The Night Beat (Fiona Griffiths, #0.5) by Harry Bingham

Fiona is paired with a Sergeant on night patrol.  She's a new officer and she needs to see just how bad it is on the streets.  Sarge thinks she looks too young and wet behind the ears to be much help.  Her safety vest doesn't even fit her right.  But it's part of his job...

The author shared a copy of this book with me for a review (thank you.)  You can get a copy of this short story here:  http://www.harrybingham.com/get-the-night-beat-free/

So we have Sarge who is condescending and protective and then you have Fiona who is more than she appears to be.

They have a few encounters and Fiona does her part and holds up well.  Then they find a known troublemaker who comes up to harrass Sarge and while Fiona minds her own business she sees another crime go down.  She's the one that figures out the knife used didn't belong to the man that used it.  He was angry about his lost love and the other guy interfered and got stabbed.  Fiona is the one that stopped the bad boy who owned the knife from escaping.  She said he tripped on the last step.  She was the only thing between him and the door...

She also does well when she visits the women at the center of the conflict and gets her to give an honest statement about what happened.  Previously she blamed it all on the man.  Now she admits she lorded it over him.  Sarge doesn't know how she did that either and that's probably just as well.

Sarge uses his techniques and experience, Fiona uses hers and is just beginning to pick up experience.  They make a mean team.  

I really like Fiona.  She's a strong woman who wants justice and she makes it happen.  I'd read more in this series.