RED MAN DOWN

Tucson police detective Sarah Burke catches a case that may amount to suicide by cop.

Sarah arrives on the scene to find Officer Dan Spurlock, who’s fairly new to the force, in shock after he was forced to shoot a copper-wire thief who pulled a gun on him. The video record of the incident confirms that Spurlock had no choice. But why did the thief, who turns out to be an ex-cop named Ed Lacey, force the confrontation? Lacey was well-known as a Red Man, a police academy trainer, whose life suddenly went south when he started abusing drugs. Now, Sarah and her team must reopen the case of Lacey’s uncle Frank Martin, who apparently killed himself after being caught up in a scandal. Ed had lived with Frank after his mother, one of the many children of the close-knit Garcia family, virtually deserted him. Frank was well-known for helping with many charitable causes. If, as he claimed, he never stole a cent from those charities, why did he kill himself? Sarah tracks down Ed’s wife, Angela, who divorced him after he turned to drugs. Angela works for a charity store and lives in a tiny apartment while renting out the house they owned. When she’s found hanging in her apartment closet, Sarah and her team become even more skeptical that the three deaths could all be suicides, especially since the stolen money has never been found. Could another member of the Garcia family be involved, or is someone else hastening to cover his tracks?

A solid police procedural from Gunn, with enough twists and turns to make it altogether more gripping than her last (The Magic Line, 2012, etc.).