Blood of the Innocents (A Chiara Corelli Mystery, 5)

Detective Chiara Corelli and her partner P.J. Parker face their most unsettling case yet when a celebrated singer is discovered murdered in the home of a prominent New York State Senator. What initially appears to be a contained investigation with a small circle of suspects fractures open when the detectives uncover a pattern: more than a dozen similar killings spanning two years, all targeting transgender women. The case reaches back decades, threading through cold files that connect in ways no one anticipated. Catherine Maiorisi builds a procedural that balances urgency with the weight of lives lost, centering a community whose stories rarely anchor mainstream crime fiction.

Abby Craden brings a measured authority to Corelli's voice that suits the character's deliberate intelligence, shifting registers smoothly between tense interrogation scenes and quieter moments of reflection. The novel's layered timeline rewards attentive listening, and Craden's ability to distinguish a wide cast keeps the complex web of suspects and victims clear throughout the nearly nine-hour runtime.