Reader’s Review: Untold Damage

Untold Damage by Robert K. Lewis is the classic tale of a fallen cop who is looking to regain control of his life. Mark Mallen used to be an undercover cop in the San Francisco Bay area attempting to uncover a drug lord who has been smuggling heroin into the city. He has been undercover for a little over a year and has not gone up in rank as much as he hoped. With a wife and new born child waiting for him to come home, he knows he needs to speed up the process. He decides that the best way to really get into the character is to try the drug of choice himself. Being naïve and vain, he thinks that he can shoot up one time and then walk away; he quickly realizes that is not the case. He falls from being an undercover cop to being a junkie, he is then asked to leave the service and not be so much as a blip on the police radar. The police are not the only ones to have disowned him, his family has as well.

Flash into the future by four years and you will find a junkie washed clean by an old friend because another, closer friend has been murdered. Found on the body were Mallen’s name and address. Mallen, now an ex-cop and ex-junkie has to find out why his name and location were in a dead man’s pocket and even more importantly, how the man came to be dead. Mallen soon learns that the dead friend was more than that, he was Eric Russ, a fellow who went through the academy with Mallen. It seems that both men faced addiction but Russ faced prison time while Mallen was able to stay under the radar. While in prison Russ was violated in a way no human should be. Now, weeks after Russ’ death, men who were associated with him in prison are finding themselves dead as well. Along the way to finding justice for his friend, Mallen will clean up his life more than he has the past four years combined, he will reunite with his wife and child, even if it is just as a father and not a husband, and he will uncover a secret so grisly he has no choice but to have a father like figure arrested.

A tale of love, betrayal, and murder is spun out in this incredible crime novel. Lewis impeccably portrays the hardships an ex-cop faces in the world he once fought while countering it with the difficulties an ex-junkie faces in society. This novel contains harsh language not appropriate for children or young teens; that having been said, the language gives the story a more genuine feel. The author seemed to want to accurately depict the world of criminal activity and justice, and he did just that.  I would highly recommend this novel to anyone with an interest in crime fiction.

• Posted by Nemanja D.