3.5 stars
This little excerpt from chapter 2, makes me laugh, recalling my days of the 20th century, when people smoked everywhere, until about 1992.
" '.. .this really is important. I attended the new Chief's weekly briefing this morning and he's come up with a terrible plan. He wants to stop all smoking inside the police station. His idea's to set up a smoking area in the parking lot, and anytime you want to smoke you have to sign out for personal time and go out to the lot. Then, when you finish your smoke, you sign back in again and return to your desk or whatever. A lot of guys have already quit smoking, you see, and they've complained to the new chief that smoke from heavy smokers is invading their space.'
'what about the men's room?'
'no smoking inside the building, period. That includes the interrogation rooms, suspect lockup, everywhere except the outside parking lot.'
'it won't work, Bill. Lieutenant Ramirez, in robbery, smokes at least three packs a day. He might as well move his f****** desk out to the parking lot.' "

Hoke Moseley, Sergeant at the Miami Police department, is a rough old fart getting near retirement. He and his assistant, a transplant from the robbery Department, are assigned, besides other things, cold cases. Hoke is working on a three-year-old case of the murder of a dr.

I learned something about when people have their houses tented for getting rid of insect pests.
"... Termite swarms have an uncanny knack for finding their way back to an edible house, and exterminators in South Florida thrive on repeat business. The house is put under canvas, and the tenants must stay away for from 36 to 72 hours while the Vikane gas kills the termites and other insects inside the house. Food and other perishables are placed in plastic bags during the tenting, and homeowners either stay with friends or put up in a motel until it's safe to return home. Burglaries of tented houses occur frequently, and three or four times a year, and sometimes more often than that, dead burglars, overcome by the Vikane gas, are discovered together with the dead insects when the owners return home. Vikane is a powerful poison, and it kills people as easily as it does termites. Burglars who specialize in tent job invasions wear gas masks and get in and out quickly with their loot. But amateurs who hold dampened handkerchiefs over their mouths and stay too long looking for valuables can be overcome by the fumes and drop dead to the floor like the roaches and termites. Usually burglars are teenagers, high school dropouts with low IQs, but occasionally they are mature man who should know better. Warning signs are posted on all four sides of the tented house, in English and Spanish, but more than 30% of the Miami burglars are illiterate in both languages and cannot read signs."
( )

Last of the Hoke Mosely's - and that is sad. The book ends most poignantly with Alita gone (to an enemy of Hoke's). This one covers a lot of ground- from an enemy of Hoke released from prison and moving across the street, to a long adventure in the backwoods with Hoke undercover. The baddies discover he is undercover and things are very iffy for a bit before Hoke blasts out of it with a pretty satisfying action / violent episode. Anyhow, back to Miami to solve a pretty confusing cold case file. Then, at the end, Hoke gets his reward- a big fat promotion to Lieutenant - in charge of internal affairs, which he comes to appreciate. Kind of an upper to end the series with. ( )

Great ending to an unforgettable series, I wish he'd lived forever and given us more... ( )

http://moloch981.wordpress.com/2014/06/08/the-way-we-die-now/ ( )

Another great entry into the Hoke Mosley series, unfortunately this is the final book in that series written before Willeford died and even though it is set up at the end to be continued with Hoke as the head of internal affairs, we'll never know. Highly Recommend to all. ( )