Powers of Arrest: A Cincinnati Casebook

In Talton’s excellent second Cincinnati Casebook mystery (after 2009’s Pain Nurse), Cincinnati homicide detective Will Borders commits himself totally to solving the gory murder of a glamorous local policewoman, despite being all too conscious of his physical limitations after undergoing spinal surgery. Meanwhile, in nearby Oxford, Ohio, pain nurse Cheryl Beth Wilson, who treated Will in the previous book, begins investigating after two of her students are butchered and a third is briefly the main suspect. The crimes reunite Will and Cheryl Beth, but recognition of their loneliness and decency lets them become uncertain but brave lovers—while the sadistic killer watches them and boasts about creating clever “deathscapes.” The Ohio local color lends depth, and the threat of extreme violence compels, but the novel’s chief interest is watching two mature, vulnerable people become real partners whose survival really matters. (May)