Every Broken Trust

Rodriguez’s satisfying second mystery featuring Marquitta “Skeet” Bannion (after 2012’s Every Last Secret) finds the chief of Chouteau University’s police department reluctantly cohosting a welcome party for the new law school dean with her best friend and surrogate mother, Karen Wise. The big event’s at Skeet’s house because Karen’s farm is too far from town (Brewster, Mo., just outside Kansas City, where Skeet used to be the highest ranking woman on the police force). At the party, Karen calls a cab for a drunken guest, Leonard Klamath, with whom she leaves. Later, Skeet receives a distress call from Karen, who’s phoning from a campus parking lot, but the call is abruptly cut off. Skeet rushes to the parking lot, where she discovers Leonard dead and Karen unconscious in a space between rows of parked cars. Skeet investigates, at peril to herself and her 14-year-old ward, Brian, whom she hopes to adopt. Credible characters enhance the absorbing plot. Agent: Ellen Geiger, Frances Goldin Literary Agency. (May)