Alley Kat Blues

Kat Colorado, Kijewski's chatty, no-nonsense Sacramento PI, is, like Sue Grafton's Kinsey Milhone, flatly unromantic about her profession even as she's tickled pink by it. In this, her sixth case (after Kat Walk), she's often on the road between Sacramento, where she's investigating a suspicious hit-and-run, and Las Vegas, where she's investigating why Hank, her policeman beau, isn't returning her calls. Courtney Dillard, the young woman killed in the apparent hit-and-run, had left her Mormon family and her church because she felt stifled by their views on the role of women. Her mother believes she was murdered, and Kat, inclined to agree, suspects Courtney's former boyfriend. Meanwhile, back in Vegas, Hank (who still hasn't allayed Kat's suspicions of infidelity) becomes obsessed with the case of a serial killer called the Strip Stalker. Kijewski, winner of the Shamus and Anthony awards, sure-handedly builds up suspense, deftly moving Kat between California and Nevada, contrasting the excesses of religion and the excesses of Sin City. (June)