The Last Song Dogs [Mass Market Paperback]

There is nothing so malicious as betrayed trust -- forget about jealousy, revenge, greed, hate and pure lust, the normal human foibles that most writers use as murder motives. Browning goes straight for the heart in this story.

Trust is the basis of all human relationships. Trade Ellis, the fictional private eye who Browning writes about, usually handles routine investigations. But when old school friends come to her for help, before their class 25th reunion party, she sets aside her doubts about investigating murder and trusts her friends from school. Her task, with four people already dead, is to discover who is killing their senior year cheerleading squad.

She weaves a chilling story, packed with authentic detail that is obviously based on reliable law enforcement sources. She lists Asa Bushnell from the Pima County Sheriff's office as a source; I've known Asa since 1972, and he is one of the most honorable and decent newsmen ever to have worked at The Tucson Citizen and later as a press officer in the sheriff's office. Using Asa as a source on crime is better than having the Pope as a reference on Catholicism. She couldn't have found a better source.

Second, she has a superb feel for Arizona ranch operations. She knows the area she writes about, I've hiked it on foot and driven through it dozens of times. Browning presents a deft and accurate image of Tucson on the other side of the mountains, it's a relief to find a mystery writer who describes in loving detail something more than a hero's macho manly motives and mischief. She offers an accurate look into the real Arizona outside the city limits.

But, the essence of her story is the betrayal of trust. In a criminal case, the police suspect everyone, similar to a reporter's standard level of suspicion, "If your Mum says she loves you, check it out." Trade Ellis is neither cop nor reporter, she's a private investigator who trusts some old school friends and ends up betrayed.

Some people are like that. Unlike some criminals, who have the courage to face their victims, cowards rely on the trust, honor and decency of their victims to lure them into betrayal. In this case, it's marital betrayal; the fury of a frantic woman who discovered she could not trust someone and so set about eliminating all possible rivals.

You know the old saying, "A man suspects one other man, a woman suspects every other woman." Okay, so that's the start. When sexual betrayal is uncovered, it literally tears the victim's heart out and tramples it in the dust. Nothing is so cruel as this betrayal of trust. Browning captures this mood deftly. It leaves the victim shattered. Be prepared to learn what the impact of betrayal is like, and how it destroys lives.

Now, take those components -- authentic settings and police procedures plus a motive that strikes fear into any decent heart -- and you have the mixture for a more than ordinary mystery. What's more, she writes with a great sense of humor. Browning combines it all into a great story.

Browning isn't an ordinary mystery writer. She's much better. Thank goodness some intelligent women are expanding the genre beyond blood, guts, guns and senseless fists and instead creating stories about motivations instead of mere mayhem.

.She's written at least two later Trade Ellis mysteries. This is one mystery writer who deserves success. Read it. You'll be delighted.