Unthinkable (Detective Jane Candiotti)

*Starred Review* A midday mass murder in the fast-food eatery Stella’s stuns San Francisco, particularly since one of the six victims is the 18-year-old nephew of Homicide Inspector Kenny Marks, husband of Lieutenant Jane Candiotti, who heads the case. Although there are similarities to recent robberies at two other Stella’s in the city, Jane and her team look to the victims for motives. When a promising lead peters out and the sole potential witness is murdered, Jane and Kenny risk their careers by turning for help to Edgar Silva, former gangbanger and ex-con with valuable connections in the criminal world, and whose younger brother also died in the massacre. Jane is three months pregnant with her first child—and candid with her hard-nosed chief about how her condition affects her ability to land a murderer—as she drives herself toward finding the killer. Meanwhile, she shows humanizing sensitivity to the trauma of the two patrolmen who were first on the scene. In his fourth mystery featuring Candiotti (after Sacrifice, 2003), television executive Phillips delivers a solid police procedural with an action-fueled plot marked by unexpected twists and featuring a protagonist who’s a true modern woman—a winning combination. --Michele Leber