Souls of Men (An Elaine Hope Mystery #1) by A.R. Ashworth

Elaine Hope and her superior investigate a case were a young woman was brutally beaten to death.  They find her on the cameras to the point where she exited the bus.  A guy with a hoodie on followed after her.  Once they identify him, Benson believes they've found their killer.  Elaine is not so sure.

Crooked Lane Books sent me an ARC of this book to read for review (thank you).  It will be published April 11th.

They question Peter, check his statements and Benson is positive he did it.  He gets so worked up about it he suffers a heart attack.  They promote Elaine to his position.  She's been working a long time hoping to be promoted and thanks them.  Then when she finds Peter's story does hold together, she's forced to let him go.  None of her new supervisors are happy.  Especially since she doesn't have anybody to replace him as the guilty party.

The rest of the story is about dedicated police work: talking to anyone around the area, following certain people, looking into the business where she was murdered and more.  What they find leads them into very dangerous territory.  The people she's dealing with think nothing of murder.  And she and her female detective friend met the killer inadvertently and he wants them both.  If he gets them, they won't be alive either...

This was a good police procedural with a lot of misdirection.  Elaine has one cop that hates her and intends to get even.  She's also traumatized by the case because the killer got too close.  

I'd be interested in reading the next in this series.  Mr. Ashworth writes a good tale.