A MATTER OF TRUST

A prosecutor investigating a colleague’s death realizes that she too could be in danger.

The death of Mia Quinn’s husband, Scott, is only the beginning of her troubles. Mia must return to work as a prosecutor for Washington’s King County district attorney to make sure she has enough money to support her young daughter Brooke and her son Gabe, whose obsession with gaining weight for his high school football team seems to cost as much as her law degree did. Mia is chatting on the phone with her friend and colleague Colleen Miller and getting ready for a yard sale of Scott’s old things, each box unearthing another secret Scott was keeping, when suddenly she hears a loud noise at the other end of the line followed by silence. Mia hands the phone to Gabe and rushes to Colleen’s, but she is too late to save her friend’s life. Paired with Detective Charlie Carlson to find out what happened, she dreads working with a man-child she knows could never have the ardent respect for the law that she does. The two unearth more than they were expecting, including discoveries that implicate Colleen’s murder as part of a larger pattern and suggest that Mia and her family may be targets as well.

Fans who miss the characters and relationships Wiehl (Eyes of Justice, 2012, etc.) usually develops and find her case for a sympathetic heroine less than compelling may want to wait till next time around.