It's hard to say goodbye. The mystery community lost a wonderful voice when Orania Papazoglou passed away before finishing this, the 30th book in her great series. Her sons picked up the torch and brought One of Our Own to publication. Thanks, guys. On one hand it is hard knowing this ends the series but long running story lines were tied up and I finished the book feeling satisfied.
First, this may not work for most readers as a stand alone. As the 30th book, if you have not read the previous books this may leave you a bit confused. Having said that, it's still a great read. It's full of tension, various points of view, current issues and lots of strong emotions. There is a lot packed into this book. Immigration is front and center - some are people who have been in America for decades and some who are new to our country. We meet Javier, a seven year old boy who is taken in as a foster child by Bennis and Gregor, a child who came as an unaccompanied minor and was lucky to find shelter with a group of nuns. The elderly woman who has lived her whole life in the same apartment is angry and afraid due to the changes in her neighborhood. She especially is at odds with the apartment super. Other characters in the book are running their own illegal games and the Feds are very interested. Soon Gregor, former FBI, is asked to join the investigation. I won't say more to prevent spoilers. Fans of the series will be glad to spend time with the regular characters we have come to know and, if you enjoyed One of Our Own as much as I did, you will read the end and say thank you, Orania, for many, many hours of reading pleasure.
My thanks to the publisher, Minotaur Books and NetGalley for giving me an advance copy in exchange for my honest review.

Sadly, the Gregor Demarkian series is closing with the death of its author, Jane Haddam. Demarkian, and his Armenian American community in Philadelphia has been the center of a long running series, and this last book ends as he and his wife Bennis are adopting an immigrant child. Haddam’s politics are on full display in “One of our Own”, but the story line is strong, and the familiar characters are as quirky and endearing as ever.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

A few things to note:

-This is the final book (#30) in the Gregor Demarkian series and this is a fact that I did not know before picking this one up. Because of this, I feel like my star rating is lower for the simple fact that I literally missed 30 other stories featuring this character and was absolutely confused while reading it

-I listened to this on audiobook and it was pretty slow, even at 1.5 speed. I wish I had been able to speed it up a bit because it really dragged for me

-This was a slow burn mystery/thriller and I usually prefer lots of action early on to pique my interest

-The characters are super racist in this book which was off-putting for me. It felt very unnecessary to the storyline

law-enforcement, immigrants, murder, murder-investigation, family-dynamics, friendship, intolerance

I have no idea why I haven't kept up with Demarkian for the last six years, but I was excited to see one on offer from NetGalley. But. I was sad to see that the author was assaulted by a virulent form of Breast Cancer and that this is the last one that she wrote. At least we have all the others to go back to and can see the list on https://www.bookseriesinorder.com/
Now then. Demarkian is retired FBI with a degree in accounting and is currently on board as a consultant to the Philadelphia PD on an apparent attempted murder. He had happened to be close by the parish church on a private errand involving the fostering of a 7 year old traumatized boy who spoke no English (but understood much) and, apparently, a rescue dachshund. What was immediately known is that a large leaf bag containing a battered older woman who lived nearby fell out of a sinister big black van which had recently been cruising the ethnically changed neighborhood. No ID and in a coma, but once identified and residence located, a dead body with no face was found in her flat. Now comes a very complex investigation involving ethnic neighborhoods, legal and clandestine immigrants and the attitudes and prejudices that they have as well as the ones they face (including Demarkian himself). An excellent tale as a mystery and as a reminder to all of us whose parent, grands, and greats came here from wherever to face the unknown.
I requested and received a free ebook copy from St. Martin's Press/Minotaur Books via NetGalley. Thank you!

This book starts off very scattered. Numerous short chapters introduce a variety of characters but it unfortunately struggled to hold my interest. The reader is only given quick snapshots of characters and I hoped they would be developed further but that must have happened in prior installments of this series.

Whether intentional or not there is some rather offensive language used in describing characters. Racist, classist, and otherwise, I had a very hard time continuing beyond the first few chapters because of the tone deaf language used. If this language was used to highlight character flaws, it failed to do so because the characters were so underdeveloped at this point.

