City of Endless Night by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child-358 pages


                                                       
When Grace Ozmian, the beautiful and reckless daughter of a tech billionaire, first goes missing, the NYPD assumes she has simply sped off on another one of her wild adventures. Until the young woman's body is discovered in an abandoned warehouse in Queens, covered in leaves, the head nowhere to be found.  So begins the cat and mouse game between the killer and Special Agent Pendergast.  It has many twists and turns, with a surprising and gruesome ending.  This is #17 in the series.  I enjoy the characters and the series very much.

NYPD Red 3 by James Patterson and Marshall Karp

NYPD Red 3 by James Patterson and Marshall Karp, 359 pages

In the latest in the NYPD Red series (number 3 to be exact), detectives Zach Jordan and Kylie MacDonald are assigned to a kidnapping and murder case that keeps them on their toes. Zach and Kyle are NYPD detectives that are assigned to cases of the rich and famous.  When Hunter Alden Jr.'s son is kidnapped and the chauffeur is found murdered in a most gruesome way, the detectives have to find out what Hunter Alden Jr. is hiding.  The latest NYPD Red book does not disappoint in the suspense department.

All Day and a Night by Alafair Burke

All Day and a Night by Alafair Burke - 368 pages
Ellie Hatcher Series Book #5

NYPD Detective Ellie Hatcher and her partner have been tasked to be a "new look" team to review a closed case where the conviction is being called into question when there is a new murder matching the MO of that convicted criminal who is currently in jail without parole.  The characters are well written and the suspense is good for the most part.  I did see who the killer was coming from a ways out but it was interesting to see the other characters get to that conclusion as more information became clear.

The courtroom procedure in this book seems a little suspect to me even as just a layman who gets my knowledge from court TV shows and Law and Order reruns.  The court is very quick to let someone convicted of serial murder out of jail based on just one hearing regarding possible new evidence.  Also, I wonder how common it is for NYPD detectives to roam the countryside in upper New York state investigating crimes that didn't happen in their jurisdiction.  

This series is good for a casual read but lacks any real urgency keeping me on pins and needles waiting for the next installment.