Detective Fey Croaker is the supervisor of the West Los Angeles Police precinct homicide unit. Fey is a tough person, who worked her way up the hard way and cares more about the troubled department than she prefers to admit. When a pregnant April Waverly shoots and kills her spouse Alex at point blank range in front of the precinct building, Fey thinks she has an open and shut case of homicide. Fey should know better because the coroner reports that the victim was dead from an overdose of digitalis even before being shot.

The Chief of Police informs Fey that he wants her to personally follow the case wherever it leads, no matter who is involved. Fey assumes that this means that the murderer might be a fellow officer since Alex was working in the prestigious ARD (anti-terrorist) Division, a top secret organization that hides everything from outsides including fellow police officers not assigned to the unit. It is common knowledge that the head of the unit covets the police chiefÆs job. However, Fey has no inclination how much inter-departmental corruption will surface, nor how much danger she has placed herself and others in from forces south of the border and within the LAPD.

Although this reviewer has never previously read a Paul Bishop novel before this one, after perusing TEQUILLA MOCKINGBIRD, will run to the nearest used bookstore to pick up the two other Fay Croaker books. This hard boiled detective series is gritty, realistic, believable, and just fun to read. The novel pulls the reader into the compelling story line and refuses to release him/her until the last action-packed page is completed. The interactions of the characters, especially within FeyÆs unit, humanize the book, thereby, painting a horrifyingly realistic picture of corruption. It will be difficult waiting for the next installment in this suspense-laden police procedural series, though I suspect reading the previous two novels will help.