We'll Always Have Parrots

British author Judith Cutler's second police procedural, Staying Power: A Kate Power Mystery, falls short of her promising debut, Power on Her Own (2003). The early revelation of the identity of the perpetrator behind various crimes, including a suspicious suicide and a string of pharmacy burglaries, undercuts suspense, while the offstage arrest of the chief villain comes as an anticlimax. The well-intentioned Power, a Birmingham detective sergeant, genuinely cares for the walking wounded she runs into, however, and that sincerity gives Cutler something to build on in future volumes. Agent, Shana Cohen at the Stuart Krichevsky Agency.