Now You See Me by S.J. Bolton

 

Lacey Flint never thought she would be on the police force.  She spent time on the streets, lost in a drug-induced haze.  But she cleaned up her act and around the time she applied, the force was trying a new plan to improve relations with the unhoused and she was accepted.  

Now Lacey is working on a crime that is all too familiar.  A young girl who lives in a housing estate, reports to Lacey that she was attacked sexually by a group of boys  Worse, they plan to attack her younger sister next.  She won't make a police report but Lacey is working on that and provides an emphatic ear when the girl needs to talk.

When leaving the housing estate, Lacey catches a woman who has been brutally attacked and who dies in Lacey's arms.  She has been knifed.  The woman comes from an upper middle class home so what was she doing there late at night?  No one knows.  Lacey is seconded to the major crime unit that is is investigating the case.  Lt. Mark Joesbury believes that Lacey is involved but the woman who heads the division, Dana Tulloch, thinks Lacey can help.  Another murder occurs and it appears to be a Jack the Ripper copycat and Lacey is an expert on that case.  Is she right?  

This is the first of four Lacey Flint novels.  Lacey seems to be tied to the crimes, although whether as a perspective victim or someone who in involved in their commission, is unclear.  S.J. Bolton has written eighteen novels in the suspense genre and her work often focuses on female protagonists.  In this novel there is romantic tension between Lacey and Mark and the reader will be interested in that aspect as well as that of the murder solution.  This book is recommended for mystery readers.