This is such a well written thriller with an amazing lead character in Lourdes Robles. I am so excited to have been led to this author and can't wait to continue with this series!

Interesting characters, hard, poetic, gritty writing. Lourdes Robles, a Latina detective with the NYPD, is a welcome addition to the crime fiction universe. In this novel she is tasked with tracking down a serial killer who has left a trail of young women across the boroughs. Dennis Lehane offered a sterling blurb, and happily his estimation is spot-on. This is terrific reading!

I usually prefer not knowing the identity of a killer in a book. However, in this case, we do get to know who the guilty is pretty early on. It was quite interesting to follow two storylines, the one in the present time where Lourdes Robles is investigating one murder who turns out to be the latest in a long line of murders. In the other storyline do we follow JT 's rise through the ranks. And, I can't write much more than that without spoiling the story.

So, instead, I will focus on Lourdes Robles, this awesome detective for the NYPD who is the one that through the finding of the body of a young woman starts to unravel a serial killer case. Lourdes is also searching for her younger sister who is missing and each woman found dead makes her sick with worry that it will turn out to be Izzy. Lourdes own father is in prison and she is just the kind of badass female cop I love to read about.

Sunrise Highway is the second book in the Lourdes Robles series and you definitely can read this book without having read the first one. I know this since I haven't read the first book (yet). Now I can't wait to read the first book, and hopefully more books in the series.

Unfortunately, I didn’t get a chance to read Blauner’s first novel starring singular NYPD detective Lourdes Robles, Proving Ground. If you haven’t either, don’t worry, because you’ll have no problem jumping in with this one. And talk about jumping in. Blauner throws us into the deep end of things right off the bat. The book opens with a sequence taking place five years ago, in 2012, on Long Island during Hurricane Sandy. It’s apocalyptic. Cars are floating away, debris is flying, and a young pregnant woman is desperate for help, so she knocks on a door.

As he went to look out the peephole, he could hear the wind howling and feel the storm trying to get in the house. Just standing by the threshold put the dampness in his bones. Someone was on his doorstep. A silhouette with long dripping hair. Like a wraith from a Japanese horror movie, with curtains of wild monsoon rain moving back and forth behind it.

“Hello?” it called out in a high shaky voice. “Is anybody home?”

He kept his eye at the peephole.

Unfortunately, the owner of the house has no interest in letting her in.

“Please,” she said. “I’m begging you. It’s not safe for me out here.”

“Get away,” he yelled.

It was awful the way his voice cracked when he was stressed and made him sound more like his mother than his father. He should have kept pestering his brother, the big New Jersey state trooper, to help him get a gun a few years ago, instead of letting the subject drop when it was suggested that he could drive to Pennsylvania or Florida and buy one himself with just a driver’s license. Obviously, that wasn’t going to happen. But now he was here by himself, abandoned and defenseless, with this creature at his door, demanding to be let in.

“I know what you’re thinking,” she called out. “But someone is after me. And if they find me, they’re gonna kill me.”

Cut to 2017, and NYPD Homicide Detective Lourdes Robles and her partner, Robert “Beautiful Bobby” Borrelli, are called to the tip of Far Rockaway, where a plastic-wrapped body has been pulled from the water. Lourdes gets a look, and after determining that it’s probably a female, she notices that there are rocks stuffed in what’s left of the esophagus. It’s a horrifying and unusual discovery, and although Lourdes’s colleagues are quick to jump to theories about MS-13 and gang killings, Lourdes isn’t so sure.

Getting an ID is critical, but finding out what happened to this person isn’t the only thing on Lourdes’s mind. Her sister Izzy is missing, and she’s been accused of using department resources to search for her. It’s a possibly dire situation because Izzy is mentally ill, and she could be living on the street or worse.

Luckily, Lourdes has the support of her mentor—the recently retired detective Kevin Sullivan—and her live-in boyfriend, the besotted and frequently beleaguered Mitchell Vogliano, a lawyer from the Brooklyn DA’s office. They’re an odd couple, to be sure, but they work. This support system is important, but not because Lourdes isn’t capable. Quite the contrary. Aside from some brash, sometimes impulsive tendencies, Lourdes is a sharp, dogged investigator.

