Somebody's killing the prostitutes working the desolate Williamsburg, Brooklyn, waterfront in Agatha-finalist Cole's uneven second mystery to feature feisty photographer Lydia McKenzie (after 2009's Posed for Murder
). Determined to stop the murders, Lydia must deal with a possible obstacle or two to her amateur sleuthing—like getting arrested by NYPD Det. Daniel Romero, with whom she clashed in the previous book, or being fired by the quirky D'Angelo brothers, at whose detective agency she works as a Girl Friday to pay the bills. Cole quickly hooks the reader with credible characters and a tantalizing puzzle, but then loses her way as thoroughly as a cabbie trying to work a new city. Such intriguing players as transvestite Candi Stick, a former State Department official, enter the action only to serve as minor plot devices, and a rushed and unconvincing denouement doesn't help. As engaging a heroine as Lydia deserves better. (May)
