First of all, and I don't really consider this a spoiler BUT I would have liked a reviewer of this book to have told me to wait before reading this book. To wait for, I presume, the next book in the series to be published because this book creates a truly evil central character who the authors obviously so relished portraying that they did not find a satisfactory denouement in this single book. I will probably have to read this book again (and will enjoy it again) when the next Bennett-Book is published. I like resolution. In other words The Baddy didn't get his Comeuppance. This is, I think, slightly unusual, at least for this series so far. It is a gripping book - very fast-paced and by using the concept of the Drug Problem and the Mexican cartels the authors moved infinitesimally away from the single criminal mastermind although "the Sun King" certainly fits the description.

The family still surrounds Michael and supports him and it could be interesting to see how JP & ML write the teenage years of these children. I have just one and she could fill a novel by herself. I really like this series and have got a fuller picture of Michael by reading this whole series again. It makes me wonder about doing the same for my favourite writer the late lamented Robert B. Parker - perhaps I'll re-read the Jesse Stone series and then give Michael Brandman the chance to impress me with his continuance of the franchise. Perhaps then I'll re-read the 87th Precinct police procedurals of Ed McBain. This is, of course, the interior monologue of an OCD reader of crime fiction but it is Michael Bennett and his two creators who must take the credit. Good work chaps.