The parting glass

While on forced medical leave from the Buffalo, N.Y., PD, Lauren Riley renews her PI license in Redmond's strong fifth outing for the cold case detective (after 2020's A Full Cold Moon). Lauren is immediately contacted by socialite Sharon Whitney, whose prized Picasso was stolen in a home burglary 20 years earlier. Convinced her recently deceased retired handyman, Jimmy Breen, was the culprit, Sharon sends Lauren and Lauren's partner, Shane Reese, to Jimmy's home, which Sharon has purchased, in Keelnamara, Ireland, to search for the missing painting. It turns out everyone in the village is keeping secrets about Jimmy and the painting, giving Lauren and Shane plenty of suspicious people to investigate. Meanwhile, an ex-policeman, who was hired by Sharon's former husband, has been secretly tracking them. The discovery that Jimmy was murdered raises the stakes, and the detectives realize they can trust no one, not even the local garda. This engrossing procedural builds to an unexpected outcome. Redmond reliably entertains. Agent: Bob Mecoy, Creative Media Services. (July)

Buffalo, NY, cold case detective Lauren Riley is furious when her boss sends her to the doctor, and he refuses to release her to return to work because she still has problems with her lungs after having been stabbed in the side. Instead of sitting around for the next six months, she decides to renew her private investigator license and is hired by Sharon Whitney to travel to Ireland to search for a small Picasso. When Sharon and her husband were divorcing 20 years earlier, they fought over that painting until he was brutally assaulted, and the painting disappeared. Jimmy Breen, an employee of Sharon's, returned to Ireland after he was cleared of suspicion; now he has just died, and Sharon has bought his cottage because she thinks the painting is there. Lauren pays her partner Shane Reese to take vacation and join her search. When the Irish police, the Garda, find that Jimmy was murdered, the cold case robbery becomes an active homicide investigation. Everyone in the close-knit small town of Keelnamara is a suspect, even the local Garda. VERDICT Despite the book's allusions to Lauren's previous Icelandic adventures in A Full Cold Moon, newcomers who enjoy cold cases can appreciate this mystery and the scenic Irish locale.--Lesa Holstine, Evansville Vanderburgh P.L., IN

Two Buffalo detectives have yet another brush with death. Lauren Riley and her partner and housemate, Shane Reese, have an intense and complex relationship on the cusp of being sexual. They are such stars at solving cold case murders that they've earned the enmity of Buffalo Police Department higher-ups annoyed with their fame. Forced to have her annual physical, Riley is bummed when she's put on medical leave after refusing to admit she hasn't fully recovered from having been stabbed in another high-profile case. Bored, she renews her private investigator's license and waits for an interesting case, which promptly appears when Sharon Whitney hires her to go to Ireland to find a Picasso that was stolen 40 years ago, while she was still married to Howard Whitney. Although the couple divorced and split the insurance payment of $3 million, the painting is now worth $20 million, and they both want it badly. Nothing was proven against the lead suspect, handyman Jimmy Breen, and he returned to Ireland. Riley convinces Reese to join her for a working holiday, and they arrive at a B & B in Keelnamara to learn that the Garda have ruled Breen's recent death a murder and his tiny house has been trashed. When someone scours their room at the B & B, they realize that the painting has yet to be found. Since everyone in the small community knows about the missing painting, even the local Garda is suspect. The stakes are raised when a pub owner is tortured and killed. Riley and Reese keep a step ahead of the Garda and solve the complicated case, but their relationship and Riley's prospects are still far from certain. The partners dance around their powerful feelings in a stunning Irish landscape, making this far more than an ordinary procedural. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.