The Hands of Love by Omar Scott

The Hands of Love by Omar Scott
Publisher: Outskirts Press, Inc.
Genre: Contemporary, Mystery/Suspense/Thriller
Rating: 4 stars
Reviewed by Ginger

Everyone has a dark side … and one never quite knows just how dark it can get until they’re pushed to their limits. Steeped in a culture of dirty cops on the take, Lorenzo Love – Ren, as he’s known on the street – maintains a few vices of his own. The married narcotics detective has put countless notches in his belt with one casual sexual fling after another – but he finds he’s playing a deadly game. When young women with whom Ren’s known to have fooled around start turning up dead – with their hands ruthlessly cut off – the evidence starts pointing to Ren himself. He’s covered up many an affair, but can Ren clear himself from a heinous string of crimes that threaten to take him down for good? The Hands of Love is a thriller that promises to keep readers hooked from page one, right through to its unbelievable finale.

Have you ever read a book and it didn’t quite catch your attention in the beginning and you were wondering where the author is going with this? Have you asked yourself, should I bother finishing it? Well that’s how I felt when I first started reading The Hands of Love. The book started off materialistic and superficial with greedy cops doing questionable deeds. And a lot of characters were mentioned but no details about them were given.

But then at some point I sat down to pick up where I left off and it turns out I didn’t want to stop reading. The dirty cops are being questioned by Internal Affairs, Momo’s brother wants to get revenge for his brother’s death and wait…women are being killed right in front of their homes. Then I was hooked!

After a few chapters I learned to appreciate the author’s writing style and his knack for including wise sayings or advice during character conversations. People in the world can be harsh and I felt the author gave us a glimpse of that dark side. I don’t condone murder but in the book the murders were speaking what wasn’t said verbally. Lorenzo (Ren) Love had good qualities, he loved his dad and would do anything to save him, but he just wasn’t a good person. He is cocky, thinks he is untouchable and that he can sleep around but he learns there is always someone else who has a darker side. A warning for possible readers, the book does contain and reference sex and also there are details that disclose how the murders happened.

The author did an awesome job on setting the foundation and making the puzzle pieces click. There was a reason behind it all. I figured out early on who the killer was but it was interesting to see if the detectives ever would. The detectives on the case, McCain and Bernstein, were not the best detectives because they only seemed to focus on one suspect and they didn’t look at the big picture and ask what would be the motive for the suspect. I’ve watched enough crime shows and read enough books to have several hours of investigative skills so this was an easy solve. But if the case had been solved there wouldn’t have been the surprise ending. Thumbs up to the author on keeping the suspense going and ending with the big reveal.