this thriller is only thrilling if readers want to read a lot of trashy sex, and don’t care about a story and plot that is exciting. The writing is so-so, but will appeal to a male audience with nothing but vulgarity on the mind. The ending is predictable, and by the end, most readers won’t really care about the outcome.

Not a book for mainstream thriller readers of for anyone with a sense of morality.

Special thanks to NetGalley for supplying a review copy of this book.