cover image Lethal Beauty: A Mia Quinn Mystery

Lethal Beauty: A Mia Quinn Mystery

Lis Wiehl, with April Henry. Thomas Nelson, $26.99 (336p) ISBN 978-1-5955-4905-1

In Wiehl and Henry’s page-turning third Mia Quinn mystery (after 2014’s A Deadly Business), the Seattle prosecutor loses a case in which Dandan Yee, a Chinese immigrant girl forced into prostitution, was killed by a client. After a hung jury, Mia wants to refile the case, although her boss doesn’t agree. For a number of reasons, the case doesn’t die. Meanwhile, Yee’s mother takes matters into her own hands by seducing the sole jury holdout. On the personal front, Mia is still dealing with the fallout from her cheating husband’s death, and two men—one a cop and the other a lawyer—would like to be more than friends. The book moves effortlessly from one interesting character to another, and their back stories add some depth. Unfortunately, the fairy tale quality of the resolution is too sweet for a story otherwise grounded in contemporary urban life. Agent: Todd Shuster, Zachary Shuster Harmsworth Literary Agency. (Mar.)