A BLOSSOM OF BRIGHT LIGHT

A feeling of guilt spurs on a detective in a murder case.

Detective Jimmy Vega is in a relationship with Adele Figueroa, a Harvard-trained attorney who gave up the law to run La Casa, a Latino community center. Always on call, they have to steal moments to be together. So when Adele gets a call that well-known alcoholic Zambo claims to have seen the baby Jesus in the arms of the Virgin Mary near La Casa, Jimmy talks her out of checking the unlikely story. Soon enough, a dead baby is found in the woods behind La Casa. Vega catches the case and works with the Lake Holly department in the search for the baby’s mother, who’s soon found equally dead wearing a hoodie that belonged to Vega’s daughter, Joy, who lives with her mother and wealthy stepfather. Meanwhile, Adele’s been offered a wonderful job in Washington, D.C., with a congressional candidate. Ambivalent about the offer, she hasn’t told Vega about it, and he’s devastated when he finds out on his own. Caught up in the case of a Mexican widower with three young children who’s about to be deported, Adele soon sees how ugly politics can be when her candidate refuses to help because it might lose him votes. Vega, certain that his daughter is no baby killer, digs deeper into the Latino community’s secrets and the nasty world of politics. The answers to his questions will rock the community and put Adele in danger.

Chazin’s latest (Land of Careful Shadows, 2014) again deftly weaves some difficult and topical subjects into a police procedural.