Elouise Norton is a newly promoted
LAPD Sargent, just returned from short-term disability and still suffering from
PTSD, hiding her continued symptoms to avoid being put behind a desk. Her case
is Gene Washington, an old man found dead in his house—full of trash, cats, and
old food. Elouise, Lou, treats this as a murder investigation. The others
disagree, but she’s the Sargent, so it is her call. The two lead suspects are
his new, younger, girlfriend Bernice Parrish and his old friend Oswald Little,
both of whom received significant bequests from his recent will. A third
suspect is a local megachurch.
An experienced mystery reader would
not be surprised that the ME declared the case to be murder…anaphylactic shock
from a coconut allergy. It starts like an ordinary police procedural, until, halfway
through, new evidence is uncovered, and the case changes entirely.
Beyond the Gene Washington mystery,
Lou has an ex-husband, a couple of potential boyfriends, and maybe a couple of
girlfriends. I am certain her complicated life, both love and PTSD, would have
made more sense if I hadn’t started at the fourth volume in the series. My bad.
The author does a great job of uncovering
new evidence that increases the scope of the crime and the mystery. What starts
as a routine death of an old person succumbing during a heat wave exacerbated
by air pollution (fires), keeps expanding as new evidence mounts up. This is a
case where every detail raises new possibilities of additional crimes and
murders, most of which turn out to be true.
One disappointment: the loose ends.
While I didn’t expect her love life to be resolved, this is, after all, a
series. However, his gold-digger girlfriend, who received a bequest of 375 gold
coins, and is often mentioned in the first half of the book, disappears.
If you’re looking for a fast-moving
mystery with lots of suspects and a few surprises, City of Saviors by
Rachel Howzell Hall could be the book for
you. Caveat: I started with number four of the series, so Lou’s personal life
didn’t make much sense. I’d recommend starting at the beginning.
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