Fiction, Mystery & Crime

The Commission

Name: The Commission
Author: Michael Norman
ISBN: 9781458711779

by Michael Norman

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Overview

Levi Vogue, Chairman of the powerful Utah Board of Pardons and Parole, is gunned down in the driveway of his home as he returns from a late evening tryst with Sue Ann Winkler, an exotic dancer employed in a Salt Lake City strip club.
Sam Kincaid, Chief of the Special Investigations Branch (SIB) of the Utah Department of Corrections, is assigned to help Salt Lake City Police Department homicide detective Lt. Kate McConnell solve Vogue's murder.
The investigation soon leads Kincaid and McConnell into the seedy world of prostitution and strip clubs. Ultimately, the investigation focuses on Charles (Slick) Watts, a violent ex-convict with a long criminal history and a score to settle with Levi Vogue. But before Watts can be apprehended, his body is discovered at an abandoned military base in Wendover, Nevada.
When the medical examiner concludes that Watt's death was a homicide elaborately staged to look like a suicide, Kincaid and McConnell are forced to turn their attention to a complex conspiracy behind the murders.
Ultimately, the investigation leads Kincaid and McConnell inside the Utah state prison to a small group of corrupt prison employees known as the Commission. As the police close in, Commission members turn, first on each other, and then on Kincaid.

About the Author, Michael Norman

Michael Norman lives in Salt Lake City with his wife, Diane, and their pit bull. He is a former police officer, state parole board member, and professor of criminal justice at Weber State University in Ogden, Utah.

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Editorials

Publishers Weekly

This impressive debut from a criminal justice professor and former lawman exudes verisimilitude from start to finish. When Levi Vogue, chairman of the Utah Board of Pardons and Parole, is gunned down execution-style in his Salt Lake City driveway, Sam Kincaid, chief of the Special Investigations Branch of the Utah Department of Corrections, investigates, along with homicide detective Lt. Kate McConnell. An amateurish ransacking of Vogue's house indicates premeditated murder rather than a real burglary, and Kincaid suspects Charles "Slick" Watts, a violent ex-con with a personal grudge against Vogue. But before Watts can be arrested, his body turns up, an apparent suicide. The case gets complicated when the medical examiner finds that Watts was murdered, and Kincaid and McConnell are compelled to look elsewhere—namely to a group of corrupt state prison employees known as "the Commission." Norman is off to a fine start with this alternately gripping and repellent crime novel. (Feb.)

Library Journal

Sam Kincaid, investigator for the Utah Department of Corrections, and Salt Lake City homicide lieutenant Kate McConnell team up to solve the murder of Levi Vogue, the chairman of the Board of Parole, who was gunned down while getting ready to meet his latest lover. Mindful of political landmines and the power of the Mormon Church, they investigate-and manage to avoid acting on romantic sparks. A former police officer and state parole board member, Norman lives in Salt Lake City. Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

A parole board chair's murder makes both politicians and the press anxious. While preparing for a tryst with his secret new lover, an exotic dancer, Levi Vogue is gunned down by a trenchcoated figure. Since Vogue was chairman of the parole board, Norm Sloan, the Executive Director of the Utah Department of Corrections, assigns the case to the Chief of his Special Investigative Branch (SIB), narrator Sam Kincaid. Once recently divorced Sam is teamed with athletic, impulsive Salt Lake detective Katherine McConnell, sparks instantly fly, though their professionalism prevents anything more. Tracking exotic dancer Sue Ann Winkler and her mother Lou Ann, who pimps for her at the motel she owns, leads them to Big Bad John Merchant, Sue Ann's jealous boyfriend. When these potential suspects fail to pan out, it's back to square one-almost. A vigilant witness gets a license plate number that leads to Charles "Slick" Watts, a career criminal with a serious grudge against Vogue. Watts is found shot in his car, a suicide note close by. But an autopsy that reveals his death as a murder leads Sam and McConnell to shift their probe to Vogue's family and other members of the Utah Parole Board. A refreshing throwback to the lean, straight-ahead police procedurals of the Dragnet era. In his fiction debut, Norman's precise, foursquare prose is a perfect match for his story. Bring on the series.