After six novels, McGarrity's Kevin Kerney series has established
itself as one of the most consistently satisfying procedurals on the
market. McGarrity, a former deputy sheriff for Santa Fe county,
clearly knows police work, and his experience is reflected in precisely
detailed descriptions of what cops do on and off the job. His respect
for individual policemen and women is palpable, but so, too, is his
hard-won understanding of governmental inefficiency and arrogance. The
latter takes center stage here as Kerney, recently installed as Santa
Fe police chief, must deal with power-hungry bureaucrats and lazy cops
while trying to solve the murder of a U.S. ambassador's wife. When an FBI antiterrorist team attempts to shut the
local police out of the murder investigation, Kerney smells cover-up
and follows the trail to a maverick group of intelligence agents
playing well outside the rules. McGarrity makes less use of his
southwestern setting this time, but he handles the familiar theme of
dedicated cop fighting the system with a masterful mix of realism (it
really is a no-win situation) and suspense.
