City of Saviors

Hall’s absorbing fourth mystery featuring LAPD homicide cop Elouise “Lou” Norton (after 2016’s Trail of Echoes) finds Lou, recently promoted to detective sergeant, still suffering from injuries sustained in her previous outing and struggling with symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder, to which she refuses to admit. One hot Los Angeles summer day, Lou and her partner, Colin Taggert, are called to the debris-filled home of 73-year-old Eugene Washington, who was found dead that morning sitting in his armchair. A gun rests on the floor near the body. While others at the scene want to write off the cause of death as a combination of heat stroke and food poisoning, Lou thinks otherwise. Her inquiries bring her into contact with an array of intriguing, well-defined characters. The dialogue has moments of genuine wit, and Lou’s relationships with her women friends ring true. Her struggle with her inner demons adds fascinating nuances to how she behaves on the job and in her personal life. [em]Agent: Jill Marsal, Marsal Lyon Literary Agency. (Aug.) [/em]