Narrator Sarah Pribek is a detective with the Minnesota Hennepin County’s Sheriff’s Department. Although she handles various kinds of cases, her specialty is missing persons’ cases. She has been married for a short time to Mike Shiloh, formerly with the Minneapolis Police Department but soon to begin training as an FBI agent. Shiloh has a varied background in police work including undercover narcotics detail, but it was his highly publicized cracking of a cold case that led to attention from the FBI.

Sarah’s best friend, partner, and mentor Genevieve Brown is on leave. Genevieve’s daughter Kamareia had been brutally attacked and murdered. Sarah had heard the girl’s identification of her attacker, but her testimony is excluded from court proceedings so the perpetrator had gone free. Sarah has felt the effects of Genevieve’s absence.

Even though he is soon to leave for Quantico, Virginia, Shiloh convinces Sarah to go visit Genevieve in rural Minnesota where she’s staying with her sister. When Sarah returns, her husband is gone. At first she assumes he’s left for Virginia, but she soon learns he failed to report for training.

Sarah knows from experience that the first thirty-six hours is critical in a missing person’s case. As the hours add up, Sarah begins to delve more deeply into her husband’s past.

The 37th Hour is a riveting tale with unexpected twists. (Although I did figure out the big secret in Shiloh’s past before Sarah did.) It’s also a dark, intense story. Readers who enjoy some comic relief with their mystery may want to look elsewhere. But for those readers who are looking for a police procedural with meticulous plotting, The 37th Hour is strongly recommended.

The plot has two major threads – Shiloh’s disappearance and the aftermath of Kamareia’s murder. From the title, it would seem that Shiloh’s disappearance would be the focus of the story, but Sarah’s character and determination are of equal and increasing importance. Sarah and Shiloh are not a sweet romantic pair, but two strong flawed personalities.

The narrator/first person point of view has the disadvantage of limiting the reader’s knowledge to only what the narrator herself is thinking or observing. On the other hand, it has the advantage of vividly portraying Sarah’s fears and panic. As the story proceeds, the reader inevitably comes to respect and empathize with Sarah.

The story concludes with several unanswered questions and an open ending. Fortunately a note about the author reveals that she is working on another Sarah Pribek novel. I advise readers to read this first one and look for the next. Sarah Pribek is a character worth following. Jodi Compton is an author worth watching.

--Lesley Dunlap