This was a good bit more intense than the others of Hyzy's that I have read. The setting - as opposed to the White House kitchen or a museum/mansion - is Chicago, and the heroine is an investigative reporter. She stumbles on a now familiar story of young eastern European girls being imported to work as prostitutes and follows it nearly to her own death.
Apparently this series did not do well, because Hyzy seems to have abandoned it in 2008 after the first of the White House books won several awards. I think it's a shame. I enjoyed her other books, but this felt less "gimmicky" and more like serious detective fiction.
There is a class of detective fiction that I used to call "the incidental detective" story. I suppose Miss Marple is the quintessential example of the incidental detective. She just happens to be on the scene and puts together the solution. Both of Hyzy's other series are of this type. Although technically Alex St.James is not specifically a detective, she is an investigator by trade and the fits more naturally into the setting. She is an appealing character and I am sorry that she only lasts three books.
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