"Under the Raging Moon" is the first novel in Spokane author Frank Zafiro's River City crime fiction crime series.
Over the course of four novels that are available from Spokane publisher Gray Dog Press, a fifth novel called "Waist Deep", and many excellent short stories, Zafiro has created a complex, satisfying alternate version of Spokane where Italian mobsters run afoul of local Gypsies, evil Russians try to seize control of local gangs and criminals in general are more colorful than in real life.
"Under a Raging Moon" doesn't feature some of the more exotic River City characters Zafiro seen in the short story anthology "Dead Even" or later novels such as "And Every Man Has to Die", but readers shouldn't let that stop them from enjoying the book. Perennial favorites such as Thomas Chisolm, Katie MacLeod and Stefan Kopriva make their first appearances here in a story that is mostly about a gunman who likes to rob convenience stores.
Zafiro was already a master of fast-paced, tight plotting when he wrote this novel. His dialogue may seem less polished to people who read the books out of order, but that probably has more to do with the fact that most of the patrol officers who are trying to stop the robber they call Scarface are pretty rough around the edges than any lack of craft on Zafiro's part.
Readers will fall in love with Kopriva because of the way he is portrayed in "Under a Raging Moon." His wry humor and delightfully odd personality are great to see in this book. Kopriva is larger than life in some ways. He has a black belt in karate and a somewhat unconventional approach to law enforcement. He's kind of like what readers might get if a smarter, more likable version of Joel Kinnaman's character Stephen Holder from AMC's The Killing somehow slipped into the River City universe.
Former Green Beret Thomas Chisolm has mellowed over the years. In this first book, he has some anger issues but it's hard to blame him because he has a lot more common sense than the lieutenant who seems to be going out of his way to make him miserable. In this novel, he is already the rock of the department. Everybody (except for one notable exception) admires him for his wisdom, his situational awareness and the way he tries to teach everyone what they need to know to be better police officers. It is hard not to love and admire the guy even as he cracks filthy jokes and self-medicates with Coors beer.
Eventually, justice prevails. However, Zafiro shows his readers some of the grim realities of law enforcement along the way. River City patrol officers such as MacLeod or Chisolm have to deal with frivolous complaints, meth addicts with children, departmental politics and a million other things that make their work frustrating. A well-liked officer is killed by Scarface before Chisolm and Kopriva can get to the scene of his latest robbery. Kopriva himself suffers shockingly realistic gunshot wounds that will affect him in major ways for the rest of the series.
Zafiro's background in law enforcement shows in everything from the opinions expressed by his patrol officer characters to the numerous ways that he makes routine police work surprisingly interesting. Readers will learn a lot from things like standard procedures they observe during graveyard shift or how MacLeod handles two very different domestic violence calls.
It isn't essential to read "Under a Raging Moon," because Zafiro explains everything that readers need to know for continuity reasons in later books in the series. But it's hard to imagine why anyone would pass up a chance to enjoy a fine example of Frank Zafiro crime fiction.
The book is collected in the bargain priced ebook bundle "Trouble in River City" and is also available from the Spokane County Library District.
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