David Hosp wrote his first book, "Dark Harbor", while commuting to Boston for his real job as an attorney. It was the first of his writing projects that he had ever finished. Thinking he would have it published privately and then give it to his family and friends, he was encouraged by his father to contact a publishing agent. So on a whim he did. He then achieved every amateur writer’s dream by having his first book successfully published. To date he has written two books. "Dark Harbor" was published in 2005 and "The Betrayed" in 2006.

"Dark Harbor" is set in Boston and falls into the legal thriller genre a¢ la John Grisham. A young woman is found floating in Boston Harbor. She was a rising attorney in one of the city’s most elite law firms. At first the Boston police chalk this murder up as the seventh in a series of murders by serial killer "Little Jack". He received his nickname because of the similarity of his murders to those of Jack the Ripper. All the victims had their hearts surgically removed along with other desecrations to their bodies. Boston’s political leaders urge Police Detective Linda Flaherty to pin the murder on "Little Jack" and be done with it. Detective Flaherty isn’t so sure.

Another possible suspect is Scott Finn, a local bad boy made good. He was a colleague of the victim and also had a brief affair with her. Although circumstantial evidence seems to implicate Finn, Flaherty finds herself emotionally and sexually drawn to him and can not maintain objectivity. Add to this mix, political intrigue, a terrorist attack, legal scheming and "Dark Harbor" is a thriller of the first order.

Hosp’s second novel, "The Betrayed" is set in Washington, D.C. Once again a beautiful young woman is brutally murdered. Elizabeth Creay was the daughter of an extremely wealthy and well-connected family. Her teenage daughter finds her bloody body in their Washington home. The evidence indicates that she was tortured before she died. An investigative reporter for the "Washington Post", Creay had been working on a story about eugenics. (Eugenics involves genetic engineering to improve a breed or race. The Nazis were big into this.) Her research led her to the Virginia Juvenile Institute for the Mentally Defective where mid-century experimentation on mental patients, including eugenics, had been suspected. The love interest in this novel is between attractive Sydney Chapin, sister of the victim, and handsome Detective Jack Cassian, a man with some skeletons in his own closet. Once again Hosp provides plenty of suspense, murder, political machinations, and a touch of sex to keep readers guessing about "who-dun-it".

Although the bodies tended to pile up more than I thought necessary in "The Betrayed", Hosp kept me guessing and turning pages to the end. (I did feel a certain smug satisfaction because I deciphered the murderers in both novels). Hosp is not a writer of John Grisham’s caliber yet, but he writes a fast-moving thriller. Grisham fans, interested in a "read-a-like", may want to give him a try. Both "Dark Harbor" and "The Betrayed" are available at the Scottsbluff Public Library.

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