Mommy, Mommy: A Danny Boyland Novel

by Henry Hack

Overview

After killing her husband, Angela Chandler flees from New York to California abandoning her nine year old son, Frankie, leaving a cryptic note for him. When no relative will take him in, Frankie becomes a ward of the state and spends his next nine childhood years being bounced from the State Home and various foster homes all the time waiting for Mommy to return and reclaim him. During his time at the Home and other places, he is subjected to physical and sexual abuse. These incidents, plus the failure of his mother to return, turns him bitter and vengeful. However, his relationship with Detective Danny Boyland somewhat restores his good nature and he joins the Navy becoming proficient in computers. Using his new found knowledge he attempts to locate his mother and his search leads him to a trail of murders, a tragic deception when Angela confesses to him that she is not his biological mother, and a renewed search for his real mother. And when he finds her is it love or revenge that drives him, Detective Boyland and the story to its heart-racing, bittersweet conclusion?

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781491239490
Publisher:	CreateSpace Publishing
Publication date:	10/07/2013
Series:	The Danny Boyland
Pages:	296
Product dimensions:	5.25(w) x 8.00(h) x 0.67(d)

About the Author

Henry Hack served in the Nassau County, NY Police Department for 22 years including 14 years in the Detective Division. He commanded the Police Laboratory and was qualified as an expert witness in several forensic areas including blood, narcotics and trace evidence. Henry's eight years in the Patrol Division culminated in commanding the 200 officers and supervisors of the Eighth Precinct for three years. Mommy, Mommy is his third novel in a series featuring Detective Daniel Boyland following Danny Boy (2009) and Cases Closed (2012). He has also published Cassidy's Corner (2013), the first novel in a series featuring Police Officer Harry Cassidy. Several of his short stories have won recognition and five have appeared in various collections. Henry resides with his wife, Lorraine, and they share their time between Long Island and North Carolina. When not writing Henry enjoys traveling, golf and visits with his family. He can be reached through his website, www.henryhack.com.

Editorial Reviews

2014-01-07
In Hack's (Cassidy's Corner, 2013, etc.) latest thriller, a detective faces off against a dangerous killer desperate to find the mother who abandoned him years ago. Frankie Chandler has bounced around foster homes ever since his father died and his mother, Angela, left him. What upsets Frankie is not that Angela fled the police, who suspected her husband's stumble down the stairs was no accident, but that she deserted her own son. Years later, as Frankie searches for his mom while hiding under a different name, a series of murders of women the same age and appearance catches the attention of homicide investigator Danny Boyland, who worked Angela's case back when he was a beat cop. Despite repeated references to Danny's yearning for a whodunit, Hack's crime novel isn't that type of story; instead, it's the incisive study of a murderer. The story is broken into first-person narratives, mostly from the perspectives of Danny and Frankie, but also Angela and Ellen, Frankie's birth mother who likewise exited her son's life and who Frankie initially doesn't know exists. Frankie's perspective—he's 9 when his dad died and 25 in the present day—is often intense; he suffers under cruel, abusive people, including foster parents, and consequently garners a great deal of sympathy, regardless of his later actions. His account is so impassioned, in fact, that Danny winds up playing second fiddle in his third literary turnout. As such, his much-praised investigatory skills—the director of the FBI even vouches for him—aren't really on display this book, since he tends to have revelations only after another person is found dead. Nevertheless, Danny's guilt over his ruined marriage and estranged children—a welcome allusion to an earlier Boyland novel—relates to his taking blame for not helping Frankie when his mother abandoned him. Pitied or not, Frankie is a terrifying killer as he goes through a list of 32 females who resemble his mother; though he's well into his 20s, he still refers to Angela as "Mommy." May not stir much interest in the Danny Boyland series, but a mesmerizing killer makes this story a triumph.

Kirkus Reviews