Karen Dionne’s prequel novel The Killing- Uncommon Denominator was a pleasant surprise for me. It’s a good look into the pre- Rosie Larsen days of detectives Sarah Linden and Stephen Holder. The whole premise of writing a book based on a TV show that’s already based on a book threw me for a while, until I realized that it’s no worse than fan fiction (no, really, I looked. This book is actually much better than the fan fiction out there that operates on the exact same premise).
Sticking to the setting of the series, Holder and Linden are working on separate cases in the Seattle area. Holder is an undercover officer breaking up meth rings in Rainier Valley, a poor section of town whose primary inhabitants are trailer park dwelling meth dealers, users, and cooks. Sarah already has her detective shield, and is investigating two murders. The shootings of two brothers, Guy and Lance Marsee, in different parts of town on the same day lead Sarah to partner up with detective John Goddard. The Marsees, both geniuses, are killed in such a similar way, and so close together, that it can’t be a coincidence. The book sees Sarah and Stephen’s cases intertwining, but the two don’t actually have any contact, leaving the series’ storyline untarnished by the book. Instead, Holder deals directly with Goddard, giving him information about the meth cook whose untimely explosion brought police to the scene of Lance Marsee’s murder. The rest of the book sees Linden and Goddard conducting the countless interviews that provide the dialogue in the book followed by Sarah following hunches and gut feelings to solve the crime, often ignoring both her partner and common sense. An astute reader will be able to figure out the identity of the killer well before the fictional detectives do, just by paying attention to what’s revealed by some bit players in interviews. Linden, however, will chase down the one character that acts a linchpin to tie everyone together, only to find that she’s relatively unimportant.
The book operates pretty smoothly, shifting between three perspectives- Detective Sarah Linden and her partner Detective Goddard, as well as undercover officer Stephen Holder. The shifts are noticeable not only because each change in perspective starts a new chapter, but because each of the characters is distinct. Holder’s internal monologues are peppered with the street speak that fans of the TV show will be familiar with, while Goddard worries about his family, and Linden ruminates endlessly on her troubled past. Sarah’s nonstop contemplation of her childhood was a pretty big issue for me, because it took me right out of the story every time. When a child ends up with CPS, Linden has to go deal with them because she was in the system and knows how it works. When her son has to hang out at the station while she works, she wonders if she’s a bad mom because she grew up in foster care. It’s the same thing over and over, and it really takes away from the core story. You know, the part where two men were brutally murdered.
Possibly the best part of this book is that you don’t have to be a fan of the show to understand it. It’s a solid story on its own, and even though it’s being marketed as a tie-in to the show’s upcoming fourth season, I’d suggest it as summer reading to anyone who enjoys murder mysteries. Fans of the show should pick the book up now, before the final season begins on Netflix, August 1.
