GUILT BY DEGREES by MARCIA CLARK

This is my second Deputy D.A. Rachel Knight mystery and I'm thinking perhaps I should have waited a bit before reading it.  Going directly from the first one to this may explain why I didn't think this quite lived up to Guilt by Association.  Still, it was a good read and I enjoyed the fact that some of my favorite characters from the first were in this one as well.

I do get impatient with Knight's love life, or rather her resistance to same.  Her quirky attitude about commitment and her past doom every relationship so far.  Oh well, that's her problem. The great part of her life is her close friends, and her "pal" Luis the gangbanger determined to get an education and better himself.  She has been upgraded to a suite of rooms at The Biltmore; a dream life in the opinion of this housekeepingphobe to coin a word.

In this story a homeless man seems to be trying to grab the arm of a woman on the street when he collapses and everyone just sort of steps over him until finally someone notices the pool of blood.  He has been stabbed and bled to death.  This is tied to the horrific ax murder of a cop in his home workshop some time earlier that we have suffered through in the prologue.  The murdered cop and the homeless victim are brothers.

Knight is shocked and offended that people ignored him just because he was homeless, so of course she takes up the cause not knowing she is dealing with a seriously dangerous person. Just finding out who the dead man is and connecting the dots takes up a good part of the book but Knight is like a bulldog.  Meanwhile, having broken up with her latest boyfriend, she is angry and lonely and bitter and very difficult to get along with.  Good thing she has those loyal friends and the tenacity to chase down this case.

I have two more novels in this series to read but they'll have to wait while I read others that I've promised to review.  Maybe that's a good thing but I do look forward to them.

Recommended
Source:  Netgalley