When a fanatical vigilante murders a handful of freed sex offenders, the police seem uninterested in finding the perp. But Val Dawes notices a deeper, darker pattern: the victims are all LGBTQ+. Then her closest friend on the force, a trans woman, suspiciously disappears.
Val Dawes is a second-year cop trying hard to become the youngest detective in the history of the Clayton, CT police force. Standing in her way are her youth, her gender, and the jealous animosity of an old-boys network that would prefer to replace the glass ceiling with stone and steel.
Val’s boyfriend Gil, who runs Dispatch in Clayton PD, alerts Val’s unit, the Women’s Anti-Violence Emergency Squad, that the body of one of their perps has washed up on the banks of the Torrington River. Larkin, the perp, had walked on a technicality a few months before. Then another perp who walked turns up dead, and Val chafes at the department’s lackadaisical response to what she sees as vigilante justice.
Complicating matters, COVID-19 has just broken out, shutting everything down, and Gil falls victim while paying his final respects to an old mentor in New Haven. He’s stuck in quarantine and of no help.
Val’s friend Shelby Clearwater, a trans-gender IT professional in the department, invites Val to join her on a camping retreat, but when Val arrives with her ten-year-old brother Sammy in tow, Shelby has gone missing, and Shelby’s boyfriend Sanjit has already returned–alone–to Clayton. Val gets worried when Shelby doesn’t return, and the wealthy Cox family who live nearby swears to have never seen her.
Except for nine-year-old Connor Cox IV, who befriends Sammy and recalls meeting Shelby and Sanjit by the creek. That propels Val’s search into high gear–which upsets her Clayton PD nemeses, Ed “Tackle Box” Simpson and Ben Peterson, who attempt to block her from “meddling” in the case.
Val’s fortunes turn when she falls and nearly drowns in the creek’s rough rapids, and one of her fiercest enemies shows up to save her.
But Shelby is still missing after two days, and Val’s suspension hearing looms.
Can Val find her friend before she, too, falls victim to a deranged vigilante?
About the Valorie Dawes Thrillers
If you like Robert Dugoni’s Tracy Crosswhite, Michael Connelly’s Bosch, or Tana French’s In the Woods, you’ll love The Valorie Dawes Thrillers. Valorie Dawes is a smart, compassionate cop who’s not afraid to break some glass (ceilings) and kick some ass in pursuit of justice for ruthless killers.
Not your typical police procedural, this fast-paced but character-driven series pits a young, tough, intuitive policewoman, Val Dawes, against criminals who target women as their victims. Val confronts perpetrators of sexual assault, domestic abuse, human trafficking, kidnapping, and murder. Meanwhile, she confronts her own demons from an abusive childhood and learns how to open her heart to the people deserving of her love and trust.
