The first Betty Rhyzyk novel.

Kathleen Kent's THE DIME is an excellent start to a new crime series. Set in Dallas, Texas, it stars Betty Rhyzyk, recently arrived from Brooklyn PD. We learn about how different life and policing are in Texas - especially when you're a lesbian. Reading about Rhyzyk's work and life was an interesting change to the typical crime series protagonist, and breathed a bit of fresh air into the genre for me.

Well-written, an interesting and engaging plot, and great characters. Really good. Looking forward to reading the next novel in the series, THE BURN.

Recommended.

I’ve been a fan of Kathleen Kent since I read her spectacular female-centric Western The Outcasts, so when I heard she had a cop thriller coming out, I was psyched. The Dime certainly didn’t disappoint. It has so many good things going for it. Number one is Betty Rhyzyk, Kent’s singular, 6-foot-tall narcotics cop with blazing red hair. Number two is its Dallas setting, which is where I grew up (and where Kent grew up to, as it happens).

Betty is a Brooklynite through and through, but she moves to Dallas to be closer to her partner Jackie’s family. After all, Betty’s Uncle Benny (who was also a cop and her mentor) is the only family she’s got left, and he’s in hospice care. The move also puts her closer to the many drug cartels that intersect in the great state of Texas, but it’s all in a day’s work for the tough-as-nails cop. Her tough shell cracks just a bit when the first operation she heads up—two years into her stint with Dallas Narcotics—falls apart, leaving a beat cop and a woman walking her dog dead and one of her own team wounded:

A semiautomatic pistol emerges from the driver-side window and a pulse of rapid fire commences. Bender does a jerky dance for an instant before falling, blood spattering like a burst balloon on to the cop standing next to him. The officer, scrabbling for his gun, is hit in the second pulse and falls backward onto the yard.

Seth and I crash into some border shrubs, yelling for the woman to get down, but she’s standing on the walkway, shrieking and clutching her schnauzer to her chest in a terrified grip. The barrel of the semiautomatic does an elegant, minimal sweep, finds her, and drops her in three shots.

It’s not Betty’s fault, but it was her operation, so it’s her mess to clean up. The man her team is looking for, Tomas “El Gitano” (Gypsy) Ruiz, is one of the biggest cocaine suppliers in North Texas. He’s certainly gone to ground after his little drive by, but Betty is determined to get him. It’s not going to be easy, but luckily, she has Jackie, a pediatric radiologist at a children’s hospital, to go home to. It’s Jackie that keeps her grounded after grueling days on the job.

Hoping to track Ruiz down, Betty and her team attempt to question his sometime girlfriend, Lana Yu, but she’s less than helpful. Unfortunately, it becomes a moot point when she’s found with her throat cut—but that’s not all.

There are livid bruises on both upper arms from being restrained by rough hands or maybe from a pair of knees anchoring her to the floor. She’s young, petite, and Asian, wearing a stained T-shirt that reads COWGIRLS RIDE HARD.

“Yes,” I say to Maclin. “It’s Lana Yu.”

I track my gaze back to her face and imagine I can see defiance in the pull of her lips baring strong, frequently whitened teeth and in the half-mast droop of her eyelids.

One of the Forensics guys moves in and with a probing tool carefully lifts a section of her hair away from the side of her face. Her left ear has been severed.

Betty feels like something else is strange, but she can’t put a finger on what it is, only that she knows something is different about her from the last time they talked. Well, besides the fact that she’s dead.

It’s only a bit later that she realizes that a bright red streak in her hair was missing; someone must have cut that piece off and taken it with them. It’s strange, but they don’t have much time to mull it over before another body is found in the back of Lana’s BMW in Weatherford, about 60 miles southwest of Dallas. Betty and her partner, Seth (who’s healing nicely from his gunshot wound), head out and end up enlisting the help of Confederate reenactors (of which the whole concept amuses Betty to no end) after they’re attacked by cartel folks that think the reenactors are hiding a bag full of money. Sound crazy? It sort of is, but … it’s not. There’s even a cannon!

Kent makes it all completely believable, and Betty is an entirely reliable narrator. She’s also unfailingly cool and really funny and self-deprecating when she needs to be. She’s just an all-around badass that more than holds her own with the boys club at the cop shop—with a soft side, of course, that she mainly shows to Jackie. That’s another thing I loved about this book: Betty and Jackie’s relationship. They make love look easy even when they have to deal with casual bigotry (of which there’s plenty, but to be fair, there’s also tolerance and kindness—sometimes from surprising places).

They’ll need this bond because, eventually, the case comes very close to home for Betty. A neighbor receives a really nasty package meant for Betty, and it spirals from there until an extremely harrowing conclusion. I really have only one request of Kent after finishing this one up: more, please!

A well-balanced story, with engaging characters and smart action.

