A Killing in China Basin: A Ben Raveneau Thriller

Russell (Redback) introduces an emotionally wounded San Francisco homicide inspector, Ben Raveneau, in the promising first of a new series. Ben, whose Marine son died in Iraq eight years earlier, and his partner, Elizabeth la Rosa, a recent transfer from the vice squad and a rising star in the department, investigate the strangulation of a woman found bound in an abandoned building in the city's rundown China Basin neighborhood. When Carl Heilbron, a walk-in, confesses to the crime, Ben suspects Heilbron is playing a sick game with the police. Meanwhile, colleague Ted Whitacre shoots himself to death, apparently in the face of untreatable cancer. That shortly before his demise Ted reported being stalked by Cody Stoltz, a former prison inmate he'd help send away for murder, raises the possibility that his suicide was staged. The author cleverly resolves the complex plot threads and makes his lead compelling enough to warrant future books. (Oct.)