A Missing Suspect

Ms. Coburn's characters arealive throughout this book.The police procedures aresimple and routine. A realpage turner to the end.This author has become aninstant favored of mine.

When she enters the house in the wealthy San Madera, California neighborhood, homicide chief Detective Katherine Harrod is stunned by the identity of the victim. Lying in a bathtub of water is Rebecca Symons, who visited Katherine that morning, but instead of explaining what she wanted, the woman ran from the precinct. Katherine begins to interview Gardner, the person who called the police. However, before she can learn what he knows, Becky's spouse, Robbie, storms into the house, demanding explanations. Soon his anger turns to disbelief and sorrow as he learns that his wife is dead. All the circumstantial evidence points towards the culprit being someone Becky knew. Kate feels guilty that she was unable to assist Becky. She becomes obsessed with finding who killed the defenseless housewife. When she makes little progress through legal channels, Kate begins to stretch the law until it breaks. Even though it may cost her the job she loves, Kate, feeling she owes Becky big time, will do anything to uncover the identify of a very slippery murderer. The fourth Kate Harrod police procedural, A MISSING SUSPECT, is the best novel of this well written series because of Kate's personal struggle to stay in control of herself. The murder mystery is brilliantly constructed and lives up to the novel's title. The secondary cast are expertly interwoven into the plot and consequently move the spectacular story line forward. However, it is Kate, whose confidence in her abilities begins to waver as she constantly fails to make real progress, that turns Laura Coburn's novel into a gem that will enchant fans of Rosenberg.Harriet Klausner