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We all know the formula: single mother, crazy job, boyfriend with some kind of issue, and then somebody gets killed. Becka’s got it down: Evelyn James has a 17-year-old daughter, a job in the Medical Examiner’s office, and a boyfriend in the police department who wants to move in with her. And people start getting killed. There’s the wealthy woman in her penthouse, strapped to her table and choked. There are the people who didn't survive the explosion in the salt mine below Cleveland. There’s her friend Marissa, who doesn't die, but comes way too close for comfort. Her daughter Angel has taken to coming home late, but Evelyn isn’t sure how late, because Evelyn has been putting in lots of unpaid overtime at work. Budget crunch, so no money for overtime and no money to pay for more people. Still, Evelyn keeps putting work ahead of family, and that's never a good thing, in fiction or in real life. Especially if you've been optimistic enough to name your child Angel. Evelyn also puts work and her daughter in front of her relationship with Homicide Detective David Milaski. He's getting tired of being third on the list, even though it's always been like that. He's ready to take their relationship to the next step, which he thinks should be moving in with Evelyn and Angel. Becka has written a good thriller, with enough sub-plots to keep readers interested. There are some flaws, but nothing really serious. Her dealings with Angel seem on the money, although I find it hard to believe that a single mom, no matter what the job, would leave her daughter unsupervised for as much time as Evelyn does. The identity of the killer is saved for the very end, which seemed to me to be a little off; I think the detectives would have figured out the locked room part of things much earlier on. That, of course, would have made the book much shorter. The details of the work Evelyn does are interesting, but sometimes there is just more information than the average person requires. Of course, those readers really interested in the forensics will not skim those parts as I found myself doing after a while. All in all, Becka has done a good job. Anyone who relished Cornwell when she first started, or Kathy Reichs any time at all, will certainly find a writer worth reading in Elizabeth Becka. This is her second in the series; the first (TRACE EVIDENCE) was a Book Sense Pick.
Reviewed by P.J. Coldren, January 2008
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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)
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