cover image Wrong Turn: 
A Lucinda Pierce Mystery

Wrong Turn: A Lucinda Pierce Mystery

Diane Fanning. Severn, $28.95 (224p) ISBN 978-0-7278-8187-8

Lt. Lucinda Pierce is shocked to learn from her boss that her last promotion wasn’t wholly on merit, in Edgar-finalist Fanning’s solid sixth mystery featuring the Virginia homicide detective (after 2011’s False Front). Pierce thought she landed the promotion as a result of working on the case of Martha Sherman, a woman convicted of murdering her stepdaughter, Emily. When the lead witness for the prosecution in the case, Lt. John Boswell, Pierce’s partner, died on the witness stand in the middle of Sherman’s trial, Pierce replaced Boswell as a witness. In order to get the jury to take Pierce’s testimony against Sherman more seriously, the department agreed to promote her to detective. But that revelation pales in comparison with the news that Sherman is innocent of the crime, and that Emily was actually the victim of a serial killer. Fanning gives her lead depth that complements a well-constructed plot, which only falters at the pat ending. (Feb.)