Let Thy Children Come: Hammer and Sharpe Noir Mystery Thrillers by David E. Feldman

Let Thy Children Come began in a charged atmosphere, immediately plunging readers into its tense, multi-dimensional, and gritty urban environment. The book opens two days before Halloween when 7-year-old Kyle Robinson disappears on his way home from school. His parents, as a result of this, desperately go to private investigator Sam Sharpe to help them out. We follow Sam during his investigation efforts as we see how he struggles to fight his own demons when helping others.

I personally loved how quickly the tension escalated from the initial missing-child case to something far darker and more complicated. Sam’s involvement with this case escalated to him getting involved with the crime lord Wallace North, which raised the stakes for everyone, especially himself. I am a huge fan of plotlines where something seemingly small ends up being the catalyst that leads to a revelation of events that is way out of its league. This type of snowball plot development is a classic way to keep readers engaged.

Aside from Sam, we also follow Judah Hammer, who in a lot of ways is the opposite side of the coin to Sam. While Sam is on the “right” side of the law, he actually turns to hard drugs in times of hardship. On the other hand, Judah is a legitimate ex-convict who was just released from prison and initially is just trying to stay clean with his family and lead a peaceful and newly reformed life, until his father is unfortunately killed, of course.

This contrast was not lost on me, and I was very impressed with the choice to focus on these two characters based on their effects on the main plot’s trajectory through their own personal experiences. The way Hammer’s story intertwines with Sharpe’s is beautifully handled, driving home the feeling that no one’s actions exist in isolation. People are not what they seem, and things are not black and white in the slightest.

It’s not just these two, the rest of the cast also saw great portrayal and development. For example, characters like Lev Hammer and Arthur Robinson are often forced into difficult moral dilemmas due to the circumstances, highlighting the harsh realities people face when corruption seeps into everyday life.

Another important theme of the novel is its exploration of politics, power, and morality. Wallace North’s syndicate Northland has many less-than-pleasant influences, including but not limited to buying politicians and laundering money. And through this, the novel continues to try and challenge the reader with a few critical questions: Where does true justice reside when institutions are corrupted and fail their people? When the law is not doing its job, does it justify the people taking things into their own hands? These layers of complexity and moral ambiguity significantly deepen the narrative.

Let Thy Children Come is more than just a thriller. I see it as a rich, atmospheric exploration of justice, vengeance, and redemption, with a vivid cast of flawed yet deeply human characters. Readers who enjoy intricately woven mysteries that dig into complex themes of morality, addiction, and corruption will find themselves thoroughly engaged and eager for the series to continue.