The Dime

The first entry to the Betty Rhyzyk series follows Detective Rhyzyk (Riz) from Brooklyn to Dallas. Assigned to the narcotics unit, she is determined to make her way and find a place with the men on her team. Her sexuality is challenged at every turn. She is a complex character with a difficult backstory. One of the heroes of the book is her memory of her Uncle Benny, a constant voice when she is in trouble. I liked this literary device and looked forward to his advice. The characters are strong and well developed. Kent introduces us to Betty’s life partner, Jackie, her police partner, Sean, and the other members of her team. She also reaches outside the tight-knit group to bring in side characters that influence the direction of the show more plot. The villains are over the top and probably brought my rating down.The level of violence is high, making this dark police procedural occasionally too much for me. The writing is spot on and the author takes time to set the scene in both atmosphere and tension. I think I just need a break before I move on to #2. show less

Kathleen Kent has just released her new novel The Dime. I've read and really liked her historical novels and was looking forward to this newest book.

Wow. This latest was a complete departure from her previous work - and I loved it!

The Dime introduces us to Betty Rhyzyk - a Brooklyn cop from a long line of law enforcement. She and her girlfriend have relocated to Dallas. Now working as a Narcotics Detective, Riz has no lack of cases. The Mexican drug cartels are making sure of that. But when her latest case results in disaster, Riz is determined to avenge her colleagues and her reputation. Drug dealers, stalkers, white supremacists, the rich, the poor, a cult and more populate the pages of The Dime.

I loved this character! I could show more absolutely picture her physically and her personality comes through in her thoughts, dialogue and actions. There are two sides to Riz - the tough cop she needs to be at work and the softer personal side at home with Julie. The supporting cast is just as well drawn. There's a wide variety of personalities on the squad. I really liked Riz's partner Seth. And of course, there are those that don't want a lesbian leader. Kent handles these conflicts and attitudes with a deft hand in both Betty's personal and work lives.

Extremely well plotted, great police procedural work and the action will keep you turning pages. The ground has been laid - and this reader will be waiting for the next in the series. More please. show less

MYSTERY/SUSPENSE
Kathleen Kent
The Dime: A Novel
Mulholland Books
Hardcover, 978-0-3163-1103-8 (also available as an e-book, an audio book, and on Audible), 352 pgs., $26.00
February 14, 2017

Elizabeth “Betty” Rhyzyk, a gutsy, smart, unconventional detective from a family of Brooklyn cops, moves to Dallas and joins the police department’s narcotics unit. The first investigation she runs in Dallas, involving Mexican drug cartels and East Texas meth cookers engaged in a turf war, spins out of control. As the bodies begin to stack up, Rhyzyk acquires a sadistic stalker, and the action takes a startlingly brutal turn.

The Dime, the first in a new mystery/suspense series, is also a change of genre for Kathleen Kent, best-selling author of show more historical fiction. Detective Rhyzyk‘s first-person narrative begins with a bang and doesn’t let up. Fast-paced and tightly plotted, The Dime serves up whiplash-inducing twists and an (unfortunately) politically timely white nationalist-supremacist element, with “Old Testament revelations … of such monstrous proportions that they would make even sleeping infants cry and feral dogs slink away in terror,” reminding me of Texas’s own David Lindsey.

Kent provides Rhyzyk a richly detailed backstory, and a refreshingly realistic relationship with Jackie, her girlfriend of eight years, a pediatric radiologist whose family disapproves of the couple’s “lifestyle” (“hom’sexiality”). The Dime’s cast of supporting characters is diverse and satisfyingly complex. Kent allows her characters and their relationships to each other the development they deserve, and makes us care about their lives and fates.

Dallas is a character in The Dime, and Texans will feel as if they’re on a ride-along with Rhyzyk. They’ll also appreciate a New Yorker attempting to adapt to “Texas … the only place in the known universe … that actually got hotter after the sun went down,” where a dog-walking suburban woman packs a “Beretta with a diamond-pavé grip” (a Valentine’s Day gift, natch). “Texans … will froth at the mouth when delayed thirty seconds at a red light,” Rhyzyk says, “but will wait an hour for three fried eggs and a minute steak.”

