Obsession

Christmas Eve, 4:38 a.m. Three shots in a bedroom on Boulder Ridge Road, and Kevin O'Connor is dead in his own bed. Half of Drayton loved him. The other half had reasons.

Detective Reed takes the case with her body still marked from the night before. Lane promised her something special. Lane blindfolded her, told her not to move, and left the room. Then someone else walked in.

Now Reed is working two scenes: one she can read, and one she can't stop reading. At the station, there's a business partner who found the body and won't stop talking, a friend whose story changes every time he tells it, a grieving brother, and a senior partner ready to take credit for whatever she solves. Every one of them is offering something. Every offer has a price.

At home, there's a flowchart taped to her wall with two cases on it. One is Kevin O'Connor's. The other is a woman named Petra, who doesn't exist in any database Reed knows how to search. Lane has left five voicemails. Reed hasn't played one.

Reed knows how to sit across a table from a liar and let the silence work. She has no method for the woman who keeps telling her, "I take care of you."

Obsession is the second Detective Reed novel from V.C. Kincade. It's queer erotic noir that holds a homicide and a private betrayal in the same cold hand, and asks which one Reed will walk back into.

Every gift has a price. Reed always pays