When the homicide detective is a mother of two, and the victim is also a mother of two, the stage is set either for an unusually absorbing piece of crime fiction or major emotional overkill. This, I'm pleased to report, falls into the former category. Specialist Sonora Blair of Cincinnati PD may be cynical and world weary, overworked and underpaid, but she also brings her young daughter to work because she has no babysitter on a Sunday, and toys with the idea of falling in love with her police type partner, a wholesome hunk called Sam. He violated the three rules of successful singlehood - don't sleep with married men, your colleagues or your friends. She wondered who she was supposed to sleep with." This is laid back murder with a competent but not dauntingly difficult plot.
