Vicki Delany, Valley of the Lost (2009)

[Denne krimi er ikke oversat til dansk]

This Canadian police procedural is the second in the Constable Molly Smith series.

Lucky Smith hears a baby cry in the bushes outside the Trafalgar Women´s Support Centre. She follows the sound, and next to the angry baby she finds the dead body of his mother Ashley, one of the young clients of the centre.

Lucky calls for help, and the first constable who arrives is Molly Smith, Lucky´s own daughter. Molly, baptized Moonlight Legolas Smith by her hippie parents, is a competent policewoman, but in private she is unhappy and sleeps badly after the loss of her lover, Graham.

Molly and her superior, Sergeant John Winters, soon realize that it is surprisingly difficult to find information about Ashley and her past, and after the autopsy they are told that she has never given birth to a child. Who is little Miller then, and why has he not been reported missing?

Meanwhile Molly´s stubborn mother insists on taking care of the little baby at the cost of all her strength and most of her sleep. The social services are determined to put Miller in an approved foster home, however, though good homes do not exactly grow on trees.

A fine police procedural with a solid, exciting plot.

Thank you to Kerrie, Mysteries in Paradise, who sent this ARC on to me! See her review of Valley of the Lost.

Reviewed for the 2010 Global Reading Challenge, North America.

TOMORROW: a guest blogger writes about forensics.