Disappointing--supposedly an award finalist but 6-7 chapters in all we had was a missing woman and some security camera tampering. Also no sympathetic characters. I had to force myself to keep reading. ( )

“Fresh Meat” by Leigh Neely for Criminal Element

The people of Waldorf Pines love living in their gated community because it keeps the riffraff out. However, readers of Jane Haddam’s Blood in the Water will soon find the gate holds more secrets inside than it does bad guys outside.

Most of the residents of the exclusive neighborhood are not wealthy, just in debt enough to keep up appearances. Like any closed community, it’s a bubbling pot of nosy neighbors and gossip. When Arthur Heydreich discovers a fire in the neighborhood’s pool house, he’s rewarded for his good deed by being arrested for the murder of a burned body assumed to be his wife’s and a drowned teenager, Michael Platte, the local pool boy said to be his wife’s lover. Gregor Demarkian, former FBI agent and now police consultant, is brought in when the DNA results prove the burned body is a man, not Martha Heydreich, and the police need a new suspect after they’re forced to release Arthur.

I’ll be honest and say when I began this book I didn’t think I was going to like it, but I soon found Jane Haddam is as clever as she is thorough in setting a scene. She kept me guessing to the end and all my guesses were wrong, though she had clearly led me down the path to the right conclusion.

Read more at: http://www.criminalelement.com/blogs/2012/03/fresh-meat-blood-in-the-water-jane-...

Retired FBI agent Gregor Demarkian is called in to consult on a double homicide at the weatlhy Waldrof Pines residences. The police have arrested the wrong man and want to appease the snobby residents who all have secrets to hide by hushing bad publicity. It was easy to guess the identity of the second murder victim but the reveal of the murderer was a surprise at the end. ( )

Just boring! ( )