Book Review: Sacrifice Fly by Tim O'Mara
Starring Raymond Donne, an injured cop turned middle school teacher, and set in the roughshod streets of Williamsburg, Brooklyn, Tim O'Mara's debut novel Sacrifice Fly is a fantastic read that I recommend to anyone interested in crime thrillers. The book opens to Donne attempting to find Franklin Rivas, one of his students. Frankie has missed an entire week of school, and Donne refuses to let him lose his baseball scholarship to a prestigious high school by failing eighth grade. While visiting Frankie's house, Donne stumbles onto the dead body of the boy's father. Then, when the cops don't devote enough time to the case, he goes rogue and solves the crime by himself.
O'Mara writes with a deliberate noir style, exaggerating violence and action. His dialogue is particularly well-written, capturing the essences of tired cops, delusional murderers, and tough at-risk kids with surprising veracity.
Speaking of the characters, prepare for an intriguing protagonist. Raymond Donne isn't your typical cop—in fact, he isn't even a cop anymore. He's a damaged ex-officer whose thirty foot fall from a fire escape destroyed his knees and thus ended his career in law enforcement. Although this injury at first seems to be a negative aspect of Sacrifice Fly—especially considering how it removes the possibility of explosive gunfights and intense physical combat—O'Mara turns it into one of his novel's best qualities: I loved seeing how Donne solved his problems.
Perhaps it will speak to this novel's quality when I say that my one issue with Sacrifice Fly is how the author attempted to integrate romance. O'Mara twice makes a half-baked attempt to involve Donne with a woman, but in both cases the women disappears from the novel after the first date. If both dates are so unsuccessful, why include them in the first place? (To be fair, there is a reason O'Mara included the second date. However, the romance in of itself was very unsatisfying.)
If you like crime novels that break conventions, this is a book for you. It's dark and gritty, hitting all of the right notes while also featuring a unique and unforgettable protagonist.
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