Kent is a multi-faceted and multi-talented writer. Her action scenes are exhilarating; her humor alternating between teasing (“never trust a short man with a tall list of grudges”), and sharp (“What’s the difference between yogurt and Texas? … Yogurt’s the one with the live culture”); her dialogue snappy (“Stop trying to make me feel better,” Rhyzyk tells her partner, “I’ve gotten worse ass-drubbings from my grandmother.” “She the one that was the nun?”). Kent’s style with the darker elements of The Dime is visceral, evoking chills and causing me to squirm in my chair.

The Dime isn’t all action and cleverness, though. These characters are also introspective. “If not for Jackie, my idea of emotional self-help would be half a bottle of Jameson,” Rhyzyk admits. “I’d be living out of a suitcase, all my T-shirts would be black, and I’d still be buying underwear in the boys’ section of Target.”

Benny, Rhyzyk’s late uncle and mentor, provides insight. “That’s the thing about cults,” Benny says. “They not only dig the ditch, they lie in it, cover themselves over with dirt, and then cry about how dark the world has gotten.”

Speaking of cults, the construction of the climax to The Dime is ingenious, the tension excruciating. The denouement nicely tees up the second installment, leaving one crucial question dangling. I await the next novel in this series happily, if impatiently.

Originally published in Lone Star Literary Life. show less

Tall, red-headed female detective in Texas would be a target for not-so-friendly ribbing from fellow cops even if she were not a lesbian. But she is, A drug bust gone terribly wrong puts her in the sights of a relentless killer whose cruelty and stealth seem more than human. Memories of advice from her Uncle Ben, a Polish cop in NY give her strength when things are at their worst and she faces the killer on her own. What seems like an ordinary case of cartel vs. cartel has a different twist. The detective's domestic life is neither minimized nor sensationalized, a good balance of problems with bigots and support from unexpected sources.

This novel started off incredibly strong. Well-written, great characters.

Along the way, though, some stuff that was not so fun crept in. Far too many old Polish sayings. But still, the characters drove it.

Then we met the antagonist, and then it veered very, very close to dumb and cliche, at times slipping across that border, then skipping back over, then back again. I won't really mention it, because it's all spoiler material, but let's just say I was very disappointed with the villain of the piece.

Still, for all that, the writing continued to be, for the most part, quite strong.

Then came the denouement, and the author had to resort to dumb decisions and a last minute arrival of the calvary, completely robbing us of a satisfying show more ending.

Funny enough, I'd ranked this a four when I started writing this review, and I just talked myself down to a three. show less

Betty Rhyzyk is a transplanted Brooklyn cop now in the narcotics division of the Dallas Police Department. A routine stakeout of a known drug distributor’s house becomes a murderous bloodbath when a Mexican drug lord drives by and sees his distributor talking with a policeman and a neighborhood do-gooder who reported his dog locked in his car in the Dallas heat. Three dead and one wounded does not make for a successful stakeout.

With the drug investigation now becoming a murder investigation, the lines of authority are blurring. One thing is apparent, though, Betty is being targeted by someone.

The Dime by Kathleen Kent moves along pretty swiftly. Betty, a tall, striking redheaded lesbian among her mostly conservative male police show more coworkers, has it tough. Being of Polish descent and being from Brooklyn, NY don’t make it any easier. Kent has created an interesting ensemble cast, including Betty’s deceased Uncle Benny, a cop who constantly whispers in her ear when the going gets tough.

However, Kent enters the universe of the unbelievable when a story of a murderous Mexican drug cartel morphs into evangelical Christianity and Civil War reenactments. So, what starts out as an action packed, interesting but somewhat routine mystery veers off the road. There is action throughout the book, which makes for fast reading.

I’m sure there will be more Betty Rhyzyk books and I’ll certainly give the second one a read through. But hopefully Kent will stay on track with that one. show less

Read this because it was nominated for the Edgar. It is a very standard quick moving mystery. The difference is that the cop at the center of the story is a lesbian who has moved from New York to Texas and has to deal with all that entails.

******Spoiler alert******

I really enjoyed when she teamed up with civil war re-enactors, and the bit with the dog in the beginning was interesting.
By the end of the book, 3 cops in her group have been shot and one has been brutalized, felt this was a bit much. Especially the scenes with the crazed cult. Too much sadism and blood for my taste.