I really really wanted to like this book. She is a local KC author, and one of the local yarn stores which has a summer book club had selected this book for July. The author is to participate in the discussion and I was wanting to attend.

Unfortantely this is just not for me. I found it kind of difficult warm up to the main character, Skeet, or to get into the story. Maybe it would have helped if I had read the first book. After the first two or three chapters I knew I didn't care to finish it. I decided to go ahead and skim the rest of the book, as I was still hoping to attend the book club meeting. About half-way thru there was a very interesting chapter, which I went ahead and read thru. It introduces the human trafficing angle, but it doesn't seem that really goes anywhere for the rest of the book. Anyway, after that chapter I guessed who the killer was, and why, so I skipped to the final chapter of the book, and read that. Yep, I was right.

There is not much of a knitting angle either to this book. One of the characters owns a yarn store and a sheep farm, but other than a few incidental nuggets, they don't contribute much to the book. I was also kind of disappointed the setting of the book was a fictional town just outside of KC.

There were a couple of good quotes from the book that struck me, and I've added those to the Quotes. Because of that I bumped it up to 2 stars. ( )

“’Just remember. No criminal has the power those with wealth and political clout have. The ultra criminals use politics to thrive unmolested.’” ( Page 231)

If chief of campus police Skeet Bannion liked politics she could have stayed with the Kansas City Police Department where she just might have been their first female police chief. Instead, she bailed out on the politics and more when she left for the calmer setting of nearby Chouteau University. At least that was the plan though things have not really worked out that way. Recent events in Every Last Secret have taught her that there is no running from politics or her ties to Kansas City.

It has been a few months since those events happened as Every Broken Trust begins. As a favor to good friend Karen Wise, Skeet has agreed to open her home for a small party to welcome the new dean of the Chouteau University Law School. George “Mel” Melvin who has ties to Skeet, Karen, and many others is to be the new dean. The guest list created by Karen is getting longer and longer as is the depth of complexity to the party. Despite Karen's assurances that everything is going to be fine, Skeet is getting more and more stressed by the upcoming party as well as some of the people surrounding Mel.

The party turns out to be a disaster, but not in the way Skeet had feared. After an incident with a drunk at the party, Karen calls for help asking Skeet to come to a nearby underground storage area known as “the Caves.” A complex built into the limestone caves that run beneath the university is now is the scene of a murder victim and an injured Karen. Leonard Klameth, one of many attending the party, is now dead and Karen has suffered a serious head injury.

Who did this and why are the first two threads of a puzzle that will cause Skeet Bannion to learn far more than she ever wanted about the personal lives of those she thought of as friends. “Like many things in this case, the truth was worlds apart from appearances. A murder always opened a can or two of worms. Sometimes the worms turned out to be snakes.” (Page 158)

This second novel in the series penned by author Linda Rodriguez lives up to the highly entertaining first book. Having well established the primary character of Skeet Bannion, the focus here character development wise is on the many other characters in her life such as her ward, Brian, her current possible romantic interest, Joe Louzon, her past romantic interest, Sam, and numerous other friends that first appeared in Every Last Secret. Her relationship with every single person in her life will be fundamentally altered in some way by the events that happen in Every Broken Trust. A complex cozy style read this latest book in the series is not only very good, it further establishes the fact that Skeet Bannion is a powerful character in her own right on every level.

Every Broken Trust: A Mystery
Linda Rodriguez
http://www.lindarodriguezwrites.blogspot.com
Minotaur Books (A Thomas Dunne Book)
http://www.minotaurbooks.com
May 2013
ISBN# 978-1-250-03035-1
Hardback
304 Pages
$25.99

Material supplied by the good folks of the Plano, Texas Public Library System.

Kevin R. Tipple ©2013 ( )