cover image Killer Triggers

Killer Triggers

Joe Kenda. Blackstone, $26.99 (248p) ISBN 978-1-98-267835-7

In this exceptional memoir, Kenda (I Will Find You: Solving Killer Cases from My Life Fighting Crime) chronicles the highlights of his 21 years as a Colorado Springs, Colo., homicide detective. Kenda investigated or oversaw 387 cases, and here uses them to offer insights into why killers kill. The cases cover a wide range, involving such elements as mental illness (a demented man fatally shot his wife, daughter, and grandson before shooting himself in the head) and greed (a slumlord lied about fixing a heater and a family of five subsequently died of carbon monoxide poisoning in his rundown rental property). Kenda also dealt with drug runners and gangs, and solved the case of a teen mob killing. In addition, he worked the first homicide in Colorado to be solved with DNA evidence, using the technology to identify the murderer of a lowlife drunk in 1994 nine years after the crime. Finally, Kenda throws in a few entertaining tales from his nine seasons as the star of the Discovery Channel’s Homicide Hunter. His Colorado cowboy cop humor and compassionate voice help make the dark stories he tells easier to bear. This is must reading for true crime fans. Agent: Austin Miller, Dupree Miller & Assoc. (Mar.)