There's Something in a Sunday by Marcia Muller

After that gently paced non-mystery story by Mankell, this one was like an overdose of caffeine. Muller does tend to start out quickly and accelerate all the way to the conclusion. No time (or print) wasted on introspection - well, maybe a few pages were spent musing on her defunct relationship, but she was driving down the highway to confront a potential murderer at the time.

I like the way Muller keeps Sharon's personal life off the front page. It isn't that I don't like the ones - like Stabenow - where the detective's life is more of the story than the mystery itself. But this is nice, too. Sharon's break-up with DJ Don happened between books, although it was clear in the previous one that the sparkle had gone out of the relationship. Same with previous boyfriend, Lt. Marcus - in one book they were and in the next they weren't. No boyfriend at all in this book - which is all good, because the entire story was about a whole crowd of disfunctional relationships.

I don't think I've read anything lately in which they carted quite so many people off to jail at the end. The murders were committed by -- but maybe I shouldn't spill that much - and I guess one of them didn't exactly go to jail, but was committed to a psychiatric facility. Lots of fun.