Night Candy: A Colleen Hayes Mystery

Tomlinson’s at his best in this fifth mystery featuring San Francisco PI Colleen Hayes (following 2022’s Line of Darkness). It’s 1979, and a serial killer known as Night Candy, who has murdered at least three San Francisco sex workers and posed them in positions that mimic crucifixion, may have killed again after a three-month break—or a copycat might be on the prowl. Hayes, who’s concerned that the police aren’t giving sex workers adequate protection, sets out to stop the bloodshed herself. She’s also working another case with a personal connection: SFPD Insp. Edmund Owens, a friend, has been arrested on suspicion of murdering his ex-wife after a fire in their vacation cabin led to the discovery of her body and the bullet wound in her head. The assignment of an officer to the case who’s hostile to Owens raises the stakes for Hayes, who believes the inspector is innocent. Tomlinson ably juggles the two high-tension plotlines and doesn’t sacrifice characterization for cheap twists. Fans of Marcia Muller’s Sharon McCone series will be satisfied. Agent: Evan Marshall, Evan Marshall Agency. (July)