Kill the Messenger by Tami Hoag

" He drove Jace crazy when he asked questions like that. Why am I me, instead of someone else? Why was this his life? No mother, no father. Why was the family he knew someone else's family? Jace told him there was no sense wondering things like that, but Tyler wondered anyway. Some questions didn't have answers, Jace said. Life was what it was, and all they could do was live it the best way they could."
           -Tyler's thoughts, from the novel

I have enjoyed several of Tami Hoag's murder mysteries but none recently. When I spotted this one at our condo association's mini-library, it jumped right off the shelf into my hands! It did not disappoint as a true page-turner. It starts out with a bang and hardly slows down. I rate it a 5.

The story involves two protagonists. First, we meet Jace Damon, a very young man who works as a bicycle messenger in L.A. in an effort to support himself and his 10-year-old brother. Their parents are gone and life is a struggle, to be sure, hinted at in the quote above. When Jace does a late pick-up he is chased down by a mysterious driver who is apparently trying to kill him. He survives with his street smarts but his bike---his livelihood---does not fare so well. The reader soon finds out the low-life lawyer who gave him the package to deliver has been murdered, leaving Jace to feel he will be a suspect and causing him to go on the lam.

In the meantime, detective Kevin Parker, self-professed best homicide cop in town, is involved with the murder of the "scum-sucking member of the bar" already mentioned. He is training a new cop, Renee Ruiz, who as it turns out, has questionable motives. Early in the course of his investigation, Kev learns of the bike messenger and knows he may have vital information to help solve the crime and searches for him.

Jace, his boy genius brother, Tyler, and Kevin are all likeable characters and I found myself very sympathetic. Some of the other bike messengers were described in such a way as to add some humor and there is even some romance thrown in to alleviate the intensity. The plot takes some twists and turns and in the end Kevin Parker gets a big surprise and I think you will too!