FictionZeal

She’s seeking employment as a police officer with Kenilworth Police Department, a suburb of San Francisco.  Randy’s father and brothers were cops.  She even married a cop, Rich Spelling.  Acting Chief Jay Pence was pushing to obtain more women on the force.  Randy is so sure of herself and she passes every test – every test, that is, except the actual ‘on the job’ test.  She fails to have her partner, Tom Rutger’s, back.  She freezes and he gets hurt.  Now, there’s a lot of anger toward her as well as distrust.  Hubby tells her, “Get tough.  Show ‘em what you can do.  Beat the crap out of somebody so they’ll leave you alone.”  Just a couple of days later, the headlines read, “Cop Shoots Pregnant Teen.”

Doctor Dot Meyerhoff is the department psychologist counseling Randy.  When Randy pulled over Lakeisha Gibbs, she told the girl to get out of her car.  Lakeisha reached over to her side and pulled up an item that at first site, Randy identified as a possible gun.  She fatally shoots Lakeisha.  The item?  A cell phone.

This is Randy’s frightful story.  It’s alarming and in some ways, could be read like tomorrow’s headlines.  But, Randy is not the protagonist.  Most of the chapters are told through Doc Meyerhoff’s point of view.  One incident after another and counseling Randy and Lakeisha’s family become a full-time job for the Doc.  However, the name of the protagonist didn’t appear until 8% of the way in.  Readers of the first in the series would have known, but I felt a bit confused at the beginning.  There are several places here and there that could have used editing.  Several times, text seemed to be added where it was not applicable.  The story line is so magnetic that it continues to pull the reader forward.  The author, Ellen Kirschman, spent thirty years as a police psychologist so she definitely knows her material and she knows how to present the relationship between cops, their situations, and their need of counseling.  Rating: 3 out of 5.