Shades of Blue: Book #1 in the Mike Montego Series

A psycho haunts the hills of Hollywood in the early 'sixties. LAPD officer, Mike Montego, working Hollywood Division, answers a radio call and discovers a beheaded female body on his hilly beat. He's not a detective, but that's exactly why he joined the force. He wants to work Homicide Division one day. Ever since he was a young boy and overheard two homicide detectives, male friends visiting his single mother, discussing the brutal murder of a brunette female, tagged the Black Dahlia in early 1949, he has been determined to be a homicide detective. With only several years on the job, however, Montego needs more tenure before he is eligible to be assigned to the Detective Bureau. But when more similar "butcherings" of females occurs on his beat, his curiosity and overwhelming desire to be a homicide dick cause him to conduct his own investigation. In the eyes of the detectives assigned to the serial murder cases, particularly one dick, Montego has stepped over the line. Complicating the issue is that the upset detective's partner is Montego's beach-town neighbor and jogging companion. Another major complication arises when it is determined that Montego has had prior contact with each of the victims, including a burlesque dancer whom he'd contemplated dating. His detective pal's straight-laced partner lets it be known he is unhappy with Montego's interference in the ongoing cases; and, as the homicide investigation continues, the partner becomes suspicious of Montego to the point he considers that Montego actually might be the serial killer. Montego, despite being warned to stay out of the detectives' way, still involves himself. Ultimately, his detective friend does a background investigation on Montego that results in doing little to satisfy clearing Montego. The knowledge builds tension between the jogging/neighbor pals but it doesn't stop Montego from trying to find the killer. Then, when he has learned enough to realize who the next victim likely will be, someone Montego knows well, it literally turns into a race against time to get to her hillside home to save her. The final bloody confrontation with the "whacko" killer, a person whom the detectives never expected, is shocking.

The author, Jess Waid, is a former Hollywood-based Los Angeles Police Department police officer. Waid knows what makes cops tick.