J. Carson Black Dark Side of the Moon

Dark Side of the Moon

J. Carson Black

Signet, Jan 2006, $7.99

ISBN: 045121725X

Arizona Department of Public Safety criminal investigators Laura Cardinal and her new partner Richie Lockhart investigate the murders of camping newlyweds, college students, Dan Yates and Kellee Taylor by Cataract Lake. Apparently someone fired a shotgun through the tent when the married couple were sleeping, killing both. No footprints anywhere near the crime scene or any evidence surfaces, as the assailant seems to have gotten away with the homicides.

Laura still recuperating from her last case with a serial rapist-killer (see DARKNESS ON THE EDGE OF TOWN), struggles not to kill Richie, who gets on her nerves with his unprofessional (at least in her mind) attitude. Still the case comes first; she obtains a copy of the list of wedding guests and begins her inquiries with the male victim's sister, Shana and her boyfriend Bobby Burdette. She soon finds seemingly "coincidental" links, including a potential eco-terrorist threat to the nearby Colorado River, and her deceased former mentor Frank Entwhisle haunts her without helping her with her investigation, but nothing provides the motive to the double homicide.

Though Laura's life seems a bit more cluttered than in her debut tale, she remains a terrific courageous law enforcement official struggling with a case that has no clues at the crime scene, and no motive to who would want both dead. To solve the double homicide, Laura needs to make a paradigm switch on why both were murdered. Fans of police procedurals will appreciate her latest investigation, which is handicapped by an albatross of a partner, and a ghost who offers nothing except doomsday ramblings.