Back on Murder, a murder mystery by J. Mark Bertrand; if you're into murder mysteries, this is a serious read. Comparable to mainstream murder mysteries, yet sensitive and moral enough to be sold in Christian bookstores. That's a pretty unique combination, I'd say.

Roland March is a used-up cop. He's been taken off the serious stuff and placed on the secondary cases. When a teenager goes missing, he's moved to the missing-persons department. When there's a suicide of a fellow cop, he's moved to the suicide division. When there a foursome murder in a gang house, he happens to notice something the more respected cops miss. March is convinced the three cases are related, are connected. No one concurs.

Risking looking like an idiot, he continually puts all his eggs in the basket of the crimes being connected. Surprise surprise, the links become more obvious because of his superb detective skills.

This book is detailed with crime scene stuff; bullet trajectories, grainy photos, decomposed bodies, brain matter on glass, etc. If a person is into that, this is a great read. For me personally, it was a lot of detail. It is good, but sometimes it moved pretty slow because of the technical stuff. This would not be the case for a murder-mystery kind of person, I think. Even for me, who prefers suspense over murder mystery, it was really good, and I never was bored with it.

My copy of Back on Murder was provided by Baker Publishing and Graf-Martin Communications. It's available at your favorite bookseller of Bethany House books.