Beyond the halfway point it still felt very disjointed. The characters were constantly complaining about different race and class groups, immigration, and how kids are taught to hate cops in schools. This reads like a right wing propaganda piece preaching about how ICE is doing a great job and student loan forgiveness is ridiculous. I’m not sure if that truly is the point of the narrative or if the author is just very out of sync with the state of the country/world today. I read to escape the real world news, not to be lectured about it in a work of fiction.

I felt like so much time was dedicated to the above issues that the actual plot of the book was diminished and shoved to the back burner. My interest went with it.

When I requested this title, I didn't realize that it was the 30th book in a series that has been around since 1990--before I was born! The author recently passed away from cancer, and her sons completed the series in her honor. I love that! The tribute at the end was beautiful.

Now, on to the book review. With this being the 30th book in the series, I missed a lot of context that a reader of the whole series probably would have understood better. It seems like a lot of the point of the book was bringing closure to different storylines that I didn't have the background to care that much about.

The characters were beautifully written, though, and it definitely made me interested in checking out the rest of the series to get more of a feel for them.

The mystery itself was enjoyable, though it was certainly a slow burn.

I enjoyed the mix of many cultures that the book presented, but be prepared for a whole lot of racism. I think the point was that anyone can be racist even if they are a minority, but it was a lot.

Title: One of Our Own
Author: Jane Haddam
Genre: Mystery
Rating: 4 out of 5

Gregor Demarkian, former FBI agent and police consultant, returns for his final case—a surprising murder and an attempted murder, which threaten the safety of his Philadelphia neighborhood.

A mysterious black van is spotted by several people at various times in the area around Cavanaugh Street, Philadelphia's Armenian-American enclave. Presumed by some to be related to the increasing ICE raids around the area, the mystery deepens one night when a body falls out of the back of the van when speeding through the neighborhood.

So…I’ve actually never read any of the previous 29 books in this series. I know. Despite that, I didn’t have any problems stepping into this story. The mixture of cultures in this story was fascinating, and I would definitely read the other books in this series.

I had no idea what was really going on here, but to me the novel was about the characters anyway, not so much the mystery aspect—and what was really going on was pretty cool. Vivid characters, solid writing, I’d say this series is worth checking out.

Jane Haddam was a mystery writer. One of Our Own is her last novel, the final book in the Gregor Demarkian Novels series.

(Galley courtesy of St. Martin’s Press in exchange for an honest review.)


(Blog link live 11/18.)

I did not know that this was part of a series - much less one with 29 books prior to this. This is, though, the final Gregor Demarkian book, as the author died of cancer while writing it. The book was finished by her sons. While this can be read as a standalone, it did not work well in that regard for the reasons below. This may be due to the sons completing it, but the editor should shoulder part of this as well.

This is a slow, slow ride of a book. It opens with a nine part prologue, so all the major players can be introduced, instead of pushing them into the narrative, to be introduced more organically. I found this annoying. A 14 year old boy takes a bus to a prison to visit someone named "Russ" who I presumed was his father. There's no indication as to why Russ is locked up. In fact, we don't find out the actual reason until almost the 75% mark. I also found this annoying, as other characters would mention him and that he's gone nutty into conspiracy theories, almost making it sound like he was locked up because he was mentally unbalanced. But what did he do, exactly?

There's an old Armenian woman named Marta, who lives in a rent-controlled apartment, and who has arguments with the building's super, Hernandez, because he wants her to move out of her three room apartment into a single room so a larger Hispanic/Latino family can move in. This doesn't go over well with Marta, who is a racist, hating the Latinos, most of whom she's convinced are there illegally.

There's a bunch of nuns, doing their best to help the community, which is admirable, but there's also a point where one of the nuns infodumps the history of American nuns via dialogue. They've seen seeing a black van from time to time, and worry it's ICE, come to pick off the adults and children they have in the church/school.

There's Tommy, the 14 year old, who seems to be smarter and more level headed than almost anyone else in this book.

There's Meera, from Mumbai, who hates Americans and America, and wants to move back, continuing to add to the cash stockpile she has going right now.

There's Clare, from Lithuania, who likewise hates America, but who also hates Indians like Meera.

There's a Latino whose name I forget who doesn't like black people.

Everyone seems to be a giant, raging racist here.

Marta, who famously does not go out at night, suddenly does, stomping her way to the Adler Properties office. The building in which she lives is owned by Cary Adler. He owns a number of buildings, it seems. He also has various loans that he has to pay on.

