This is the second book in a series which is not quite post-apocalyptic, but possibly on its way there? I mean, there is a lot going on in this world that O'Neal works in during what is otherwise about a cop trying to find a serial killer.
Let's see, where to begin? The U.S. has been hit by enough terror attacks of various types that there are five "Quarantine Zones" that are no longer considered part of the country, including what used to be Miami and South Florida. Climate change has resulted in it basically raining all the time in Florida, but somehow, large portions of the state are still above water. There is an entire separate species of hominids that look just like humans, but they live a really long time and they can heal from just about anything. The cop was married to one, but apparently they can't interbreed with regular old humans, so his kids are actually from some jackass that they hoped got blown up in the first book, but is still alive. The Internet barely exists, and a lot of people drive steam-powered cars (which they had to modify by adding a boiler.)
Oh, and apparently there are aliens on their way towards Earth. I mean, that's just kind of in the backdrop, something the characters mention once in a while.
O'Neal lets us know who the killer is early on. So the mystery is, variously, whether the killer is one of these other-human types, whether the cop's suspicion that he changed his name is correct, and whether the cop will catch him before he kills the attractive teacher the cop's struck up a friendship with.
There's another subplot about the cop's friend trying to prove he can be more than just a guy who drives a beat, that's he's got initiative and intuition and all that stuff. He starts out seeming pretty over his head, and you figure he's cooked, but the further into the book you get, the more he starts to demonstrate at least some ability to think on his feet and take chances. Which can take a person a fair distance, I guess.
O'Neal jumps between characters or subplots a lot in every chapter, usually not sticking with one for more than a couple of pages. He also loves ending on cliffhangers. Not just chapters, he'll sometimes end every section within a chapter on a cliffhanger. But everyone being in peril or confronted with startling truths at once dilutes the effect. Which startling revelation am I supposed to be excited to learn? It's better when he parcels out the tension sparingly.
'They were all growling and grunting. Another moved in toward the big light dog and that's when Besslia realized what was happening. They were communicating. Those feral dogs had developed a language.'
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