Tacoma Confidential

LaRosa, a journalist and TV producer who was won two Emmy Awards, does a fine job detailing the tragic chain of events that led to the 2003 murder of Crystal Brame at the hands of her estranged husband, David Brame, the chief of police of Tacoma, Wash., who immediately killed himself. That this murder-suicide came as a shock to the local citizens was a testament both to the timidity of the press and the mishandling of David Brame's growing instability and violence by city government, including fellow members of the police force. The essential sadness of the tale comes through in LaRosa's careful prose, though he leaves some important ambiguities unresolved, perhaps by necessity. Some readers might have preferred more of an emphasis on the local politics that contributed to the enabling of Chief Brame's domestic violence, but this is a solid summary of the depressing basics of the case. (Jan.)