While Tommy and the priest are walking, a black van is racing down the street. It loses control, slamming sideways into a light pole. The back doors pop open, and what looks like a large trash bag falls out. It's a body - more specifically, an older woman, still alive, but in bad shape. I knew who it was immediately.

Then we get a whole bunch of stuff about illegal immigrants and a racist cop. Gregor and his wife Bennis are fostering a 7 year old Latino boy, so there's discussion of paperwork, etc.

It turns out that Adler is under investigation by the feds for coyote operations - that is, bringing people illegally over the border and getting them to Philly so they can work in his various buildings, if possible. Clare and Meera are both money people, and they move money around to make things seem a bit rosier than they really are at Adler Properties. But the feds are having a tough time, because although they can see that movement of money, they can't quite pin it down.

ICE shows up at the church to arrest some 70 year old janitor who had a DUI and served his time. Gregor wanders around as a consultant for the police, who don't say it, but don't want him there. He doesn't add much as a consultant.

It takes a long time to get to the point where things start folding in on Adler. I won't spoil what's happening with the coyote operation except to say it isn't quite as bad or as usual for what we consider coyotes to be.

Eventually, the case is wrapped up, with multiple pieces coming together at the same time.

The writing is fine, some of the characters were nicely fleshed out, but this book couldn't seem to decide just what it wanted to be. Discussion of the currently broken immigration system and abuses by ICE? Social commentary on people living in cramped quarters, barely eking out a living? White collar crime and embezzlement and/or money laundering? An investigation into an assault and then later, a murder? Race relations and how most everyone is racist to their core? Who knows?

It's very, very slow. If you can't get through multiple POVs and narrative that seems to add nothing whatsoever to the store, this is not for you. If you're a reader of the series, you'll likely find it satisfying enough a finale.

Two stars out of five. Sorry, folks, this was just not for me.

Thanks to Minotaur and NetGalley for the review copy.

This was a great murder mystery book. Gregor Demarkian former FBI agent is called in to consult with the police with a murder case. This is the 30th book in the series and I wished I had read the others. I followed along with the story but I didn't understand some of the references to other books. I really enjoyed this book and its characters. I received an advanced readers copy and all opinions are my own.

I had never read this series before but it reminded me of one of my other favorites, Inspector Gamache by Louise Penny. I stumbled into her series via a short story somewhere and ended up reading the entire series. Similarly, I find myself at the end but wanting to go back to the beginning. The story was interesting and engaging though a bit depressing. Even more so given some recent developments but maybe there's some hope to be found. I couldn't believe how much she nailed the Trumpian US (hence what was depressing). Recommended.

This is a final book in the series. I haven’t read any of the other titles. That’s unfortunate: I’m sure I missed a great deal of nuance in the story. There’s quite a bit of reference to earlier novels and some of that confused me. Even so, Haddam gave enough contextual clues that I was able to work out some of the characters’ past interactions.

While a big part of the actual mystery didn’t interest me, the characters did. That kept me reading. Characters like Bennis, Gregor’s wife, and the priest, Gregor’s old friend, intrigued me. Tommy, a young teen, struggles in his relationship with his surrogate father, now jailed for murder. Sister Margaret Mary fears ICE raids (as most of the residents in the Hispanic neighborhood do) and I could understand and feel the fear an unmarked van sparked throughout the area. Pickles the overdressed dog made a terrific addition to the cast.

Some characters I rooted for; others I rooted for their downfall. But they were always believable. Even the unsympathetic ones, such as Marta (who refuses to give up the apartment that’s been in her family for generations) or Meera (always infuriated by Americans), sparked an emotional response. Even when I didn’t have a clue what was happening, I was apprehensive about what lay ahead for these people.

As the book went on, the conflict became clearer. It never felt very intense. While I never understood why the police would consult with Demarkian–he seems in their way–I did like how he investigated. While nothing in the book stood out as exceptional, One of Our Own is still a good mystery.

The book ends on a hopeful note. It’s a bittersweet but fitting farewell, I think, to a beloved series, and I feel confident that the characters will live on in readers’ imaginations.

When Haddam wrote this book, she was dying of cancer. In a sense, this is her goodbye to her supportive fans. They are probably the best judges of the quality of One of Our Own, not me.

