Overkill

In this second in the Maggie Ryan series, Susan McBride once again writes of the Litchfield, Texas police detective. Ms. McBride's first Maggie Ryan novel, And Then She Was Gone won awards as Mayhaven Publishing's First Award for Fiction and as a finalist in St. Martin's Best First Traditional Mystery contest. Susan McBride has also published essays and short stories.Maggie Ryan is an ex-Dallas police officer who has fled to the seemingly quiet suburb of Litchfield, Texas to escape the horrors of the ever-increasing frequency of murders in modern Dallas. Her partner, John Phillips, feels the same way and is strangely protective of Maggie, whose vulnerability he sees. But neither are ready for the horrendous crime that hits their sleepy suburb when some punk enters a school bus, shooting one student point-blank and almost fatally injuring the bus driver. Right away Maggie realizes that the resources of their tiny police station will hamper the investigation:"But in a place where crime was rare and homicides infrequent, they were ill-prepared to deal with the collection and analysis of evidence that could include DNA-typing and the need for half a dozen different specialists. Litchfield might spend a quarter of a million on a huge baseball complex for its Little Leaguers, but adding staff to the Girl Scout troop-sized police department wasn't in the budget. Not, she realized, until crimes like this became ordinary."Written with a gritty realism, Overkill is a cop's mystery; an excellently written police procedural. McBride infuses her Maggie Ryan character with all the great qualities that make cop shows so intriguing: a past that would make anyone shudder; a determination that sparks of heroism; and a vulnerable side that makes the audience groan when she almost throws away what could be the love of her life. Maggie's also has to grapple with the all-too- familiar story of a mother with Alzheimer's, who is in as much turmoil as Maggie herself, but whom was never there for Maggie when she needed her as a child. Overkill is a mature and sensitive mystery that makes us as readers hope that every cop is a Maggie.Shelley Glodowski, Reviewer

Susan McBride, is a young, enthusiastic, skilled, mystery novelist. It shows. She's also agood writer. For the most part, McBride handles the elements of the mystery novelmaturely and with a certain freshness. This is only her second novel and it again featurespolice detective Maggie Ryan, who works for the people of Litchfield, Texas. Ryan is agood detective who got her start on the meaner streets of Dallas. She brings thisexperience to bear with good effect when a developmentally challenged student isbrutally gunned down while riding a school bus.There are two axioms in the mystery novel community that are rarely ever challenged. One is the killing of pets (petjep) and the other is danger or death to children (kidjep).Even experienced and established authors steer clear. McBride shows a lot of moxie inconfronting one of these maxims head on. She certainly demonstrates the writing skillsand knowledge of the genre adequate to handle the task. The novel is taut, logical and full of exciting scenes. The resolution is excellent. If thisbook has problems, it lies in the emotional upheaval that seems to attend Maggie Ryanthroughout. She's not quite a basket case, but I found the character's lack of sufficientprofessional distance and her emotional struggles, both personal; and professional, to betoo strong. In my view, the novel is poorer for that emphasis, although it is undeniablethat those emotions add dimension to the character.