Killer Triggers by Joe Kenda

 

In this compilation of true crime stories, Joe Kenda relates tales from his long career in law enforcement.  Kenda was a homicide detective and commander of the major crimes unit in Colorado Springs, Colorado.  For each case, he starts with the trigger that he believes led to the murder then describes the case and how he and his team went about solving it.

Common triggers are money, sexual rage, mental disease, rage and revenge.  Some of the cases include a serial killer, a teenager who killed his mother while pretending to be a religious choirboy, and a grocery store murder.  He relates the tale of a man killed while drinking by one of his buddies for almost no benefit yet that case took years to solve.  He relates one of his first cases, a grocery store murder that shocked and saddened him. He talks of a housing complex full of gangs, drug dealers, prostitutes and their pimps where murder and robbery was a daily fact of life.  Throughout, his focus is catching the criminal and creating a case that would stand up in court.

I listened to this book and the narrator was Joe Kenda.  His dry wit and matter of fact narration was perfect for this book. As he relates each crime, the listener can feel how personally Kenda took each case and how determined he and his detectives were to solve the case. I can't imagine how anyone else could have done as good a job as Kenda himself does narrating the case.

Joe Kenda is known to most as the star of the TV series, Homicide Hunter, Lt. Joe Kenda on the Investigation Channel.  His team had a 92% solve rate which is almost unheard of in law enforcement.  After that show ended, his new show is airing on Discovery+ and is called American Detective.  Those readers interested in true crime will enjoy this book and how each crime is described along with how it was solved.  This book is recommended for readers of true crime.