Before He Kills by Blake Pierce

This is a fairly standard police procedural with nothing new to offer the genre. Whilst the main protagonist, Mckenzie White,is a young female officer she is disturbed rather than damaged which makes for some sort of change I suppose.  Yes,she has the murdered parent (father just to mix things up a little it) that has driven her to become a member of Law Enforcement.  Now she finds that it isn't all a bed of roses, having got her promotion to detective she finds that the other officers are too old and too "male" to fully accept her.  Considering this is set contemporaneously I find it implausible that such misogynistic attitudes would not only be condoned by the Police Chief but that he would actively foster them.

The investigation is very much based on gut feelings rather than cold,hard facts.  The little evidence they have points the way but they don't realise the significance of this evidence until over halfway through the book.  This drove me mad as it was perfectly obvious what it referred to and I know I won't be the only reader to sit muttering at the text because of this.  When Mckenzie finally realises what it all means she has to"go maverick" to solve the final puzzle.

The main character is, on the whole, pretty multi-faceted.  She is completely absorbed by her work (surprise, surprise) so it is no big reveal when she throws her boyfriend out  Getting drunk in a bar and propositioning an attractive colleague was but did at least make her seem more human.  The other characters are either creepy (the FBI agent Ellington is at the very least skeevy), full of antiquated views and not afraid to share them (Chief Nelson) or heart of gold under the bluster (Detective Porter).  We even have the "tart with a heart" thrown in courtesy of the first murder victim Hailey.

Not a terrible addition to the genre by any means but it is populated by one dimensional characters and plot that you can see through.  The saving grace is that the writing is pacy and manages to stray away from hyperbole to some extent. I did get an almost guilty pleasure from reading this book but not enough tread any further in to the series.