JoAnn Ross, No Safe Place

No Safe Place

JoAnn Ross

Pocket, Mar 2007, $7.50

ISBN: 1416501665

Chicago homicide detective Kate Delaney testifies in the Justice Department's police corruption case, which makes her hated by her peers. However, she has no time for the reaction of others because New Orleans Police Department has informed her that her twin sister, Tara, is dead.

NOPD claims Tara killed herself though some detectives think murder might have occurred; none have the time to investigate what could be a suicide in a city still reeling from the hurricanes. Kate also refuses to accept the ruling that her sibling killed herself. She plans to investigate Tara's death, but knows the Big Easy is not her turf so she needs local rule breaking muscle. She enlists former NOPD Nick Broussard, who was fired by the police department, to help her uncover the truth about the death of her sibling. However, as the pair team up Kate feels a bit of d j vu as she alienates the police of New Orleans. She and her partner also upset the local mob trying to regain their grip on a post Katrina city.

The investigation is terrific as readers obtain a taste of the troubles confronting NOPD and the residents of New Orleans in the post Katrina environs where things taken for granted no longer are easily available. The impact of the hurricanes on the city effects the position taken by NOPD and the inquiries made by Kate and Nick. The six-week romance between the lead pair is extremely well-written, but in the context of the star of the novel, New Orleans, no longer an easy city to live in, seems intrusive. Still this is a great mystery investigation that the audience will devour in one tense sitting.

Harriet Klausner