Definitely not a "cozy." I suppose that its category among mysteries is fundamentally police procedural, but it is so much more. San Francisco is a marvelous setting, with moods and attitudes of its own which are material to the events of the story - almost to the extent of making the city a character itself. And speaking of characters - detective series inevitably have a cast of "regulars" to fill out the lives of the main character, even in police procedurals - maybe Lee Child's Jack Reacher is an exception, but then those are hardly conventional detective fiction, and, in my opinion, the strongest of those are the ones which reach back into Reacher's own past. Anyway, the incidental characters who surround Kate Martinelli in this (and hopefully many more) are a remarkable and independent lot - from her duty partner and superior, Alonzo (Al) Hawkin and her domestic partner, Lee, to all the players in this particular story - and I shall be sorry not to see them again.
This is a story of madness and hideous revenge and to say much more would be getting into spoiler territory. But I can tell you that the action never slows down, so take a deep breath and make sure you have the evening free.
I really had intended to read a "book on paper" this weekend. But it is so much easier to read in electronic format, I'm beginning to think that this creeping difficulty with reading on paper may be as much to blame for my reduced reading level as being a school teacher.
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