COOL IN TUCSON

The debut of a Tucson homicide cop straddled with a boss, a sister, a niece and a potential love interest, all of whom lie to her.

When Detective Sarah Burke arrives on the scene with Jimmy Ibarra backing her up, the only thing anybody knows about the victim is that he has several prison tattoos, torture scars on his back and blood congealing over his otherwise extremely neat clothes. Sarah’s homicide chief once again seems displeased to see her and, in her opinion, punishes her by making her the lead investigator—but with no support. The corpse and her boss are no more wearing on her than her druggie, alcoholic sister, who goes out for beer, leaving an abusive, lecherous pickup in her bedroom and her ten-year-old daughter Denny in her car. When the killer Sarah’s hunting boosts that car, she suddenly has to find her niece as well as the killer. Within a two-day span, another man is killed, a third is threatened, an undercover operation goes belly up and Denny blithely walks away with a sack full of drug money misplaced by her kidnapper.

An ever-so-carefully plotted procedural written in a manner so pedestrian it’s hard to believe it comes from the talented author of the Jake Hines series (McCafferty’s Nine, 2007, etc.).