Cop Out

When Bryce Darcy is bludgeoned to death, his sister Charlotte is found with the body and the murder weapon, possessed of a convenient case of amnesia. To Detective Inspector Carol Ashton, it all seems a bit too tidy. Such instincts have served Ashton well during her rise through the male-dominated Sydney police force--as has her decision to keep her life with her lover, Sybil, a secret. Ashton soon discovers her prime suspect: Charlotte's nasty husband Eric, who has been feeding his wife drugs to have her declared incompetent, gain control of her money and marry his mistress. But then Ashton suspects that Bryce may have been killed to prevent him from revealing financial shenanigans within the family-owned company. When she learns that Bryce had sought counseling for his own covert homosexuality, she wonders: Would his tough-as-nails wife prefer widowhood to being cast aside? Smooth writing by McNab ( Lessons in Murder ) lends plausibility to the ultimate solution. Although gay concerns are woven firmly and, for the most part, effectively into this procedural, the action lags while Ashton muses over career burnout and begins, tentatively, to step out of the closet. (June)