ILLUSION OF TRUTH

A series of explosions rocks Sacramento in general and Det. Emily Hunter in particular.

Shortly after she indicates that she’s not yet ready to move in with Sgt. Brian Conner, Emily learns that he’s near death after someone, or something, detonates a device after he responded to a false report of violence at a neighborhood church. Brian survives the attack and eventually comes out of his coma minus a few internal organs—but the bomber has only just started. Spurred by a second attack on two of her colleagues, Emily and her team, aided by computer geek Officer Clay Milton, trace the likely source of the components to Full Charge Electronics, which is owned by City Councilman Rob Davis, a vocal opponent of the city’s police, whom he insists are disrupting the peace they claim to be promoting. This lead blows up in their faces, though, when Davis is killed in a car bombing and his widow threatens to sue the police department, which is already under siege from several directions, from gang warfare to funding cuts to public opinion. The label on a file Davis had grabbed to take to his car moments before his death alerts Emily to a fatal but long-forgotten SWAT team incident in which Brian had taken part, and the trail leads to a suspect who’s never forgotten that incident, which left the rest of his family dead. Just as other procedurals would be winding down, however, L’Etoile is gearing up for further complications, revelations, and reversals, and complacent readers who assume they’ve finally figured it all out will have another think coming, and then another after that.

Everything you read police stories for is here, and much, much more.