And Grant You Peace by Kate Flora, a Mysterious Review.

Review: Portland (Maine) detective Joe Burgess happens to be close at hand when a fire erupts at a building that houses a Somali mosque, breaking in and finding a female teenager and baby locked in a room. He saves both, but the baby later dies in the hospital. Now he wonders if the fire is a hate crime, or if someone trying to cover up something more sinister, in And Grant You Peace, the fourth mystery in this series by Kate Flora.

Joe's investigation is severely hampered by the lack of cooperation by all involved. The mosque's Iman refuses to speak to Joe, and his extended family, all of whom live with the Iman, seems more in fear of him than in what happened at the mosque. And the young mother Joe saved is so terrified of someone that she won't speak to him either. With little to go on, Joe and his team doggedly pursue even the tiniest clue, eventually coming to learn that the mosque was the center of a very dangerous business the Iman was running in association with a local businessman.

And Grant You Peace is a superior police procedural. The process Joe takes in piecing together this very complex puzzle is a methodical one, but he makes progress with every step and it is a thrill to tag along with him. As Joe says on a number of occasions, it is the job of the police to capture the bad guys, not to prosecute and judge them, so there are a number of loose threads left untied at the end, but in context, it all works. Joe's personal observations as he sifts through the evidence and tries to sort out what happened and why seem particularly spot on. His family life is also included in the overall story, but is done so in a comfortable, credible manner, never intruding on his investigation but in support of what he's doing. In particular, the relationship that develops with his son over the course of the book is a touching one. With a solid plot and a strong cast of characters, this is an exceptional entry in this series.

Acknowledgment: Five Star provided an eARC of And Grant You Peace for this review.

And Grant You Peace

A Joe Burgess Mystery by Kate Flora