Mourn Not Your Dead by Deborah Crombie

Another cryptic title - and this time no cryptic quotation at the beginning to set the framework. Of course, the first murder victim in this story certainly did not merit any mourning, and this isn't always a feature of Crombie's mysteries, at least, Jasmine Dent in All Shall Be Well didn't deserve to be murdered.

The initial victim in this one is a cop, not just any cop, but a division commander. As the story moves on we see a lot of good cop/bad cop - but not in the usual TV sense of interrogation techniques. We have a cop who has gone bad as a cop. We have a cop who is a bad excuse for a human being. We see theft, extortion, brutality, and murder of a fellow officer. We also see a group of good honest cops and a cop that is truly good on all levels and apparently at all times.

Constable Will Darling is in many ways a surprising character to find in fiction of this type. His goodness is apparent when we first meet him - at the crime scene. It is customary to have a WPC - a woman - to "sit with" the victim's family. Gemma is a little grumpy because often there isn't a WPC and she has to fill in, even though she is a detective sergeant and very uncomfortable with that duty. They arrive to find PC Darling sitting with them, willingly and effectively. We learn quite a lot about PC Darling as he helps Gemma deal with her issues regarding her relationship with Duncan and with her own grief and guilt over the murder of a good friend - some of it from Darling himself, some of it from others. I would like to see him reappear in the series.

By the way, Gemma does work out her issues, although it took the entire book for her to get there.