Shadow Girl by Gerry Schmitt

This story starts with a helicopter being blown out of the sky right next to the hospital.  The killer used a surface to air missile and succeeded in removing the helicopter, pilots and the heart they were carrying.  Someone has inside knowledge on the hospital inner workings.  For some reason they are after the man whose heart is failing...

Berkley sent me a copy of this book to read for review (thank you).  The book is being published today.

Afton has a goal of becoming a detective but right now she's the family liaison officer.  That still lets her accompany the detective she's assigned to.  She's there to help the families and she takes notes and keeps track of the officer's actions.  When someone manages to kill the rich man in the hospital, she almost catches his killer but he gets away.  He doesn't forget her, though.

There's a lot happening in this story.  There are Asian interests, the rich man's relatives and his lover, his partner and an assassin involved.  The police always seem to be a bit too late to save the day.  When they find the partner's body partially eaten in a pig pen and the leak at hospital in the same pen, they have some answers but they don't know which questions to ask.

When the assassin comes after Afton for chasing him, he attacks her and her children in the park.  He knifes her and then threatens one of her daughters.  She fights back and he runs before the cops show up.  Now it's personal and she's not going to give up...

This tale is full of tension and ugly death and the police find that no matter how rich he was, he wasn't a good man and his family wasn't happy.  It's a fight to the end but the police come out on top. Not without cost to themselves, but nobody said the job would be easy.