A Bleeding of Innocents

This is my first "Jo Bannister" but I'm looking forward to reading more of her work. This is one of the better-plotted mysteries I've read, although I can't say it was difficult for a serious reader of mysteries to stay ahead of the detectives through much of the book -- a few red herrings would have helped. The plot of this police procedural involves the brutal late-at-night-in-the-country murder of a young nurse by a stranger with a shotgun. The husband is the first suspect, since husbands are often the killers of wives and he was with her when it happened and yet wasn't killed himself. Eventually another similar death occurs, and since there's a connection of sorts between the two victims, the police have another avenue to pursue. Will they catch the killer before he kills again? At the same time, there's a plot involving a police detective who was run down and killed. Donovan, the detective's hot-headed and uncompromising sergeant (who was with the detective at the time and also injured), is obsessed with nailing the killer -- whom he believes is a local gangster named Jack Carney. He's not the easiest person to supervise, and the "temp" detective, a woman brought in from another area, has to try to solve the shotgun killings while resolving some issues with Donovan. Donovan has to solve the shotgun killings and ALSO the hit and run death of his inspector. All told, it moves right along, and in the end, all makes sense. If I had any complaints, it would be that too often I was not as surprised as I would have liked to have been.

This book was a gift and I had never heard of the author before, but from the very start I was hooked on the story and the interplay between characters. The end was a nicely brought off suprise. Based on this book I have ordered her other books and can't wait for them to arrive. I'm sure that they will be a great summer's read like this one was.