But this case is special—because the killer (and enthusiastic rapist) is a cop.

Don’t worry, that’s not a spoiler. In fact, the perpetrator is revealed fairly quickly. Blauner accounts cop’s son Jeffrey Tolliver’s rise as he goes from a witness for the DA in a 1977 murder case (in which an innocent black teen is convicted) all the way up to his final roosting place as Long Island police chief. Along the way, Tolliver racks up so many favors that he can do just about anything he wants and no one will touch him. And boy does he.

The book gets its name from NY 27, a stretch of highway that traverses nearly the whole of Long Island. It’s where young cop Tolliver chooses many of his female victims in between legitimate traffic stops. Tolliver is mean, driven, smart, and cold as ice. He researches serial killers to make sure he doesn’t make the same mistakes as they do. He gets married “for cover” (the way he meets his wife is a doozy) and puts on a charming façade. Nearly everyone is afraid of him, including the DA, which he basically made because of his testimony in ’77.

From the moment Lourdes meets him, she feels something is off. She doesn’t immediately suspect he’s a killer, but her internal antenna is definitely quivering. Unfortunately, nearly every Long Island cop stands in her way, and the corruption goes way higher than just the police. So what does Lourdes do when nearly every roadblock is thrown in front of her? She puts her head down and resolves to get her man.

You’ll never meet a more driven cop. I love Lourdes. She’s brash, bitingly funny, and is determined not to let her fraught upbringing define her. She’s also very aware that she’s part of what is largely a man’s world and doesn’t bow to that for a minute. For those of you who think serial killer thrillers have been done to death (sorry), think again. Blauner has the touch, and Tolliver is one of the scariest creatures to crawl out of the muck in a long time.

This book is chock full of creepy, downright terrifying scenes—although Blauner expertly avoids exploitation and gore. It’s easy to go that route with a story like this, but Blauner smartly resists. Instead, he uses his killer—and his wonderful heroine—to explore institutional corruption and the evil that absolute power can cause. It’s timely and will certainly resonate with readers who keep a close watch on current events. You won’t be able to put this one down.

Peter Blauner has come roaring back with his second release of the past decade, Sunrise Highway. Being from Long Island, I was impressed with his ability to utilize the landscape of the Island in this book and make it a vital part of the story. Lourdes Robles is also back and she is a hell of a heroine. I don't want to give away the tightly wound plot here, but I will say the evil she is chasing is one of the finest evil characters I have read about in a long while. This is a hell of a great read and begs to be read in one sitting.

Thank you to Net Gallery for an advance reader copy of Sunrise Highway (Lourdes Robles Novels) by Peter Blauner. This book first peaked my interest because I live right off of Sunrise Highway and wanted to see if it was a story based on where I live and it turned out that it was. I did enjoy the story, I know the book was a work of fiction but got me thinking that the story must be based in truth somewhere and has made me suspicious of the local police departments. The only issue I had with the story was that I felt that the ending was rushed and wrapped up to quickly, otherwise I would highly recommend this book.

Good news: Lourdes Robles is back, after her strong debut in PROVING GROUND, and this time we didn't have to wait a decade for a new book by this talented author. A body has washed up on the beach at Far Rockaway at the eastern tip of Queens, so close to Nassau County it's unclear whose jurisdiction it is. The body, though long-decayed, has been preserved in a tough plastic shroud weighed down with rocks. Strangely, small pebbles seem to have filled the victim's mouth and throat, and the skeletal hands cup a collection of small bones: she had been pregnant when she was killed. ...

This is my first book by Peter Blauner and it won’t be my last. I love crime thrillers like this and don’t know how I have missed him before now

The story features Lourdes Robles, an NYPD Detective who is not only trying to find the murderer of a young woman but is also fighting the various police departments in the boroughs which are inundated with lies and scandals. If that’s not enough, she is also searching for her younger sister who has gone missing AND she is being investigated by internal affairs. Phew.
The story goes backwards and forwards over 40 years which I did not find at all distracting. The plot is complex and the story kept me intrigued.
Thanks to NetGalley for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review

A sharply written story, this novel of murder and orruption in Long Island that stretches back decades , features a tough female detective from the Bronx who locks horns with the stubborn and powerful police chief who has good reason to discourage her from investigating not just the death of one woman but the string of others who may be linked to a serial killer. Nominee's pits his worthy, smart and determined protagonist and antagonists against each other with consummate skill; his pacing is terrific and drives the narrative to a thundering close.

