In this short novel, readers get a second chance to join an adventure that centers around Win Garano, a Massachusetts detective with the state police who is of mixed Italian/African American heritage, and Assistant DA Monique Lamont, who seems to have little interest in anything more than self-promotion.

As the primary protagonist, Win seems to be Cornwell's attempt at creating an Alex Cross-like (a la James Patterson) character. He is pretty good natured, bright, and seems to have his heart in the safety of those around him as he tries to solve the cases. He even has an interesting Nana, though this on seems to have no problem in practicing Wicca and seems to have the ability of precience. He nicely off-sets the shallow Lamont, who recently had to drop out of an election in their first trip onto the page after being raped. She switched to the Republican party in the process, though, few believe that she really is as concervative as such a shift implies.

In an attempt to regain some of her previous professional success, Lamont has assigned Win to work on a cold case that she believes is tied to the Boston Strangler. The case is centered around Watertown, Massachusetts, and he is being assigned to work with a local detective everyone calls Stump. This is not due to the fact that she lost one of her legs in a motorcycle accident, but to some interesting familial lore you can only find out by reading the book. Stump and Win quickly come to realize that there is more tot he investigation than is presented. Watertown and the case involved are clearly chosen because the community's police force is participating in a new initiative called The Front, which allows a number of area municipal police departments to share resources in order to be less dependent upon the state police. The staties tend to come in and just take over whenver something serious, such as a murder, takes place.

The characters are definitely interesting, but the story is a little slow to get started, particularly considering the book is only 180 pages. Once it does get into full gear, though, the story is really interesting. I did not want to put it down.

One of the problems I have had with Cornwell's more recent works is that she seems to completely forget the mystery of the case that the book centers around as she becomes so involved with the personal development and stories of her characters. I usually like my mysteries to have strong characters that change and eveolve throughout the series. The problem is with Cornwell, the case becomes almost incidental and lingers in the background until the end, when it is solved quickly ... almost like being slapped across the face. Since this book was so short, she definitely could have spent a bit more time developing the case and investigation.

With all of that said, I greatly enjoyed the book and am looking forward to another book centering around these characters.