Double Shot by Diane Mott Davidson

I am also about halfway into a fairly heavy piece of historical fiction and just had to have a break. Then, too, the semester is wearing on - and the big assignments are coming up in the classes I am taking. I may not finish that one until the holidays.

I knew it was coming. At some point they had to get rid of the Jerk, Goldy's abusive ex-husband. I'm pretty sure I read this before, but I really didn't remember much, besides the fact that someone finally killed him - and that one of his many flings left a brother for Arch.

Naturally, since the first victim is the Jerk, Goldy is in the frame. In fact, the murderer has deliberately put her in the frame. But as this one proceeds, the list of his crimes becomes so long and their nature so varied and perverse that the initially hostile cops become her partisans in the investigation before it is all over.

Davidson must have nearly exhausted the available citizens of Aspen Meadows both for victims and suspects, because quite a crew of people from out of town (and from the past) populate this one. It isn't really a major issue with the integrity of the story, after all, the town is really practically a suburb of Denver, and they are running down there all the time anyway. A whole big city full of potential murder victims.