The Bottom Line: A gritty Miami crime thriller that turns one shocking discovery into a high-stakes nightmare. Five stars.
Parts Unknown opens in Miami as professional and romantic partners Vance Courage and Lauren Gold discover a rotting human torso dumped in the alley behind their tattoo shop, Ink Hollow. Reporting it to police would mean crime-scene tape, forensic teams, and media attention – all direct threats to a business that is really a front for money laundering.
To legitimize Ink Hollow, Vance and Lauren have hired Armani Altman, a gifted tattoo artist with a substantial social media following and a growing client list, along with Jean-Marie ‘Zo’ Delgado, a recently retired Fort Lauderdale cop whose job it is to keep an eye on things. Drawing on his professional experience as an ex-homicide detective with a law degree, he bags the torso and disposes of it in a nearby dumpster. But by morning, the body is back, deliberately placed against Ink Hollow’s rear door. It’s a message, but who put it there and why?
Armani’s constant presence at the shop feels like an asset but as more body parts are discovered — including a set of severed hands in the trunk of Lauren’s car — Vance and Lauren realize they’re the target. As Zo’s absences from work become more frequent, police attention seems to grow. A mysterious business in the same shopping two doors down from Ink Hollow and the funeral home across the street have the duo looking over their shoulders.
Meanwhile, Miami’s homeless population is under attack, prompting Detective Charles Hartshorn — whose own homeless brother has disappeared — to be the first to suspect a serial killer may be at work.
As Hartshorn’s investigation advances, a pattern emerges. What began as a single, grotesque discovery is now a looming nightmare as word gets out and city officials grapple with the consequences of being forced to announce a serial killer is targeting Miami’s transient population.
Author Karen S. Gordon has put Lauren and Vance in a wide variety of exotic locations across the series, but her rendering of everyday Miami may be the most suspenseful. The novel unfolds across alleys, dumpsters, parks, strip malls and fast-food restaurants, all spaces that recur with increasing unease.
For longtime readers of the Courage and Gold series, Parts Unknown leans into their knack for business failures. While earlier books saw Vance and Lauren survive kidnappings, betrayals, and international schemes through ingenuity, luck and guts, this installment feels far more claustrophobic. The emphasis shifts from escape to exposure, from outmaneuvering adversaries to managing attention in a world where they need to stay under the radar.Â
For newcomers to the series, each book can be read as a standalone, and Parts Unknown is a fantastic entry point. For longtime readers, Parts Unknown delivers the struggle of two protagonists we love to root for in an entirely new dilemma.