The book is probably best for fans of the Gregor Demarkian series. Even so, I enjoyed it.

Note: I received a complimentary copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. I was not required to write a positive review. All opinions are my own.

This review will appear on my blog on 9 November 2020.

One of Our Own is the thirtieth (and regrettably the last) in Jane Haddam's long running and deservedly popular series starring ex-FBI agent Gregor Demarkian, in the Armenian-American neighborhood of Philadelphia around Cavanaugh Street.

Gregor, now an occasional police consultant, is asked to assist in finding out why an elderly woman, Marta Warkowski, fell out of a speeding black van, wrapped in a garbage bag and close to death.

It's rather convoluted, and not at all what it seems at first. Gregor sorts it out in the end, while the reader learns a great deal about the precarious lives of illegals (especially unaccompanied minors) and about consequences of tribalism.

I had a really difficult time with this book. I just couldn't get into it and finally gave up on trying. The characters were not interesting and I couldn't figure out what was going on. I realize now that it was the last of a trilogy and I didn't read the preceding books so it might have made more sense to me if I had. Thanks to #netgalleyOneofOurOwn for the opportunity to read and review this book.

When receiving this book, I honestly had no memory of requesting it. I went in knowing not a lot and had no idea it was the final book in the series. I have read it can be read alone, though. I did not connect with any of the characters, this is not my normal type of read, but something I wanted to get into recently. This fell flat for me, I have definitely not the target audience for this book.

Having read and enjoyed all the Gregor Demarkian books, this one was a bittersweet read knowing that Jane Haddam finished it shortly before her death. The series is one I regularly recommend and I wish that I could read them all again for the first time.

I just couldn't get into this, and I didn't initially realize it was the final book in a series, so perhaps that's why I struggled. The pace dragged, and there wasn't much engaging action until well into the book. The mystery itself and the writing was okay, but I just wasn't the right audience for it, perhaps. None of the characters grabbed me like I'd have liked.

One of our Own by Jane Haddam Reviewed September 1, 2020
This novel is the thirtieth and final novel in the Gregor Demarkiam.
Hmmm what do you say to someone starting at the end and working backwards? I say, “Better to start somewhere than not start at all ~ SO Do It”! Took my own advice and read it; true missed the information that was presented in the other books. I did like this and will go back and read and earlier novels.
Sad that Orania Papazoglou AKA author, Jane Haddam died from metastatic breast cancer, that she battled for a year.  This novel was published posthumously by Matthew DeAndrea, son of Jane Haddam. Additionally he and bother Gregory provide a tribute to their mother at the end of the story.

Want to thank NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the eGalley of this book. This file has been made available to be before publication in an early form for professional review purposes. Opinions expressed in this review are my own.
Publishing Release Date scheduled for November 17, 2020.

Thank you @netgalley for this ARC of One of Our Own, the final book in the Gregor Demarkian series by the late Jane Haddam. Planned for release on November 16, 2020.

Admittedly, I have not read any of the first 29 books in this series so it was a little hard to follow in the beginning. With such a long history, many of the recurring characters and big story arcs were not really explained so it was a little patchy for me. But the plot quickly revealed itself... an unconscious and barely alive woman is stuffed into a garbage bag and falls out of a speeding van right in front of the Armenian Catholic church, which is attended by the hero of this series—Gregor Demarkian, former FBI agent and now consultant to the Philadelphia police department. The main suspect is a shady property baron with possible connections to human trafficking. It was an OK mystery, nothing really that exciting, none of the characters really stood out for me. Not great but not bad. Meh.

Rating: ⭐️⭐️.5 / One of Our Own by Jane Haddam / Pages: 272 / Genre: Mysteries & Thrillers / Release Date: Nov. 20, 2020

In Jane Haddam's One of Our Own, Gregor Demarkian, former FBI agent and police consultant, returns for his final case—a surprising murder and an attempted murder, which threaten the safety of his Philadelphia neighborhood.

Pretty well.written book. I liked the characters this book portrayed.
I got through this book pretty fast so that must mean something right?

Overall. Very good book ,

Rating| 3.5

Intriguing premise but okay execution. It starts off slow when I expected something more fast paced. I did realize too late this was the last of a series so maybe that's why it didn't work out for me. The cover just drew me in. Thank you netgalley and to the publisher for the advanced copy!