This stunning novel featuring Blauner's Lourdes Robles (Proving Ground) is a great police procedural. Full of compelling characters, plot twists, and a despicable villain. This one had me up at night. Would recommend it to my customers who enjoy Michael Connelly.

-Worth Your Time And Money!

Sunrise Highway is the eighth book by Peter Blauner that I've read and I’ve enjoyed them all. Without going into details about the plot of Sunrise Highway, which is the second book featuring Detective Lourdes Robles, I'll just say that it is a very good police procedural that involves the discovery of a body washed up on a beach in Far Rockaway, NY that subsequently leads to a trail of murdered women along the Sunrise Highway in Long Island that dates back forty years.

In Sunrise Highway Blauner provides readers early on with answers to "who did it" and then has readers follow Lourdes Robles as she connects the dots and works to discover the truth about who committed the serial murders and why.

Overall, I'd recommend that mystery lovers consider reading Sunrise Highway for the same reasons as I enjoyed each of Blauner's previous seven crime novels; namely
... its very rich, multi-dimensional, credible and complex cast of primary and secondary characters,
...its smart dialogue,
...its strong prose that enables the reader to capture the "mood, sights, sounds and smells" of the areas in which the plot takes place, and
...its ability to provide sufficiently realistic twists and turns to keep the reader turning the pages to find out what happens next.

Be aware, however, that if you are expecting a lot of action scenes in Sunrise Highway, you might be somewhat disappointed, as the driving force of this book is the richness of its complex characters.

As you can tell from my comments above, I enjoyed Sunrise Highway and recommend it; but I do not consider it to be worthy of a 5-star rating. That's because I found the frequent jumping back and forth in time over a forty year period to be, at times, mildly confusing, interruptive and distracting.

#Sunrise Highway #Net Galley.

If you like gritty police procedural, this is a good one. Lourdes Robles discovers that a serial killer has been killing women and dumping their bodies along the Sunrise Highway leading from NYC to Long Island. She has an uphill battle getting others to cooperate with her investigation - she fight sexism, racism and dirty cops with secrets to hide to solve the case. Robles is a believable protagonist and Blauner gives us an interesting villain who is easy to hate. Good read!

I failed to find empathy with the lead character of Lourdes but having said that, the plot was great, writing was excellent and it is a good thriller for fans of the genre. This would make a good TV series and I would read the next book in the series. Thanks to Net Galley for my copy. Reviews on Goodreads, Amazon and Facebook.

This story goes back and forth in time. The search for a serial killer is on. The Long Island police and the New York police department's haggle over the case. Lots of corruption and political overtones. I just didn't care for the story.

Second in a series involving NY police detective Lourdes Robles, a very strong, determined and devoted hard-working young woman from the wrong side of the tracks. Told in alternating time periods from 1977 to the present day, with Lourdes on the tail of a relentless serial killer. Great writing, interesting story and real characters kept me on the edge of my seat, unable to put this one down! I had no idea how it was going to end, which to me, is the sign of a great book!

SUNRISE HIGHWAY
Peter Blauner
Minotaur Books
ISBN 978-1-250-11741-0
Hardcover
Thriller

It is one of those grim, ironic turns that the incident which begins SUNRISE HIGHWAY --- a woman in distress, frantically pounding on a locked door and seeking help --- was dramatically mirrored in the real world just a few days before the novel (written several months before) was offered for sale. While author Peter Blauner is no stranger to exploring contemporary topics in a timely manner through his episodic screenwriting of such television series as Law & Order:SVU and Blue Bloods, in SUNRISE HIGHWAY it seems almost prescient. Even without the apparent intersection of the imagination and reality, however, those first few pages of SUNRISE HIGHWAY sink the hook into the reader for the next three hundred or so pages until story’s end.

