Staying alive depends on knowing whom to trust and when to run. In Should Grace Fail (Dec. 1, 2020, Coffeetown Press), Priscilla Paton once again shows her deft skill at creating a whodunit that contains adventure and intrigue, but also delves deeply into the psyche of its characters.

When a man who saves lives has his own brutally taken, Detectives Erik Jansson and Deb Metzger have their empathy and their wariness pushed to the limit. The murdered man rescued trafficked teen addicts from a crime boss, but he was also an alcoholic who left the police force under suspicion. Is his murderer a drug dealer, a pimp, a corrupt police colleague, all of the above? Or could the killer be a victim who lashed out at her savior?

In the mix is the imperious matriarch of a hotel chain who is blind to incidents on her properties. The best friend of the dead man yearns to help but shows up in the wrong place at the wrong time with his therapy dogs. And a young mixed-race pianist, haunted by drug abuse, endangers herself by protecting a charming sweetheart from the draw of crime.

To solve the case, blunt Deb has to ingratiate herself with the hotel matriarch. Reserved Erik needs to earn the trust of wrongfully accused teens. The detectives are pushed over a riverbank, pushed off a golf course, and pushed into a tiger enclosure. If they don’t catch the killer, the best friend and the pianist are as good as dead. Erik and Deb, working with and against each other, must move fast before helping others proves fatal.