From Publishers Weekly
The remains of a burned-out medical clinic yield the bodies of the Latino receptionist and an unidentified pregnant 12-year-old as Bland ( Dead Time ) begins the second mystery to feature black woman cop Marti MacAlister. As in the first book, social issues tend to overshadow plot as MacAlister, who moved to the fictional Illinois town of Lincoln Prairie after the suicide of her husband, a Chicago cop, gamely faces the evils that surface well beyond big-city limits. Readers searching for clues will quickly cotton to the clinic doctor's broadly painted shiftiness and the glossed-over need to have new door keys cut just days before the fatal fire. The best moments here are minor ones, as Marti battles sexism and racism in gently understated, effective ways. Sections involving runaway kids falling into the hands of manipulative adults are written in an opaque, highly charged style that doesn't mesh well with Marti's low-key, no-nonsense methodology, giving the tale an uneven texture.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Kirkus Reviews
A second outing for Lincoln Park, Illinois, detectives MacAlister and Jessenovik (Dead Time, 1992) again finds them tired, overworked, and ODing on bad coffee while the bodies pile up- -including two at an abortion clinic that's been torched. An anonymous call ties R.D., a kiddie-porn merchant, in with the little, unclaimed, unidentified smoke-inhalation victim, and Marti and Vik are soon rousting R.D. Meanwhile, the clinic doctor tells them lies about a stolen door key and the receptionist who perished; a teenage junkie hooker comes clean; and a wino snitch offers clues to the comings-and-goings near the clinic. Bleary-eyed Marti and Vik come to understand that a hit-and-run victim and the death of a poor old lady are related to the ``baby doll'' porn scheme, but it'll take even more late nights before Vik goes home to his wife and Marti heads for the woods to make peace with her widowhood on the eve of what would have been her husband's 40th birthday. More polished than this team's debut, with a toned-down relationship between Marti (black) and Vik (white), and with more nuances to Marti's dealing with the black community and her own two grieving children. --
Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
