Let Justice Descend/ Lisa Black/ 320 pgs

This is the fifth book in this series set in Cleveland. Jack is a detective with the police and Maggie is with the crime scene unit. Both Jack and Maggie have dark secrets that the other knows, though Jack's is much, much darker. He's a vigilante killer (not a spoiler--it's on the back cover of the first book). Since Maggie discovered his secret, Jack has stopped killing the bad guys. Their current case involves the death of an incumbent senator running for re-election. Of course there's all sorts of unaccounted-for money, bribery, lobbyists, etc going on here. And a couple more deaths as well. The author really does her research. I wasn't sure where this one was going and I have to admit the identity of the killer surprised me. I'm very interested to see where this series goes next!

The Bone Collection: Four Novellas/ Kathy Reichs/ 388 pages

The Bone Collection is a group of four short works by Kathy Reichs.  Each deals with a different story of Temperance Brennan's work as a forensic anthropologist.  Bones in Her Pocket is tale of a water logged body and raptor rescue.  Swamp Bones takes the reader to the Florida Everglades and introduces the world of Python roundup.  Bones on Ice explores the conquest of Everest and what can go wrong.  First Bones tells the reader how Tempe moved from academia to police work.  Each is an interesting read in the hands on style of Reichs previous books.  These books will appeal to the reader who likes the puzzle solving aspect of a murder mystery.

Chaos/ Patricia Cornwell/ 385 pages

Chaos by Patricia Cornwell is the latest installment of the Kay Scarpetta series.  Even though it took 200 pages for Kay to arrive at the crime scene, unlike some recent installments, this book does have a plot.  Overall the book will keep the reader's interest.  After running a few errands, Kay is on her way to meet Benton for dinner.  It's a dinner they will not finish when they receive simultaneous calls.  Marino picks up Kay and they head to the crime scene, 200 pages away!  The case comes together quickly with help from the usual characters.  Meanwhile Benton and the FBI try to intrude on the case from a different perspective.  The final climax comes once Benton and Lucy have departed for Washington and Kay arrives home.  The reader will find it to be a satisfactory ending.

Forensics/ Val McDermid/303 pgs.

The subtitle of this fascinating book says it all: "what bugs, burns, prints, DNA, and more tell us about crime." McDermid takes the reader through the history of the different methodologies used in trying to solve crimes. She injects this information with true crime cases in which a particular method was used--not always successfully! For readers of true crime stories or crime fiction, this book is a must read. Highly recommended!

Bones on Ice/ Kathy Reichs/ 118 pages

Bones on Ice is a short novella written by Kathy Reichs.  Temperance Brennan is called on to verify the identity of a body recovered from Mt. Everest.  Four years prior a young socialite organized a group to climb Everest.  Five went up the mountain, but only four came down.  Reichs explains the difficulty in recovery of the dead off Everest, and the steps necessary to autopsy a frozen body.  To make things interesting there's a mystery for Tempe to solve.