K Lipionka's The LAST PLACE YOU LOOK- First Rate Female Private Eye Takes No Prisoners

THE LAST PLACE YOU LOOK is a crime novel with a tenacious female investigator whose unorthodox style, solves crimes by thinking outside the box. Roxane (spelt with one n) is nobody's fool. She likes her whiskey, women and working outside the law. She's a no holds barred broad who wisely trusts herself and her instincts searching for missing persons and solving murder mysteries. Roxane is the daughter of a beloved, former cop who died in the line of duty. And, as much as Roxane admired her late dad, she's got her own methods for doing things, which has served her well. Well, at least until now. Roxanne is contacted by the sister of a convicted double murderer, Brad Stockton. Brad has maintained his innocence in the grisly slaying of the parents of his high school sweetheart, Sarah. His execution is scheduled just weeks away. Brad's sister believes her brother is innocent. She's desperate to find the real killer and exonerate her brother before his execution date. Brad's sister, hires Roxane in desperation and offers her some leads into the investigation. The story takes place in a small New England town where everyone knows one another. The memory of Sarah's disappearance (and presumed death) along with her parent's double murders still shrouds the town's populace and police. I found the pace of the case circuitous but Roxane kept me curious with her indefatigable determination to follow-up on all tangential leads. Her injuries lead her search for the disappearance of another young teen whose MIA may or may not tie in with the Stockton case. The author's characterization of Roxane as both dogmatic and tender, renders a fascinating detective. Roxane's queer and hetero-relationships, family dysfunction and independence all add up to a detective the reader wants to uncover. She comes up against police brutality who warn her away from her sleuthing which discovered the bodies of two other women who had gone missing. While Roxane's investigation goes awry. She's arrested, then fired. Still, she's undeterred to help find the teen she recently met who's missing.  As Roxane sees it, "I'm the world's worst detective. I set out to prove this woman {Sarah} was still alive, and instead I found {another} body. I was supposed to be helping my client's brother get out of jail, but instead I think I might have implicated him in another crime." I think things get tied up a little too neatly at the end, wrapped in a bow tied up in  a cloying bow of coincidences on top.  Nevertheless, once I started reading, I just couldn't stop. In fact, I'm going to look into other books by Lipionka's in her series featuring her feral, crime solving sleuth.