UNDER A BROKEN SKY

Yes, there’s more corruption in the Sacramento city government, and yes, it’s uncomfortably personal for ethics investigator Emma Lawson.

As the newest member of the Hayden Government Ethics Commission, Emma expects to be confronted with a certain amount of dirty laundry. But she’s not prepared for the whirlwind that begins with the maybe-not-so-accidental drowning of Jonathan Hill, son of former Sacramento Mayor Frances Hill, and continues with arson at Ideal Storage that sends one victim to the hospital and another to the morgue. Lt. Alibi Morning Sun, head of major crimes in the police department’s investigative division, has one eye on a series of visions that confirm Emma’s sense that something’s rotten with the pricey expansion of the city's rail system and the other eye on Emma herself. For quite a while, however, Alibi’s attentions barely register because Emma’s been seriously distracted by the unexpected reappearance of her artist father, Atticus Lawson, who abandoned the family when Emma was a child and has now been arrested for assaulting a man who threw a glass of wine at a painting he’d exhibited in a local gallery. How can she possibly make peace with her absentee father even as she’s bent on tracking down the person who’s already killed two people and targeted two more, including Emma herself? For all the shuttling between personal and institutional loyalties, Calvin doesn’t bring the same intensity that marked the search for the killer of Emma’s ex-husband in All That Fall (2021), and readers who haven’t been paying close attention will blink in confusion when the criminal mastermind is unmasked.

Lots of interesting city employees given much too much to do.