Hudson River Homicides

Hudson River Homicides (2025) C.S. Poe (Memento Mori #4)

The sender is still taunting Everett with corpses.

Scrawled across the door in all caps with what was likely permanent black Sharpie was the message: PIN ME TO DETECTIVE LARKIN.

And Larkin is struggling not just to stop the sender, but to deal with his own continuing issues.

Doyle had been under the impression that Larkin was struggling to adjust to his new medication.

But the Prozac wasn’t the problem.

In fact, the Prozac was pretty good. Larkin was surviving the detox and withdrawal from Xanax, and had been feeling more levelheaded, more who he’d been before the benzos had further complicated his already perpetually fucked-up life.

Neil Millett from the Snow & Winter series continues to make appearances at crime scenes, and Winter also gets name checked, although he doesn’t make an on-page appearance. But it was good to see this mention.

My best friend’s married to the Homicide detective who was on that case. That’s how I learned about Joe’s ‘undue interests.’” Millett found the business card he’d been looking for and offered it to Larkin.

Neil was an ass to Sebastian, but he eventually realized it, and although he isn’t necessarily out-out, he’s been making up for being terrible.

We also get more pieces about Everett’s HSAM and life after his attack, including the stutter that changed how he speaks.

It’s why I talk like this: flat, no inflection, no emotional prosody. That innate articulation of emotion—I’ve never been able to fully regain it, not while having to be consciously aware of my breathing, projection, enunciation.

One of my favorite random bits was Everett’s phone call while trying to track down the provenance of the refrigerator.

“Each day’s better than the last, sir.”

“Does that not imply your own death would be the best day of your life.”

“So long as I got no regrets, that sounds about right,” Ben answered matter-of-factly.

He was delightful.

Less delightful was Everett’s mother, who is just as awful as you’d have assumed.

I know it’s an exercise in futility. I’ve done my best to limit our interactions over the past several years, to protect myself, but severing that cord in its entirety is difficult. I find that I just keep thinking, hoping, this time, she’ll care about me

Honestly, that bit kinda stung.

And as always, Everett’s thoughts on death continue to evolve, and I do love the dropped bits about death rituals.

Characters: Everett Larkin, Ira Doyle, Ray O’Halloran, Val Hackett, Detective Winter, Dr. Lawrence Baxter, Neil Millett, Senior Artist Bailey, Lieutenant Mike Connor, Byron Ulmer, Aiko Miyamoto, James David Porter, Debra Baan, Noah Rider, Steph Coleman, Jessica Lopez, Kathleen Gardner, Barbara Fuller, Joe Sinclair, Stephanie Sato, Becca Friedman, Ben Brooks, Rodriguez, Tony Vargas, Matilde Wagner / The Angel of Death, Adam Worth, Ralph Noonan, Marcus Holland, Bridget Cohen, Jacqueline Larkin, Lisa Murray

Cover Art by Reese Dante

Rating: 8.5/10

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