Blue Death

NYPD's Lieutenant Norah Mulcahaney (Lockout, 1994) confronts daunting professional and personal challenges in this unconvincing addition to her generally compelling series. As a sequence of suicides rocks the police force, Norah's nanny faces a family emergency and leaves the adoptive mother of preschooler Patrick without any help at home. Unable to find a reliable replacement, Norah does her best to oversee the investigation from her living room, a situation that doesn't sit well with her higher-ups. The conflicts of a single professional woman trying to raise a child are accurately portrayed, as are the loyalties and suspicions that reign within the force. Veteran mystery writer O'Donnell stumbles here on the plot, proposing a hard-to-credit motivation and means for the accumulating deaths. Norah's mentor, Chief James Felix, who is top aide to the police commissioner, comes under assault only days before Norah realizes she has been targeted too. Little suspense and an unprepared-for plot twist that sets up the resolution call for greater suspension of disbelief than readers will be able to summon. (May) FYI: O'Donnell also writes the Gwenn Ramadge mysteries and the thrillers starring Mici Anhalt.