Blood Sunset by Jarad Henry

35. - 548.) Blood Sunset by Jarad Henry – Detective Rubens McCauley has returned to the mean streets of St. Kilda after recovering from a bullet wound to his shoulder. 18 year old street kid, Dallas Boyd, has been found dead of an apparent overdose in the alley beside a restaurant. Against the background of a late summer heat wave and horrific bush fires raging north of Melbourne McCauley allows himself to be persuaded it is a routine O.D. that needs but a superficial investigation. Uncomfortable with his decision McCauley looks deeper into the facts and finds a series of anomalies. Boyd has been murdered. McCauley starts down the uncomfortable path of admitting his first assessment was wrong. At the same time McCauley is re-evaluating his personal life. His mother has had a stroke and he is reaching out to his ex-wife, Ella, hoping for a reconciliation. The plot takes McCauley into a sordid degrading area of street life. While the plot is predictable it is credible. The story is firmly rooted in St. Kilda. It is uncommon, but nice, to read a police procedural with a real mix of crime and family. It is a good mystery. (Sept. 7/10)