Scarlett Dean, Shield of Duty

Shield of Duty

Scarlett Dean

Five Star, Feb 2010, $25.95

ISBN: 9781594148552

Southfield Heights, Indiana Police Detective Kate Frost is not looking forward to Crier reporter Ed "Egg" Nog tagging along when she comes back from her Wisconsin skiing vacation with friends at White Crest Mountain. However, the fun in the snow turns ugly when Kate and pals finds the torn apart corpse of one of them Evelyn Jakes. The cop knows Jakes had enemies, but not who would go so far as to slice her like this and place her dismembered body parts into plastic.

Kate and her partner police detective Gerard Alvarez investigate. At the same the spirit of Kate's late sister Lindsay, a former cop, provides her sibling with otherworldly guidance that only Kate can hear; she also councils the newly departed like mobster Ricco DiCianni, who wants to hire Lindsay to solve his murder. However, even with this paranormal help, solving the Jakes case seems to be going nowhere.

This is a terrific often amusing paranormal whodunit with two police procedural subplots mostly handled by the sisters on different planes. The support cast is solid in support of the sibling cops with Lindsay telling much of the story from her otherworldly perspective. Fans will enjoy this entertaining mystery and seek the previous work when from beyond the late detective investigated the murder of Lindsay Frost (see Invisible Shield).

Harriet Klausner