Some very interesting characters, (the four abandoned children), some predictable characters, (ex-con with the heart of gold, the driven/lonely female police detective), and a pretty standard cop/investigation story line. Not really sure why it's referred to as a mystery though, it's just a story about cops investigating a crime and a family trying to stay together.

I do feel the ending was very weak though. It didn't end so much as feel like time ran out and everything was just stopped. Perhaps that is partly due to this being a book within a series? This was my first book in the series so I'm not sure if that's a commonality in the other volumes or not. ( )

http://cscs.umich.edu/~crshalizi/weblog/algae-2011-07.html#george ( )

In Pittsburgh, Sheriff Richard Christie is at the hospital due to leukemia. He's about to undergo chemo and those close to him worry. He also has more of an appreciation of life and family.

The four young children of the Phillips family are left on their own since their father died and their step mother left. They are bright, industrious and excellent students. Meg at age fourteen is the eldest. She and her next two kin, do little jobs to attempt to put food on the table and pay the necessary bills.

At the neighborhood pizza parlor, Nick Banks helps Meg with food. When she doesn't have the full price for the food, he lets her pay what she has. Sometimes he gives her food saying it was day old and he couldn't sell it.

A young boy is found dead from drugs. Since there are questions, homicide detectives John Potocki and his partner Colleen Greer are assigned to investigate. They are temporarily moved to narcotics since the case involves drugs. Colleen is told that officials believe that the pizza parlor might be a place of drug activity and she is asked to get to know Nick and see what she can find.
What she finds, is that Nick seems to be an upright man.

Nick is an ex con who is obliged to a drug operative. That man asks Nick to accompany an associate looking for one of the drug sellers. When Nick finds that the other man wants to kill the boy, Nick intervenes and is injured.

Nick is afraid of going to the police for help and he and the Phillips family find that their lives become entwined in an unexpected manner.

The pacing of the story is well done, from the family relations to the tension of being able to care for themselves. Suspense mounts and the author gives us an example of people who are good and trying to help others while there are also evil men at work doing destructive deeds. We also are made aware of the ease at which young children can become involved in the drug sceen and how hard it is for a youngster to fight peer pressure and maintain a life away from drugs.

Well done with memorable characters. ( )

plot novel, pittsburgh, philadelphia, kindle, july 2011 ( )