The (lucky) thirteenth book in John C. Daglish’s “City Murders” series brings us to Kansas City. This author has an amazing ability to capture the specific locations and feel of a new city while creating captivating characters and spinning out a compelling mystery. Our trip to Kansas City is a wonderful example that I highly recommend.

The plot is a fairly standard serial killer chase. Someone is taking out the local prostitute population, using an unusual murder weapon — a wire garrote. The protagonist, a KC homicide detective named Isaac Green, gets the case – first as a missing person’s report about the first young woman, who turns out to be the second victim – and then as a clear serial killer hunt. The action happens very quickly – five killings inside of a week. There are multiple suspects and an appropriate twist before the conclusion. There is also a budding romance between our detective and a local television news reporter who is new to KC.

But what makes this story fly is the dialogue. It’s crisp, witty, and carries the narrative of the story without much “inside the head” of the characters exposition. Mr. Daglish has honed his craft over his many books and gives us a word picture that reads like an episode of crime drama on your favorite streaming service. The events and the dialogue that describes them flow swiftly and seamlessly toward the conclusion, making for a very quick and satisfying read.

There is one plot hole here regarding the lack of an explanation for why the killer chose this particular moment in time to execute on such a rushed sequence of murders. But that’s a small quibble that does not distract much from a thoroughly entertaining read. Very highly recommended. (And if this installment is any indication of the quality of the rest of the series and the author’s many other books, you can look forward to many, many hours of satisfying reading.)