Danielle Girard The Rookie Club

The Rookie Club

Danielle Girard

Signet, June 2006, $6.99, 320 pp.

ISBN 0451218744

It was fifteen years ago when first year female police officers formed THE ROOKIE CLUB, a support group that the woman needed because they received no respect or aid from the male hierarchy that is the power in the San Francisco police department. In the present, one of the original rookies Jamie Vail has dropped out of going to the meetings because she caught her husband in bed with fellow club member Natasha Devlin.

Jamie is now an inspector in the sex crimes division and she is working a case in which someone is targeting member of the Rookie Club, violently raping them. Although Jamie knows who the rapist is, she has no evidence to arrest him and he is too careful to give the police any leads. When Natasha is murdered, Jamie wants nothing to do with the case but her rapist hints that he saw the killing. Jamie finds she is working both cases in order to ferret out the rapist who will give her the killer not realizing she is putting her life in danger from a killer who won't let anyone take him down.

THE ROOKIE CLUB is a police procedural thriller that shows how far women have come in the police department and how far for they have to go. Jamie's life is in turmoil as her ex-husband is arrested in Cassandra's death, a homeless boy sees a police officer knife Jamie's dog and she is playing "mommy" to an alcoholic who struggles to stay sober. She is an admirable role model and the story line is very exciting because nobody will guess the identity of the killer. Danielle Girard is a brilliant crime writer whose works are on a par with Kay Hooper, Lisa Gardner and J.D.Robb.

Harriet Klausner