GOING TO THE BAD - Nora McFarland
A Perfect 10
A Lilly Hawkins Mystery , Book 3
Touchstone
ISBN: 978-1-4391-5557-8 (Trade Paperback)
ISBN: 978-1-4391-7235-3 (eBook)
August, 2012
Mystery

Christmas Eve, Bakersfield, California, - The Present

Lilly Hawkins is a 'shooter' or cameraman for the local TV station, KJAY. Digital technology is changing the business, but Lilly is changing, too, taking more responsibility, filling in at the assignment desk. Rod, the station's senior producer, is her live-in boyfriend, but rather than spending Christmas with his family after his grandfather's funeral, he returned this morning and she will see him after work. Lilly and her good friend Leanore Drucker are talking about this situation when the police frequency activates. Hearing her address and multiple gunshot wounds mentioned, Lilly runs out the door and heads home fearing for Rod.

Familiar with waiting in hospital waiting rooms when a loved-one hangs by a thread, Lilly decides instead to investigate what happened. Soon she is involved in an old disappearance. Blunt and often abrasive, and not above breaking, or at least ignoring, a law if necessary, Lilly is no one's pushover. One police officer she has reason to distrust, one she knows can be trusted but will follow the law, but she doesn't want either in this particular search for the truth. The trail she follows leads to a hidden past that might change how she feels about someone she loves. Others in the story also have major family problems, and how they handle them will sidetrack Lilly's search and lead to some dangerous situations.

Without giving away more, I can say the story is a riveting, fast read. Callum, Freddy, Teddy (now Ted), who performed so well in the previous volumes and added so much humor, are doing so again. Lilly's Uncle Bud and his long-time acquaintance, the rich and powerful Leland Warner, also play a part. The reader will learn much about Lilly's past, making her more sympathetic than the brash woman she pretends to be. Nor will reading the previous stories A BAD DAY'S WORK, and HOT, SHOT AND BOTHERED be necessary. I read this as a stand-alone, and then absolutely had to read the first, so go ahead and get all three.

Robin Lee