MurderinCommon.com full review here:
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It’s been just over two years since Betty and her girlfriend, Jackie, relocated from Brooklyn to Dallas. Betty, a narcotics officer with Dallas PD, has finally been given lead on a huge case: a local has been in contact with one of the big Mexican cartels and a drop has been scheduled. Betty and her team have spent hours staking out the location where it’s to take place, but an incident with a bystander throws everything off kilter. As bodies stack up, the case becomes more complicated - worse so when it becomes clear that Betty herself has become a target. But a target of exactly what is unclear.

While this is by no means Kathleen Kent’s first rodeo, it is her first crime novel. And I have to say it’s a resounding success!

Betty Rhyzyk is a tall redhead, born and bred in Brooklyn. And she’s just the latest of a string of cops in the family. Her Polish roots run deep and the narrative is peppered with pieces of translated family wisdom. By the time the meat of the story begins, however, Betty is the only surviving member of the Rhyzyk clan.

Not that she’s alone in the world by any means. Her girlfriend, Jackie, a nurse who spends much of her time worrying over Betty’s diet, is steadfast and supportive even when the story begins to take a nasty turn. And Betty is supported by her fellow police officers as well, more or less. Kent does a fantastic job portraying the difficulties of being a female cop in what is still a very male centric career.

She also does a wonderful job bringing Dallas and Texas to life in this tale, so much so that the city becomes more than just a setting. The sense of place is true to its inspiration, as I’m sure anyone in the DFW area can attest (which makes sense because it’s the place Kent calls home!), imbuing the story with a distinct flavor and characteristic.

The Dime is the kind of book that begins with a bang and still manages to become increasingly intense. And the pacing and plot never falter. It is a dark one, so do be warned, but definitely one that’s joining the ranks of my own personal favorites. No word yet on whether Betty will be a new series lead, but I for one certainly hope that will be the case!

Next, I tried a very dark thriller, The Dime, by Kathleen Kent, about a lesbian detective that moves from Brooklyn to Dallas and becomes embroiled in what appears to be a drug cartel war. The body count is quite high, the last third of the book is over-the-top violent, a move that I assumed was coming after reading books like The Keeper of Lost Causes. I kept on reading (and skimming some) because the book was written well, the workplace scenes worked well with interesting relationships among the characters, but I hate being put through the wringer when an author tortures her main character so thoroughly.

Kent has written a brilliant detective with hard-edges and heart while striking the perfect balance of humor, violence, action, and procedural. I want more!

This police procedural/thriller ticks all the writing boxes nicely - the author has a strong narrative voice. It may have been something to do with the times or with my mood, but some of the Mexican drug cartel violence was too much taken-for-granted gore for me and the turn the story took towards the end had a couple of plot features that are quite common but which I strongly dislike - which I can't disclose without spoilers. I appreciated the fact that the protagonist is gay without apology; I am becoming a little tired of kick-assery though. For those who like hard-edged stories with kick-ass heroines and who aren't suddenly becoming allergic to the assumption that we suffer from hoards of bad hombres violating our borders, it would probably be a winner.

Very hard to put down- even when your lunch hour stretches way too long. While times stretching credulity at times I found it didn't matter as the book kept me at the edge of my seat. I am hoping to hear more about Betty and her cast of the "unclaimed".

http://luanne-abookwormsworld.blogspot.ca/2017/03/the-dime-kathleen-kent.html

"Kathleen Kent has just released her new novel The Dime. I've read and really liked her historical novels and was looking forward to this newest book.

Wow. This latest was a complete departure from her previous work - and I loved it!

The Dime introduces us to Betty Rhyzyk - a Brooklyn cop from a long line of law enforcement. She and her girlfriend have relocated to Dallas. Now working as a Narcotics Detective, Riz has no lack of cases. The Mexican drug cartels are making sure of that. But when her latest case results in disaster, Riz is determined to avenge her colleagues and her reputation. Drug dealers, stalkers, white supremacists, the rich, the poor, a cult and more populate the pages of The Dime.

I loved this character! I could absolutely picture her physically and her personality comes through in her thoughts, dialogue and actions. There are two sides to Riz - the tough cop she needs to be at work and the softer personal side at home with Julie. The supporting cast is just as well drawn. There's a wide variety of personalities on the squad. I really liked Riz's partner Seth. And of course, there are those that don't want a lesbian leader. Kent handles these conflicts and attitudes with a deft hand in both Betty's personal and work lives.

Extremely well plotted, great police procedural work and the action will keep you turning pages. The ground has been laid - and this reader will be waiting for the next in the series. More please.."

Reviewing for debut writer s=is challenging but I was very happy to read Kent's The Dime. Terrific character study and smart dialog make this thriller a must read. Thank so much. Looking forward to the next one..

What started as a well done if not entirely remarkable police procedural picked up the pace in the last third of the book and became a fabulous first foray into contemporary writing for historical fiction author Kathleen Kent. It was intense and horrifying and I just could not stop reading it. Betty Rhyzyk is an outstanding protagonist, and truly dominates the page.
I'd love to see more of this style from Kent, though I hope this is a standalone, or that Detective Rhyzyk gets a break in the next book- she deserves one.