The book begins on the character of J'Quon Sweeney, a parole officer known to Sasha Frank, as well as numerous other members of law enforcement, not only for their dealings at work, but also because he attends a weekly high-stakes illegal poker game, also attended by many local attorneys, judges, and prominent members of law enforcement on the city, state, and federal level. He happens to let his tongue wag a bit about work when he starts drinking, as do many of the others, and he complains about a new parolee, Charlie Cole, a man J'Quon is certain will wind up dead or back in prison like so many others.
As it turns out, Charlie quickly veers back towards a life of crime when a man stops him as he is walking to work to ask if he wants to make some quick cash. He readily agrees, then soon finds out the man wants someone to kill a list of 10 people and he will pay hundreds of thousands to get it done. Charlie tentatively agrees to get the ball rolling for the man calling himself "Fred" and he immediately thinks of his old prison friend, Brian Keyes, who was also recently paroled.
Brian dreams of a life outside of his low-paying job, so he jumps at the chance, with Charlie serving as the buffer between he and Fred. Fred has everything planned, down to the hidden vehicles and tools to perform each task and detailed instructions on how to pull the crimes off without leaving evidence. Once Brian starts down this path and seems to really get into his new "job," Charlie finds himself a bit frightened of his former friend, but the money is too big a draw for him.
The morning after Brian commits the first murders, Senior Detective Sasha Frank gets called in when a pair of naked corpses are left prominently displayed on the Constitution Trail in a virtually crimeless area of Bloomington, IL. To make matters worse, the eyelids of both the man and woman, later identified as husband and wife, Warren and Maria Zumwalt, were glued open, and their personal effects such as jewelry and driver's licenses were nowhere to be found. As Frank and his team scramble to gather evidence in the hopes of catching this killer quickly, they soon find they don't have much to worry about since the killer left nary a trace of DNA evidence. To make matters worse, 10 days later, another nude corpse is found on the Trail - same deal - no personal effects and eyes glued open. Needless to say, the heat is on Frank to get this case solved.
As more murders occur at 10 day intervals, fewer and fewer clues help Frank's team out. Despite interviewing everyone connected to the victims, they just can't catch a break until they get an anonymous tip about a prominent defense attorney named Jonathan "JJ" Jennings being implicated in the murders. When Sasha stops by his home to inquire as to his whereabouts on the evening of one of the murders, JJ's hackles go up and his defense attorney mode kicks in, although he knows he has done nothing wrong. To play it safe, he hires his friend, Michael Drake, a real estate attorney, to represent him.
When the wife of a wealthy and prominent local business man is found naked and propped against a tree on the Trail, the pressure really comes down on Frank and his team and a task force is formed, now including members of the FBI and IBI. More tips come in and they all seem to point to Jennings, who staunchly maintains his innocence. To make matters even more uncomfortable, many of those same people who attend the weekly poker game are on the task force and it is awkward to be investigating their friend, JJ Jennings. Sometimes signs and evidence point in a certain direction, but Sasha feels in his gut that something is wrong. Will he get to the bottom of it, before a potentially innocent man is sentenced to life in prison, or worse, the death penalty?
Deliberate Duplicity is an okay murder mystery. There's nothing wrong with it and Rolhfing spins an interesting yarn, I just wasn't driven to get to the end like I am with some mysteries. I will admit that I figured out whodunnit well before the reveal started, but I still enjoyed the ride. Sasha Frank is a complex character who is determined to solve the crimes he is tasked with solving, so that the victims receive justice. His "thing" is that he always refers to them by name and makes those around him pay the victims proper respect by calling them by name. His character seemed to have a running annoyance with the Medical Examiner, Elizabeth "Beff" Turner, who often showed flippance when dealing with the victims. Honestly, I was annoyed with Beff as well. Who has a nickname based on a childhood mispronunciation of their name and uses that in the course of their employment as Medical Examiner? It just rubbed me the wrong way, personally.
All in all, there was nothing wrong with Deliberate Duplicity, but it was just middling as far as a mystery novel. I will say that I enjoyed this book more than Cold Consequences, the second book and prequel. I just felt like most of the characters around Sasha Frank, besides him, were ultimately forgettable. In fact, the prequel partner introduced in the second book, Darcie Lyman, was nowhere to be found here, which I thought was a shame as she was shaping up to be interesting. Maybe she will return in a future book. It was just an okay book for me, but your mileage may vary.
