Title: Vegas Murder Mystery (Marco Cortes Cold Case Series #1)
Author: Trevor Scott
Published on: 2 May 2022
Genre: Mystery and Thrillers
Vegas Murder Mystery is the first book in Trevor Scott’s Marco Cortes Cold Case series.
The story begins with Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Sergeant Jane Kurtz being transferred from her current unit as she punched a perp for touching her inappropriately. Her punishment being tasked to open a Cold Case Unit to investigate hundreds of murders that have gone unsolved in the past five decades.
Her task force includes two current detectives, two retired detectives, a professor and a ride-share driver. The ride-share driver is Jane’s close friend Marco Cortes. Jane divides the task force members into three groups. Her group involves the professor and Marco. Throughout the story, the professor plays a minor role in the investigation.
The first case Marco picks is the murder of a Hispanic woman named Maria Ramirez. Maria worked as a secretary in the university’s Humanities department and was found dead in her apartment in 2012. There was no proper evidence and the case fizzled out soon.
Marco is just a high school graduate but very well read. He also possesses a photographic memory and this is the reason Jane recruited him to the task force. Throughout the story, we have Marco showing off his ‘photographic memory’ to his colleagues.
Marco and Jane visit the college where Maria worked and meet with the dean. Marco identifies her as a lesbian and when they are back in the car, Marco says the dean was undressing Jane in her mind. These kind of comments are plenty throughout the book and honestly, this was so off putting that I have decided not to follow this series.
Marco and Jane find evidence that suggests Maria was killed – possibly autoerotic asphyxiation or something. As they start to dig deeper, they learn more about Maria’s colleagues. Throughout the story, there are instances where Marco insults the suspects’ (men and women) body parts and choices. Very insensitive comments that leave a bad taste in your mouth.
The reason for murder did not make justice to whatever ‘suspense’ was built from the start. The first half of the book was decent but everything felt wrong in the second half. Marco is annoying and his insulting remarks are just not appreciated.
I saw a lot of good ratings on Amazon and Goodreads and this is the only reason I decided to give this book a try. No more. Thank you, next!
The Book Decoder 
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