[The Maude Rogers Crime Novels 01] • The East Avenue Murders

When spunky Homicide Detective Maude Rogers is sent to serve an arrest warrant on a drug dealer, she finds that there is much more in the tenement building than she had bargained for. Two women are dead; their bodies tortured and mutilated-even the hardiest police officers are overwhelmed by the grisly scene. Maude is a professional, and quickly gets down to business, intent on finding the killer.

Using her long years of experience as a homicide detective, Maude Rogers attacks the problem head on, fighting off the obstacles that are thrown in her path by the killer, and by her own captain. Her new partner is an ex-desk man from the Investigations Sections, an ex-forensics clerk. The experienced investigator and the rookie cop create a team that is dynamic and resourceful, using humor, determination, respect for one another, and good police work to track down a brutal serial killer.

Maude describes herself as nearer sixty than fifty, with arthritic joints that deal her misery, a fierce nicotine habit, and an obsession with her own mortality. She is loyal to her friends, irreverent with officials, and determined to do her job, to capture the diabolical murderer known as The Heartless Killer. A survivor of heartache and sadness, she keeps on going-a beacon of hope in a drab world- Maude Rogers is a woman who refuses to be intimidated.