Title: The Man Behind the Cop Author: Janice Kay Johnson
Published: May 1, 2008
Genre(s): Romance: Suspense
Page Count: 250
Rating:
Summary from Goodreads:Being a big-city cop and being in control means everything to Bruce Walker. He knows how destructive a man can be when given the chance. That's why he's vowed never to get involved.
All that changes the moment he meets psychologist Karin Jorgenson. The connection between them is instant, intense...something he's tempted to explore. Regardless of how Bruce feels, though, he can't let go of everything he knows. His control is even more important now that they're involved in a domestic violence case. Karin insists he's a different man than the one he sees in the mirror. But can he trust her—and himself—enough to open his eyes and see it, too?
Janice Kay Johnson’s The Man Behind the Cop is a smart, well-plotted romantic suspense that I didn’t quite like, but really wanted to love.
We open the book as Karin, a therapist, is helping one of her patients, Lenora, come to the determination that it’s time to leave her abusive husband. Karin runs a mental health clinic that caters especially to abused women and children. Aside from therapy, her clinic also offers self-defense classes. This is how Karin meets Bruce, a homicide detective—he’s volunteered to teach the class. Yet on the first night of the class, Lenora’s husband attacks her in the parking lot, leaving her comatose. Now the husband is on the run with their two toddlers, leaving a string of dead bodies in his wake. Naturally, Bruce and Karin team up to care for Lenora and apprehend her husband.
As is, I believe, typical with this author, The Man Behind the Cop skews more towards a mystery/thriller than a romance. Which is fine, because Johnson is good at what she does. The suspense here is solid, and the way the book follows the manhunt for the abusive husband kept the plot fast-paced and engaging. And even though it maybe wasn’t as big a focus as I would have liked, I have no complaints about the connection between Karin and Bruce. Their personalities were well-developed and they each had good backstories populated with realistic friends and family.
Yet in spite of this…I felt like something was off about this book.
For one thing, I was honestly a tad bit uncomfortable with how stereotypical Lenora’s story seemed. She’s Hispanic, a recent immigrant from Mexico. Her husband is poor, abusive, and barely speaks any English. He has obvious Mommy Issues. The author makes sure to emphasize how he’s a cruel sociopath with no redeeming qualities. Now I am aware that domestic violence disproportionately affects people who are low-SES, and that people who are low-SES are disproportionately minority members. But come on, man. In a book by a white author featuring white protagonists, did our only examples of brown people really have to be a battered woman and an abusive psycho?
I also did not really enjoy the last few lines of the book:
Maybe she was right. Maybe he hadn’t needed therapy to alter some vital part of him so he was able to feel love. He’d just needed Karin.
Uh, no. Very much no. I assure you that you did need therapy my man. Karin’s vagina might be excellent, but it’s not a magical fixer for your rampaging Daddy Issues. Don’t try to sell me that snake oil.
So yeah. The Man Behind the Cop had some problems. Clearly.
Reading Janice Kay Johnson is such an interesting author, in that she’s so evidently talented I enjoy her in spite of everything else. I didn’t necessarily like this book. But oh boy could I tell that it was well-written, tightly plotted, and emotionally nuanced. Johnson is a phenomenal author, and she knows what she’s doing. The entire time I was reading The Man Behind the Cop, I just kept thinking to myself that it was tragically unfair that an author who so clearly knows her stuff had fallen prey to so many traps.
Damn it, I really want to love this author.