SUNRISE HIGHWAY is the nominal successor to Blauner’s PROVING GROUND, which introduced Lourdes Robles, a somewhat troubled but extremely talented and driven NYPD detective. Robles is haunted by in SUNRISE HIGHWAY by the disappearance of her younger sister Izzy, who is herself troubled by demons which she tries to simultaneously tame and feed with streets drugs. When the remains of a woman are found wrapped in plastic on Long Island, Robles’ wonders if she might be her long-missing sister. The dead woman, whose mouth has been jammed with rocks and who was apparently pregnant when she was murdered, turns out to be another poor soul, but the corpse puts Robles on an investigative path that stretches back to the late 1970s, when a high school girl was found murdered under somewhat similar circumstances. It develops that a local boy named Joey Toliver, the teenage son of a Long Island cop, was a star witness in the case, testifying that the murderer was a local football star who protested his innocence to no avail. The prosecutor’s career trajectory began to ascend and Joey, who thereafter pursued a career in law enforcement, advanced as well, so that some forty years later in the present of SUNRISE HIGHWAY he is the chief of police, running his fiefdom with a combination of charm and fear. A trail of dead women stretch from the past to the present, however, and all of them were found by or near the Sunrise Highway. Tolliver lays the blame on New York criminals who use Long Island as a dumping ground, but Robles finds that theory wanting. She continues to push her investigation, a course of action that puts her in the path of entrenched law enforcement in an area where the seemingly quiet surface of the local city streets hides at least one murderer who is ready to kill and kill again. Izzy meanwhile remains missing, though Robles, as she continues her investigation, may put both of them in danger, even as she approaches a line which she shouldn’t cross, but may have to.

Blauner combines his considerable and ever-present cinematic and narrative chops to fine effect in SUNRISE HIGHWAY. As with his television work, there is really no good place to stop reading (or watching), so be prepared for a marathon reading session. The last third or so of the book uncorks a couple of surprises, at least one of which may well play out in a successor volume to the Robles canon, should such be coming. Recommended.

Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub
© Copyright 2018, The Book Report, Inc. All rights reserved.

Blauner is just a tremendous writer and , particularly, a tremendous writer or crime thrillers. Each of his book is a gem and this one is a gem—tight, compelling , well written and hellishly suspenseful. I literally read it in a few sittings, staying up late at night to finish it.. I rate him up her with Winslow, Pelecanos and Lehane. Top notch. Read it.

This story pits young NYPD detective, Lourdes Robles, against not only a serial killer but also an entire police department that's awash in lies, scandals and secrets galore. The prologue pulled me in immediately as we meet a young girl banging on the door of a house in the middle of a deserted neighborhood during Hurricane Sandy. She's got handcuffs hanging from her wrists and she's begging and pleading for help before "someone" tracks her back down and kills her. Is she saved? Well, of course you'll have to read because the story jumps to a different time and we slowly begin to meet the key players involved in a story that's laid out as an intricate web of conspiracies, bad guys everywhere you turn, and lots of secrets.

What I loved about this book was the fact that Blauner didn't mess around with manipulations, we know who the bad guys are but what we don't know is just who exactly is involved with all the murders and how (if at all) they'll be taken down. The shining character for me was definitely Lourdes. She was tough, authentic and never intimidated by the good ol boys club she was up against. The story is told in alternating timelines starting in 1977 and shifting to 2017 until, by the end, the past storyline coincides with present day. I'm so on board with this type of structure and have to say Blauner kept me on my reading toes because I had no idea how this was going to end. Overall, this was a dark, gritty read.

It was a great book full of twist and turns. I recommend this for those who like thrillers. I would like to thank netgalley for letting me review this book.

Lourdes Robles is a NYPD detective. JT is the chief of police in Suffolk County. The thread that brings them together is a serial killer that appears to have been murdering young women along Sunrise Highway. (This is a commercial street that runs through the southern part of Long Island intersecting with parks and nature preserves.) Blauner writes a cat – and – mouse story where Lourdes is in pursuit of this killer and JT is going to thwart her. The closer Lourdes comes, the more dangerous her prey’s reactions. The story has multiple viewpoints from the two main characters. The time of the story occurs over years and fills in their personal backgrounds. The killer is known from the outset, the suspense is how Lourdes will prove it. Gritty and over-the-top read.