The Perfect Suspect

At the start of Coel's so-so second mystery featuring investigative reporter Catherine McLeod of the Denver Journal (after 2008's Blood Memory), rogue police detective Ryan Beckman fatally shoots her secret lover, David Mathews, a leading gubernatorial candidate, when he tells her it's over. An ironic twist puts Beckman in charge of the investigation into Mathews's murder, giving her the opportunity to frame his wife, Sydney. Beckman knows someone saw her leaving Mathews's house. That witness later makes an anonymous call to McLeod, who had covered Mathews's campaign, identifying Beckman as the killer. Then it's a race as McLeod tries to persuade the witness to come forward and tries to find other witnesses linking Beckman and Mathews. Beckman, meanwhile, is also trying to find and eliminate anyone who can connect her to Mathews, including McLeod. An increasingly desperate Beckman and increasingly determined McLeod stay on an easily foreseeable collision course. (Sept.)