The 9th Judgment

A mother and infant are killed in a parking garage with no witnesses and a message in red lipstick left on the windshield. The same night, a cat burglar visits a movie star's wife and leaves with millions in jewels and a dead body. Detective Lindsay Boxer is running both cases while a desire she can't afford threatens the partnership with her colleague and her engagement to someone else. Book nine of the Women's Murder Club brings the personal stakes to a pitch that rivals anything in the investigative plot.

Carolyn McCormick's performance in the later stretch of the book, where Lindsay is forced to make a choice with no good outcome, is among the finest in the series, conveying a character under extreme pressure making a decision she'll have to live with. The dual-case structure keeps the pacing varied across just over six and a half hours, and the Goodreads Choice Award win reflects how effectively this installment satisfies on both emotional and procedural levels.