Review - Hudson River Homicides by C.S. Poe

Hudson River Homicides

by C.S. Poe

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Volume 4 of Memento Mori

Tags: Mystery

Posted in Book Reviews on January 25, 2026

Cold Case Detective Everett Larkin is called to the scene of a fresh homicide in the early hours of the morning. Even though Larkin is a cold case investigator, a note links the death to a string of cases he has been working on with his lover and sometimes partner, Ira Doyle. Most of the cases involve serial killers who were never brought to justice, or even recognized when the murders occurred. What links everything together is a shadowy figure calling themselves Adam Worth, a nineteenth century criminal mastermind who inspired Arthur Conan Doyle’s Professor Moriarty. Adam Worth has been taunting Larkin, leading him from one case to another, and now they seem to be cleaning up loose ends while endangering those close to the detective.

This fourth mystery in the Mememto Mori series builds heavily on the first three books, so you need to have read them all to know what’s going on. It feels like we’re getting near the end of this story arc, when the person behind the Adam Worth persona will finally be unmasked, but I’ve been wrong about that before. There is no new serial killer at the center of this story. Instead, it’s about uncovering more links between the known players and how they might fit into the network Adam Worth has set up.

As before, the story is told entirely from Larkin’s point of view. We already know that Everett’s unique form of eidetic memory is a double-edged sword. Perfect recall gives Larkin a huge edge as a detective, but at any time, the links from one memory to another can send him spiraling into a panic attack. Ira seems to have a knack for recognizing when Larkin is on the edge and bringing him back.

Ira Doyle is forced to confront his own demons head-on in this story, as the clues lead Larkin to Ira’s mother, whom he hasn’t seen since he was nine years old. We already knew Ira was a bit of a wild child, raised mainly by his grandmother. In this book, we learn many more details about who Ira’s mother was and why she was forced to give him up.

“Hudson River Homicides” is available from Smashwords or see Bookshop.org to purchase a paperback from an independent bookstore.