The Vaults-Toby Ball

The Vaults
Toby Ball
St. Martin’s, Sep 14 2010, $24.99
ISBN: 9780312580735

By 1935 in the City, archivist Arthur Puskis has worked in the Vaults for thirty plus years. The underground cavernous facility has stored the records of criminals for over seven decades and Parks is the expert at what is inside though he admits he knows a small percentage of the numerous files.

Recently, Arthur has found evidence of the Navaho Project in which two files with the same identifier contain different profiles, but share in common convicted killers never spending time in jail; this shakes his belief system that the Vaults are sacred. At the same time weed addicted investigative reporter Frank Frings and blackmailing private investigator Ethan Poole independently find similar information on the alleged The Navajo Project. Mayor Red Henry and his goons will go any length to keep the findings from going public, but someone is also targeting him and his cohorts with bombing assassinations.

Readers will want to enter Toby Ball’s The Vaults as the vivid description of political corruption controlling the City hooks the audience to learn what the Navaho Project is and how far the Mayor and his supporters will go in exchange for graft. The story line is fast-paced with three unlikely heroes risking their lives trying to expose what they have learned. This is a haunting winner.

Harriet Klausner